For many years Western farmers had been in a state of loud, though unsuccessful, revolt. While Baum was living in South Dakota not only was the frontier a thing of the past, but the Romantic view of benign nature had disappeared we well. The stark reality of the dry, open plains and the acceptance of man's Darwinian subservience to his environment served to crush Romantic idealism[6]

Baum's stay in South Dakota also covered the period of the formation of the Populist party, which Professor Nye likens to a fanatic "crusade". Western farmers had for a long time sought governmental aid in the form of economic panaceas, but to no avail. The Populist movement symbolized a desperate attempt to use the power of the ballot[8]. In 1891 Baum moved to Chicago where he was surrounded by those dynamic elements of reform which made the city so notable during the 1890's[9].

Current historiography tends to criticize the Populist movement for its "delusions, myths and foibles," Professor C. Vann Woodward observed recently.[22] Yet The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has provided unknowing generations with a gentle and friendly Midwestern critique of the Populist rationale on these very same grounds. Led by naive innocence and protected by good will, the farmer, the laborer and the politician approach the mystic holder of national power to ask for personal fulfillment. Their desires, as well as the Wizard's cleverness in answering them, are all self-delusion. Each of these characters carries within him the solution to his own problem, were he only to view himself objectively. The fearsome Wizard turns out to be nothing more than a common man, capable of shrewd but mundane answers to these self-induced needs. Like any good politician he gives the people what they want. Throughout the story Baum poses a central thought; the American desire for symbols of fulfillment is illusory. Real needs lie elsewhere.

The dog, Toto, is probably a reference to the Prohibition Party, Toto being short for teetotaler. The Prohibition Party generally supported the free silver movement.

There are four witches in the story: The Good Witches of the North and South, and the Wicked Witches of the East and West.

The South was sympathetic to free-silver (the entire South voted for Bryan in 1896) so it's fitting that the south has a good witch. Rockoff cannot identify the Good witch of the North with any certainty, although Free-Silver enjoyed some support in New England.

The Wicked Witch of the East is clearly Grover Cleveland in Washington D.C., whose pro-gold forces were defeated at the 1896 Democratic Convention.

Cleveland led the fight for the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which had provided for the limited coinage of silver. 

The Wicked Witch of the West represents the (unidentified) malign forces present in the west. 
And the winged-monkeys? Possibly the Plains Indians or the Chinese laborers common in the west at that time.


The Deadly Poppy Field, where the Cowardly Lion fell
asleep and could not move forward, was the anti-imperialism that
threatened to make Bryan forget the main issue of silver (note the
Oriental connotation of poppies and opium).  Once in the Emerald Palace,
Dorothy had to pass through seven halls and climb three flights of stairs;
seven and three make seventy-three, which stands for the Crime of '73, the
congressional act that eliminated the coinage of silver and that proved to
all Populists the collusion between congress and bankers.  The Wicked
Witch of the East was Grover Cleveland; of the West, William McKinley.
The enslavement of the yellow Winkies was "a not very well disguised
reference to McKinley's decision to deny immediate independence to the
Philippines" after the Spanish-American War.  The Wizard himself was Mark
Hanna, McKinley's campaign manager, although Rockoff noted that "this is
one of the few points at which the allegory does not work
straightforwardly."  About half of Rockoff's article consisted of an
economic analysis that justified Bryan and Baum's silver stance.(5)   


In the palace, Dorothy is led to her room via seven passages and three flights of stairs. This is a reference to what is called the "Crime of '73."
In 1873, the coinage of the silver dollar was eliminated and this was later seen to be responsible for many of the difficulties.


The legacy of Dollar Mark Hanna

MORE THAN ANY other man, "Dollar Mark" Hanna invented modern political fundraising. The campaign he organized for William McKinely in 1896 established how presidential elections would be financed through most of the 20th century. He proved that a big enough torrent of money could determine the outcome of an election. And it raised a troubling question the county has still not finished wrestling with: What should a democracy full of big private fortunes, bigger corporations and well-financed interest groups do about that fact?

Marcus Alonzo Hanna, who Theodore Roosevelt once said occupied "a position of power and influence . . . such as no other man in our history has had," married the daughter of a Cleveland coal and iron mer...


While inflation might have helped the farmers (who were debtors) a little, it probably wouldn't have helped them much. We now know enough about economics to understand why.

Remember that inflation erodes the value of money, so when you lend money you have to adjust the interest rate for the inflation that you expect over the period.

So, even if there was inflation like the farmers wanted, the bankers would have increased the interest rates charged on loans because the bankers would have expected the inflation (because, for example, a change in the governement policy that increass the amound of currency in circulation). 

If the inflation had been anticipated by the bankers then it would have been reflected in higher interest rates charged to the farmers, so the farmers wouldn't have benefitted as much as they thought they would have.

For the farmers to benefit from inflation it would have to have been "unexpected" inflation, unexpected in the sense that the bankers didn't anticipate it and so so couldn't adjust the interest rates they were charging.

It would have been difficult for the government to provide a dose of "unexpected" inflation because the amount of money in circulation was set by law. Bankers would have had plenty of time to prepare.