New Mexico Populism: A Study of Radical Protest in a Western Territory

Most historians of Populism never mention the Territory of New Mexico in their accounts, for Populism in the mountain West has been dismissed by so distinguished a historian as Richard Hofstader as " mere silverism." But the comforting thought that genuine Populism wore only two hats, one Southern and one Midwestern, has been successfully challenged in this study. Robert W, Larson has probably coined a new phrase, in fact: "New Mexico Populism" was distinctive, even unique, and it may well come to mean a form of social protest that was even more truly populistic than its midwestern or southern forms. Professor Larson has altered the old image and leaves us, instead, wit h a new appreciation of the way Populism affected the lives of individuals as they struggled to change New Mexico's history.