George,

It is good that Linda Anderson reminds us of Tom Frank's brilliant book, What's the Matter with Kansas.

It is true that he was a Ronald Reagan conservative, but that was when he was in high school. As a freshman at U. Kansas he read up on the real Populist revolt of the 1890s and has been a modern Populist incarnate ever since. (His book title comes from William Allen White's anti-Populist diatribe, "What's the Matter with Kansas?") When he enrolled at UVA after one year at U. Kansas he had well abandoned his youthful conservative ideas. The Baffler, the online magazine that made him famous, was started here. Some folks on your list may have known it and/or him from his years here, 1984-87.

For me, his two main contributions are (1) the detailed exposoition of what he rightfully calls The Backlash, the organized crusade of conservatives to turn back the civil rights and other social justice achievements of the 1960s; and (2) his diagnosis of our contemporary problem as unrestrained free market capitalism (what the Bush imperialists call democracy). Both of those points of view are loud echoes of the 1890s Populist movement. And, as the right wing moves us back to McKinley we would do well to heed Tom Frank.

Paul Gaston (electronic mail, December 7, 2004)