The sources for the history of the agrarian crusade are to be found largely in contemporary newspapers, periodical articles, and the pamphlet proceedings of national and state organizations, which are too numerous to permit of their being listed here. The issues of such publications as the Tribune Almanac, the Annual Cyclopedia (1862-1903), and Edward McPherson's Handbook of Politics (1868-1894) contain platforms, election returns, and other useful material; and some of the important documents for the Granger period are in volume X of the Documentary History of American Industrial Society (1911), edited by John R. Commons.
When each wave of the movement for agricultural organization was at its crest, enterprising publishers seized the opportunity to bring out books dealing with the troubles of the farmers, the proposed remedies, and the origin and growth of the orders. These works, hastily compiled for sale by agents, are partisan and unreliable, but they contain material not elsewhere available, and they help the reader to appreciate the spirit of the movement. Books of this sort for the Granger period include: Edward W. Martin's (pseud. of J. D. McCabe) History of the Grange Movement (1874), Jonathan Periam's The Groundswell (1874), Oliver H. Kelley's Origin and Progress of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (1875), and Ezra S. Carr's The Patrons of Husbandry on the Pacific Coast (1875). Similar works induced by the Alliance movement are: History of the Farmers' Alliance, the Agricultural Wheel, etc., compiled and edited by the St. Louis Journal of Agriculture (1890), Labor and Capital, Containing an Account of the Various Organizations of Farmers, Planters, and Mechanics (1891), edited by Emory A. Allen, W. Scott Morgan's History of the Wheel and Alliance and the Impending Revolution (1891), H. R. Chamberlain's The Farmers' Alliance (1891), The Farmers' Alliance History and Agricultural Digest (1891), edited by N. A. Dunning, and N. B. Ashby's The Riddle of the Sphinx (1890). Other contemporary books dealing with the evils of which the farmers complained are: D. C. Cloud's Monopolies and the People (1873), William A. Peffer's The Farmer's Side (1891), James B. Weaver's A Call to Action (1891), Charles H. Otken's The Ills of the South (1894), Henry D. Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth (1894), and William H. Harvey's Coin's Financial School (1894).