On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Mary Krugman wrote:
> Thanks, Dan. C'mon Toto -- it's all right, boy. The cyberwitch is gone.
I only recently heard of the apparently widespread theory that the Wizard
of Oz story was originally written as an allegory about
turn-of-the-century politics.
This was at a time when the "free coinage of silver" was heralded by
populist reformers and William Jennings Bryan (presidential candidate) as
the solution to the woes of deep-in-debt farmers and oppressed industrial
workers, whereas the conservatives and banks on the East and West coasts
favored "sound money" and the gold standard.
Dorothy's magic slippers were silver (changed to ruby in the movie just
to take advantage of Technicolor). The "yellow-brick-road" was the gold
standard, and the Emerald City (where everything is green like money) was
Washington, D.C.
Of course, the Scarecrow represented farmers, the Tin Woodsman symbolized
industrial workers, and the Cowardly Lion was a pretty wicked caricature
of William Jennings Bryan. The wicked witches of the east and west were
the banks, and the winged monkeys were the railroads. No, really.
The "Oz" of the title is simply the abbreviation for ounces, the standard
measure for either gold or silver. By some accounts, the Wizard himself
represents President William McKinley, who defeated Bryan in 1896 and
1900. Or, the Wicked Witch of the East was Grover Cleveland, a sound
money president, and McKinley was the Wicked Witch of the West.
Now that I know this, I'm really curious what Salman Rushdie had to say
about it in his book about the Wizard of Oz.
Some relevant web sites (some supporting, some opposing this
interpretation of the story):
http://www.amphigory.com/oz.htm
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/dbj5/oz.html
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/childlit/Oct96/0344.html
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/people/wu.287/152h.oz.html
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/bankfiction/uscent.html
http://www.glindasbubble.com/scripts/speaks.htm
http://wccusdgate.wccusd.k12.ca.us/elcerrito/history/oz.htm
http://www.sirius.com/~kskag/moneyweatherford.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_392.html
http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/Populism.htm
http://h-net2.msu.edu/~rural/threads/discoz.html
http://www.monetary.org/hughdowns.htm
http://tech-head.com/oz.htm
http://www.uncg.edu/psc/courses/jktullos/policy/oz.html
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/6223/Wizard.htm
http://www.summermusical.org/OZ/feature4.html
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/econ/courses/eco100/wizard.html
and many others....
---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
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