American Incendiary Populism

Sunday night before Thanksgiving in 1933, a San Jose, California apricot farmer and wife were awakened by the chilling howls of bloodlust. Ten miles away, lit by the blasts of just invented photographer light bars, a hometown mob of thousands triumphantly hailed the lynching of two men dragged from of the county jail. “Sunny Jim” Rolph, the governor of California, had promised to pardon anyone convicted of their lynching.