In a book, Paxton laments, “ It was in the countryside that both Mussolini and Hitler won their first mass following, and it was angry farmers who provided their first mass constituency.” He concludes, “ Given the salience of angry farmers in the success of fascism elsewhere and the importance of the peasantry in the French society, that is a crippling omission”.

Paxton’s reason for studying the 1920s and 1930s French countryside in order to understand fascism in France. To Saturnino, historical cases include instances when agrarian movements took a conservative or reactionary political stance. Saturnino, there is nothing inherently progressive in agrarian populist movements - despite the often celebratory claims by such social movements and their supporters in contemporary agrarian politics.

Agrarian populism refers to populist movements led by farmers and their allies, often labor unions, such as the Narodniks in Russia during the second half of the 19th century and the Populist Party of 1890s America which focused on issues of land, railroads, and money, including the unlimited coinage of silver.Īgrarian populism refers to populist movements led by farmers and their allies, often labor unions, such as the Narodniks in Russia during the second half of the 19th century and the Populist Party of 1890s America which opposed laws and policies seen as exploiting the labor of farmers and other workers to profit those in power.

Unlimited coinage of silver