Roads Not Taken

Using a range of in-depth historical case studies, this timely work excavates the oft-forgotten tradition of progressive populism and highlights the relevance of such movements to our own tumultuous times.

Populism in its 21st-century guise is often centered around exclusionary notions of nationality and the exultation of an authoritarian leader. Yet, as this book demonstrates, this has not always been the case. As demonstrated by the Levellers in the English Civil War and the Sans-Culottes in the French Revolution, the ideas of progressive populism have often surfaced in the midst of revolution where they have sought to ensure that revolutions do not deviate from their lofty ideals. Progressive populism has also emerged during periods of crisis and social dislocation, reasserting conceptions of the “moral economy” and a romanticized view of the past in support of their goals. By looking at the trajectories of past iterations of these ideas, Michael Kimmel retrieves a different populism, based not upon the illusory entity of “the people,” but something more concrete: the capacity of real people, living their lives with a sense of both autonomy and community.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars in disciplines including sociology, history, and political science.