Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas by Thomas Alter II

Abstract

Reviewed by: Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas by Thomas Alter II Dana M. Caldemeyer Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas. By Thomas Alter II. The Working Class in American History. (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2022. Pp. xii, 277. Paper, $28.00, ISBN 978-0-252-08636-6; cloth, $125.00, ISBN 978-0-252-04428-1.) Farmer-labor movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often held contradictory goals. On one hand, such movements carried radical visions of remaking the nation into a more egalitarian society. On the other hand, competing agendas for how to best achieve their goals and problems like white supremacy often splintered what could have been a unified base. This dynamic is well documented, but Thomas Alter II adds depth to this understanding in Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas. Drawing on articles from dozens of newspapers and other archival sources, Alter argues that farmer-labor efforts to create an egalitarian commonwealth were long-lasting affairs, deeply rooted in cultures pushing for radical change. Between the 1870s and the 1920s, these movements were shaped by a host of domestic and international influences, and although the organizations changed, their radical push remained consistent. Alter contends that this radicalism proved crucial to the reforms of the first decades of the twentieth century and that “land, as powerfully as wages, shaped working-class ideology and politics in the United States” (p. 2). At the center of this story are the Meitzens, a German immigrant family whose radicalism helped shape Texas politics over three generations. As he traces the Meitzens’ organizing efforts, Alter connects their lives and actions to the broader political movements of the period. Alter’s biggest contribution is his emphasis on international influences in these agrarian movements. According to Alter, farmer-labor radicalism in Texas began when German revolutionaries like the Meitzens fled 1840s Germany and carried their vision for creating an agrarian commonwealth to the Lone Star State. This vision passed from generation to generation, influencing the Granger and Populist movements in Texas and fueling the growth of the Texas Socialist Party. When agrarian revolutionaries from Mexico crossed the border during the Mexican Revolution, their radicalism also found fertile ground in Texas and “impelled the Texas Socialist Party to confront its racial divisions and broaden its organizational base” (p. 135). Ultimately, this inclusivity was short-lived. Alter’s farmer-laborers ran into the same problems third-party movements faced elsewhere in the United States. In the 1890s, Texas Populists split into factions of middle-of-the-roaders and fusionists. Interracial alliances proved difficult to forge as white supremacy ostracized nonwhite farmers and laborers. Likewise, the left-leaning Socialists of the state seemed to be in constant conflict with the more conservative Socialists who dominated national politics. Divisions among Socialists intensified as the Bolshevik Revolution incited new fears of radicalism. Several white reformers embraced white supremacy in an effort to keep their movement alive, but the red scare of the 1920s crushed any remaining momentum the radicals had hoped to achieve. [End Page 374] Alter’s analysis focuses largely on the decisions of white leaders within these organizations, and it is not always clear how involved nonwhites were in the decision-making, even when they were included in organizational efforts. It is also unclear how far the cooperation between Black and white radicals extended; and while Alter notes that Mexicans and Tejanos were also a part of these efforts, their level of involvement in organizational decisions is hazy. Exploring these relationships in more detail would have allowed for a deeper discussion of the nature of interracial activism within radical political movements, shedding important light on the roles Black, Mexican, and Tejano radicals played in these movements. Still, Alter’s careful attention to Socialists in Texas provides an excellent case study of the numerous forces that affect political agendas. He convincingly demonstrates that revolutions beyond the borders of the United States directly shaped the course of radical platforms in Texas, and he shows how even these radicals could not fully escape...