A meticulously researched study....
New York Times Book Review
A highly original contribution to the scholarship on late nineteenth-century reform movements. Rarely has any historian given us such a comprehensive and detailed view of the Populists, in all their rural, urban, and variegated complexity of thought.... This is an admirable, sophisticated and highly informative book, one to savor, ... Read moreto reflect upon, and to look forward to the discussions it will surely provoke.
Ronald P. Formisano, Georgia Historical Quarterly
Many who have written about Populism will find their oxen being gored by Postel. This is a good thing, for his is a book well worth arguing with. Postel makes a compelling case for reconsidering parts of the major narratives of Populism and he offers fresh insights into the emergence of modern agribusiness as part of industrial America in parallel with the expansion of the national state.... His accomplishment will encourage future students of this complex subject to explore afresh the larger skein of which his set of threads is a very important part.
Robert C. McMath, Reviews in American History
It is rare that a book comes along with the power to redefine the parameters of a major historiographical debate.... This is the most important book on Populism in thirty years, and a brief review cannot hope to do it justice. Masterfully researched in an astonishingly broad array of primary and secondary sources, and written in a clear, compelling style, The Populist Vision propels its author into the first rank of American political historians.
Journal of American History
Excellent intellectual history of Populism.... The significance of Charles Postel's work lies in its national scope and its focus on the ideas and the writings of key leaders.... this well-written and deftly argued work.... an excellent book. This is the best intellectual history of Populism since the work of Norman Pollack. Postel's book will cause historians of the Gilded Age to rethink the Populist vision and blueprints for society. Scholars should read this stimulating, provocative, and exemplary study.
The Historian
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