Radical Protest and Social Structure

ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Tenancy, Southern Politics, and the Spiral of Agrarian ProtestI The One-Crop Cotton Tenancy System 2 Basic Tenancy Relationships The Basic Tenant-Landlord Relationship The Merchant and the Crop Lien 3 The Tenancy System The System of Supply and Credit The System of Marketing 4 The Dynamics of Change in Southern Farm Tenancy The Landlord and the Merchant Yeoman and Tenant From Tenant to Laborer 5 Cotton Tenancy, Farmer Immiseration, and the Reemergence of the Planter Aristocracy Cotton Domination of Southern Agriculture Farmer Insolvency and the True Extent of Tenancy The "New" Landlord Class II An Organizational History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance 6 Growth and Merger Early Growth and Merger The Farmers' Associations The Merger of the Alliance and the Wheel Organizational History, Organizational Structure, Social Class, and Oligarchy 7 Structure and Structural Tension within the Alliance Alliance Organization The Social Origins of Leadership and Membership Newspapers and the Leadership-Membership Contradiction Financing the Alliance The Farmers' Alliance and the Southern Tenant Farming System III Theoretical Considerations 8 Defining the Farmers' Alliance 9 The Parameters of Organizational Behavior Rationality and Irrationality The Role of the Social Structure in the Behavior of Social Movements Structured Ignorance 10 The Determinants of Organized Protest—Part 1 The Class Makeup of the Organization Internal Structure and Functioning of the Organization The Nature of the Active and Potential Opposition The Nature of the Active and Potential Support 11 The Determinants of Organized Protest—Part 2 The Structural Position of the Organization's Membership in the Structure to Be Challenged The Prevailing Analysis of the Situation The Previous Actions and Their Outcomes 12 The Life of Protest Organizations The Birth and Death of Protest IV The Process of Alliance Protest 13 Local Economic Action and the Process of Escalation 14 The Alliance Exchange: The Ultimate Counterinstitution 15 The Great Jute Boycott 16 The Farmers' Alliance in and around Richmond County, North Carolina Co-op Buying in Mountain Creek The AUiance Enters North Carolina Local Actions and Merchant Counterattack The Struggle for the AUiance Exchange The Jute Boycott The Entry into Politics 17 The Logic of the Shift into Politics Conclusion 18 The Legacy of Populism Defeated Subject Index