Ringing in the Common Love of Good
The United Farmers of Ontario, 1914-1916
Description
By the mid-1920s the UFO had gone into a period of decline from which it never recovered. The promise of equality hoped for by UFWO members never materialized and the UFCC, once a key component in the development of an alternative vision, began to focus more on profits than on politics. In Ringing in the Common Love of Good Kerry Badgley explores both the rise and the fall of the UFO, focusing on the Ontario counties of Lambton, Simcoe, and Lanark. He challenges the liberal-capitalist interpretation that the movement was nothing more than a group of impatient Liberals, as well as the Marxist view that the UFO consisted of self-interested independent commodity producers. Badgley argues that as the UFO broke free from hegemonic forces it developed alternative economic, political, and social visions, but that it was these same forces, combined with internal struggles and a conservative leadership, that ultimately resulted in the decline of the movement as a vehicle for democratic change in Ontario.
Reviews
"a long overdue examination ... Its implications go well beyond Ontario, and it will begin a significant reconsideration of the post-World war I Progressive movement, and of agrarian movements in Canadian politics in general ... I'm impressed by [Badgley's] diligence and convinced by his arguments." John Thompson, Department of History, Duke University