Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Populist Movement

For many generations, adults and children alike have relished L. Frank Baum’s cleverly written bedtime story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. On the surface, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz seems like an innocent fairy-tale that was written “solely to pleasure children today” ; however a deeper look into the main characters and symbolism inherent in the story, suggest an outlook into the Gilded Age. Many historians, beginning with Henry Littlefield, have interpreted The Wizard of Oz as being an allegory to the Populist Movement and the issue of money that surrounded the Gilded Age. Although Baum mentions that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written as a bedtime fairy-tale to be read and enjoyed by people of all ages, the hidden symbols and deeper implications present in the book, such as silver shoes and the yellow brick road, suggest that Baum wrote it as a parable on the Populist Movement and its main issue- The Free Silver Movement. Anyhow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz can be used as a tool to better comprehend the Populist Movement.
In order to understand the Populist interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, it is necessary to be aware of the history behind Populism and the free coinage issue. The Populist Party was a third party that stemmed from its appeal to the “common man” and also from strikes of farmers, which combined with the enemies of monopolies and blue-collar workers . Their main plan was to introduce the bimetallic standard- the combination of both gold and silver in the Treasury, and the addition of greenbacks. The amount of money in circulation was backed by the amount of gold and silver in the Treasury. The price of silver was rapidly declining because the supply of silver increased more rapidly than the demand. Thus the government abandoned the minting of silver currency and put the United States on a gold standard according to the Coinage Act of 1873. The Specie Resumption Act allowed for the resumption of greenbacks issued during the Civil War for specie... [continues]

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