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H. L. Loucks And The Dakota Ruralist: Voices Of Reform, Thom Guarnieri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From Ch. 1:
It is the purpose of this paper, then, to study the impact that H. L. Loucks may have had on three major issues of South Dakota populism already stated: the populist position in the state, the formation of a third party and fusion with the Democrats. Neither major state historian of the period--George Kingsbury nor Doane Robinson--has been kind in his assessment of Loucks and the state's populists. Kingsbury, according to Yale historian Howard R. Lamar, hinted they were "a combination of cranks and demagogues." Robinson has even admitted insinuating that Loucks was a crook--a mistake he …