My son's history class is learning about L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900)—and the farm crisis of the 1890s, which underpins the narrative. And it occurred to me that many (especially outside of the West) may not know about this. So… We're off to see the Wizard! (THREAD)
First the basics: Railroad expansion in the 1870s opened up huge tracts of land in the West & new machinery made it possible to farm w/ less human labor. Grain prices plummeted. The Coinage Act of 1873 made things worse by eliminating the silver dollar, reducing available capital
Struggling farmers flocked to the Populist movement when Nebraska’s own William Jennings Bryan gave his "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic Convention in 1896, calling for a return to “free silver,” in order to make more money available to small, rural banks to help farmers.
Bryan won the Democratic nomination for president but lost to William McKinley, who signed off on adopting the gold standard in 1900. Baum was disgusted with everyone involved—and got to critiquing them by portraying them as the allegorical characters in The Wizard of Oz.
Kansas farmers who kept unquestioningly raising more wheat were the Scarecrow.
East Coast factory workers who were heartlessly unwilling to aid farmers, having rusted into inutility themselves, were the Tin Man.
And William Jennings Bryan, full of bluster and roar but no teeth, was the Cowardly Lion.
Dorothy, the innocent farm girl, was being led to the Land of Oz (i.e. ounces) on the yellow-brick (gold) road. In the book, her slippers aren't ruby. They're made of silver.
McKinley was portrayed as a sham Wizard...
...who was really being controlled by a little, frightened man, the Eastern banker.
And it’s the kind-hearted women of the East, especially the suffragettes pushing for women to have political power, who are represented by Glinda the Good Witch. She informs Dorothy that all she ever had to do was click the heels of her silver slippers and all will be well again.
Here in Nebraska, 120 years later, the parallels to our own Gilded Age are striking. Trump as the all-powerful Oz (and Putin & GOP billionaires behind the curtain). Suburban women voters as Glinda. Rust Belt workers as the Tin Man. Soy/corn growers as the Scarecrow. 
And these days, you can take your pick of Cowardly Lions. Nebraska continues to have a strong contender in Ben Sasse.
But there’s also Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, and there’s whole cast of flying monkeys in the House. (Looking at you, Reps. Nunes, Jordan, & Collins.)
But what I find troubling is the question of the silver slippers… What simple solution is there to carry us back to prosperity and peace? I suspect it was never so simple as clicking our heels and saying, “There’s no place like home.”
In the 1890s, my great-grandfather was a Bryan Democrat, a Populist farmer who ran for the state legislature in Nebraska, and got trounced by his Republican opponent. The gold standard sent our family into a financial spiral, and the Dust Bowl years finished the job.
There were no easy answers then, any more than there are now. But I think it’s worth asking ourselves: I am the Scarecrow or the Tin Man, going along with party politics without thinking or feeling? Worse, do I know what’s right but have the same failing as the Cowardly Lion?
And if Dorothy represents the next generation, what are we doing to see that she finds her way safely home? (END)
