Calamity Howlers

The end of the nineteenth century was a time of rapid social change, industrialization, urbanization, and economic challenges. Out of that time, political and social chaos rose one of the most studied yet still misunderstood social movements in U.S. history: the so-called populist movement of the 1890s. Fighting for the rights of farmers and other rural folk in the Midwest and South, the most radical of the populists earned the label "Calamity Howlers" because of their apocalyptic speeches warning of the imminent collapse of the American political and economic system. Frenzied, vituperative, and conspiratorial in tone, the Calamity Howlers' unrelenting criticism of the rich and powerful created a new style of popular speech in America that was subsequently domesticated and brought into the political mainstream by the likes of William Jennings Bryan. While hardly as radical as the Calamity Howlers, Bryan appropriated many of their themes in a famous speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1896, "Cross of Gold." Championing the "common man" and excoriating the Republicans as the party of the rich, the "Cross of Gold" secured for Bryan both his party's presidential nomination and a lasting reputation as a great orator. More importantly, the speech inaugurated a tradition of populist speech that echoed down throughout the twentieth century and is still with us today. Employed by politicians and social movements on both the left and the right, populist appeals are evident in a number of the speeches we will read this semester, including speeches by Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, and even Ronald Reagan.

Bryan’s speech, "Against Imperialism," was a bit more restrained than some of his other campaign speeches. Still, it bears many of the trademarks of his populist style: faith in the common folk, an emphasis on moral concerns, and a tendency to reduce issues to a simple choice between "good" and "evil." As our essay by Gardner suggests, Bryan also illustrates how both the imperialists and the anti-imperialists in that day subscribed to the same mythic narrative—the "narrative of American exceptionalism." Both imperialists and anti–imperialists also claimed to be the true defenders of "progressive" principles: Christian values, and the ideals of America's founders. Bryan lost the debate over imperialism, as Gardner notes, but his arguments still “resonate today” with those who oppose U.S. foreign interventions.