1900

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Set in a turbulent alternate America of 1900, this political nightmare imagines a nation shaken by Bryan's victory and the rise of a populist revolution. The opening scenes move from panic in New York, where election-night mobs battle police and militia, to jubilant Chicago, where the "common people" hail Bryan and the shadowy "Master" who helped deliver power to their side. From there, the country lurches into financial and civic upheaval. Wall Street reels as the gold reserve is abandoned and a silver-and-gold standard is restored, while Washington fills with desperate supporters, office seekers, and "Silver Pilgrims" who believe a new economic order is at hand. Under a clouded sky, Bryan takes the oath, names his cabinet, and begins issuing sweeping decrees. Congress, riding a fiery populist majority, rejects delay and pushes through radical reforms: free silver coinage, an income tax, attacks on civil service and national banking, statehood plans, and aggressive measures against monopolies, railroads, landlords, and financiers. With farmer loans, public works, and federal control over key industries, the novel presents a fierce satire of class conflict, demagoguery, and the promise—and peril—of rule by the "common people."