The Wizard of Oz and the Populist Movement

What does it all mean? In 1964 Henry Littlefield, a Columbia University-trained historian, wrote a breakthrough article in the scholarly American Quarterly titled “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism.” In the article, Littlefield made the bold claim that Frank Baum's 1900 book "conceals an unsuspected depth." Specifically, Littlefield argued that the story of The Wizard of Oz was an elaborate metaphor for the Populist movement (a rising political force in the 1890s) and a critique of the complicated national debates over monetary policy.

In his close reading of The Wizard of Oz, Littlefield argued that most of the characters and settings in Baum’s fictional world represented real people, places, and ideas from the Populist movement of the 1890s. He expected that most adult readers of the time would have understood Baum’s allusions. A few of the highlights from the article were:

The Ruby (silver) slippers When Dorothy’s house lands, killing the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy is given a pair of magic slippers. In the book and the play the shoes are silver, not ruby as they were famously depicted in the 1939 film. During the severe depression of 1893-1896, many Populists believed that the federal government should adopt an inflationary monetary policy, freely minting silver money, in order to re-energize the national economy.

Dorothy In his reading of The Wizard of Oz, Littlefield believed that Dorothy was a stand-in for the average American

The Scarecrow According to Littlefield, the scarecrow, displaying “a terrible sense of inferiority and self doubt,” represents the American farmer (who made up the bulk of the Populist Party). Littlefield cites an 1896 article which accuses Kansas farmers of “ignorance, irrationality and general muddle-headedness.”

The Tin Man the tin woodman represents the hoped- for other faction in the People’s Party— the factory worker. Dehumanized, the simple laborer has been turned into a machine.

The Cowardly Lion William Jennings Bryan (who Littlefield suggested was represented by the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz) was famous for his “Cross of Gold” speech. He favored the monetary policy of free silver.

The Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City Littlefield thought Oz’s yellow brick road represented the existing gold standard, which fixes U.S. paper currency to a specific price for gold bullion. In his reading, the Emerald City, the terminus of the yellow brick road, is Washington, D.C.