The ‘People’s Joan of Arc’: Mary Elizabeth Lease, Gendered Politics and Populist Party Politics in Gilded-Age America (American University Studies)

__The ‘People’s Joan of Arc’: Mary Elizabeth Lease, Gendered Politics and Populist Party Politics in Gilded-Age America__ is the first comprehensive biography tracing the captivating life of renowned activist Mary Elizabeth Lease. While Lease is most remembered in American history textbooks as the radical leader of the Populist Party who directed desperate farmers «to raise less corn and more hell», her influence and involvement in the late-nineteenth-century women’s suffrage movement and early-twentieth-century feminist movement place her on par with luminaries such as Susan B. Anthony. Lease’s story stretches from the American Civil War to the Great Depression and particularly illustrates how gender conventions and the related complexities of class and ethnic identity have historically shaped American politics. The diverse suits Lease wore, including housewife, teacher, lawyer, women’s rights activist, temperance advocate, Populist Party orator, Knights of Labor activist, Irish Nationalist, Socialist, Progressive reformer, Republican Party supporter, and «Bull Moose» campaign worker, reflect and highlight the factors fueling America’s reform impulse in the decades framing the turn of the twentieth century and likewise make her a fascinating historical character. Lease’s political opponents accused her of raising too much «hell», while her supporters praised her for translating their sense of societal and economic disempowerment into concrete, proactive political actions. Mary Elizabeth Lease was a heroine to her supporters and a dangerous, unfeminine demagogue to her opponents. Either way, she was unquestionably one of the most captivating figures of her time. Cover 1 Contents 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1 9 Chapter 2: Mary Elizabeth Clyens Lease: Origins of a Radical, 1853–1888 13 21 Chapter 3: Mary Lease, Annie Diggs, and the Rise of Radical Agrarian Politics in the Late 1880s–Early 1890s 36 44 Chapter 4: To “Raise Less Corn and More Hell,” Mary Lease and Populist Politics in the Early 1890s 56 64 Chapter 5: Mary Lease and the Women’s Rights Movement, Party Politics, and Agrarian Radicalism, 1892–1894 90 98 Chapter 6: Mary Lease, Organized Labor, Socialism and ‘Civilization,’ and the Evolution of Populist Party Politics, 1894–1895 127 135 Chapter 7: Mary Lease and the Politics of Silver, Gold, and Nationalism, 1896–1900 151 159 Chapter 8: Mary Lease, Urban Reform, and Republican Politics; A Reformer’s Transition from Populism to Progressivism, 1896–1904 172 180 Chapter 9: Mary Lease and the Progressive Movement in America, 1900–1920 194 202 Chapter 10: Mary Elizabeth Lease and the Legacy of Reform, 1921–1933 218 226 Notes 227 235 Bibliography 287 295 Index 305 313 Traces the captivating life of renowned activist Mary Elizabeth Lease. This book tells the Lease's story that stretches from the American Civil War to the Great Depression and particularly illustrates how gender conventions and the related complexities of class and ethnic identity have historically shaped American politics.