Economic Transition, Class Formation, and the Superintendent State in the Midwest: 1850-1900

Abstract

This article outlines and clarifies the complex relationship between economic development, the formation of classes, political movement responses to these changes, and state institutional capacity building in response to these movements in the Midwestern US. It seeks to remedy views of the transition to capitalism in America that focus too narrowly on a moment of transition, positing instead a long, politically contested process of class formation by elucidating the specific interactions between agrarian and union movements and state-building processes. Our research reveals the substantial role of the state in forcing through acceptance of economic changes and shifting class locations through a co-developmental process of political resistance movements and state-building.