Covering progressivism in the early twentieth century, the New Deal, civil rights activism, the Reagan Revolution, and the environmental and Tea Party movements, In Defense of Populism argues that grassroots activism is essential to transforming both Democratic and Republican parties into instruments of reform.

Introduction: Social Protest and Democracy
Chapter 1. Populism: Prelude to "Big Government"
Chapter 2. New Deal Protest and the Administrative State
Chapter 3. How Grassroots Mobilization Changed Postwar Civil Rights
Chapter 4. Second-Wave Feminism, Social Protest, and the Rights Revolution
Chapter 5. The Populist Right: Anti-Statism and Anti-Elitism
Chapter 6. Protest in a Polarized Age
Notes
Acknowledgments