Summary

As the balance of economic power in the United States shifted from agriculture to industry during the last third of the nineteenth century, underlying political patterns also shifted. Following a period of transition, competition, and protest, the Republican Party successfully identified itself with the newly emerging forces of industrial power and thereby solidified a dominant position. Though other protest parties would take the place of the defunct Populists, and the Republicans occasionally fell out among themselves, Republican control would prevail through the first third of the twentieth century.