Summary: The Texas Left

When you think Texas, what 's the first thing that comes to mind? According to a book called The Texas Left: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism written by Kyle g. Wilkinson and David O 'Donald Cullen. Texas elites revised historical consciousness to disassociate Texas from the burden of southern history and focused on the western cowboy, the great plains, and oil booming. Turning away from southern history and making it a western reality. The editors of this book argue that race, gender, and class play a huge role in the economic and social systems. This is shown by dividing the book into three sections, chapters 2-4 focus on farmers and crops productions due to economic troubles. it also shows how the people come together and form a

Barnes. Barnes states that the Farmers Alliance was a group created by both radical and reformates making the groups power dominant. the struggles these farmers faced was crop production was decreasing while the prices of purchasing increased. trying to fix this problem the trade system was created causing competition. another self-strategy was the alliance exchange making farmers focus on a central purchasing house. all these actions failed because farmers were too poor or in debt due to prior sales. the system was poorly capitalized, prices were too high for farmers, they ended up being victims to business causing the uprising of boycotts. the subtreasary plan succeed this plan helped farmers by giving them loans in order to grow and sell crops. The back and forth communication and strategies not only lead the famers to a political path but it also began the start of the populist party. the populist goals were to make a healthy economy. the populist party was created for the good of people, when arguing causes the party referred back to leaders such as Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln. the party focused on fixing work hours, land, reforms of financial stability along with other demands. the goals were to remove corrupt monopoly power and restore equality among the work place. the reason these first few chapters are helpful to the book are because it sets the ladder to future equality debates, economic

By reading this book, readers learn a better understanding of Texas and the social and economic systems. the old southern ways reflected Texas government and political outlook. causing conflicts for minorities, lower class and activist. liberalism was explained and shown throughout each paragraph. The left was created to be a voice for poor farmers, labors who were manipulated and the humans who were discriminated against due to gender, race and social status. this book helps readers see the opportunities that are shown together. even though liberalism faded away due to conservatives it did exist and played a huge role in shaping the diverse population and