Editing William Jennings Bryan (section)

==Legacy==
===Historical reputation and political legacy===
[[File:williamjenningsbryanstatue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Bryan on the lawn of the [[Rhea County, Tennessee|Rhea County]] courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee]]
Bryan elicited mixed views during his lifetime and his legacy remains complicated.<ref name="lrothman1">{{cite magazine |last1= Rothman |first1=Lily |title=The Man Steve Bannon Compared to President Trump, as Described in 1925 |url= https://time.com/4681697/steve-bannon-donald-trump-william-jennings-bryan/ |access-date=August 2, 2018 |magazine=Time |date= February 24, 2017}}</ref> Author Scott Farris argues that "many fail to understand Bryan because he occupies a rare space in society ... too liberal for today's religious [and] too religious for today's liberals".<ref>Farris (2013), pp. 93–94</ref> Jeff Taylor rejects the view that Bryan was a "pioneer of the [[welfare state]]" and a "forerunner of the [[New Deal]]", but argues that Bryan was more accepting of an [[Market intervention|interventionist]] federal government than his Democratic predecessors had been.<ref>Taylor (2006), pp. 187–88</ref> In terms of his dominant role in the Democratic party between 1896 and 1912, historian [[David Sarasohn]] concluded the party became:<blockquote>An issue-oriented party (tariff and child labor reform, trust regulation, federal income tax, direct election of senators) and an emerging national coalition (southerners, western Progressives, blue-collar ethnic voters, and liberal intellectuals), most of whom shared a grudging but genuine admiration for their titular leader, William Jennings Bryan. Indeed, it is the Commoner  [Bryan] whose spirit, vision, and yes, political sagacity, pervades the narrative.<ref>Quote from Eugene Tobin in ''Journal of American History'' (1990 p 335) reviewing David Sarasohn, ''The Party of Reform: Democrats in the Progressive Era'' (1989). This book is [https://archive.org/details/partyofreformdem00sara online here] See also Robert D. Johnston, “Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography.” ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 1#1 (2002), pp. 68–92;  [http://www.jstor.org/stable/25144286 online]
</ref>  </blockquote>

In long-term perspective, biographer [[Michael Kazin]] writes:
{{Blockquote | Bryan was the first leader of a major party to argue for permanently expanding the power of the federal government to serve the welfare of ordinary Americans from the working and middle classes ... he did more than any other man—between the fall of Grover Cleveland and the election of Woodrow Wilson—to transform his party from a bulwark of laissez-faire to the citadel of liberalism we identify with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his ideological descendants.<ref name= "kazinxix"/>}}

Kazin argues that, compared to Bryan, "only Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had a greater impact on politics and political culture during the era of reform that began in the mid-1890s and lasted until the early 1920s".<ref>Kazin (2006), p. xiv</ref> [[Richard F. Pettigrew]] (R-SD) said of Bryan: "Bryan never knowingly served the vested interests. He fought them to the best of his ability."<ref>Taylor (2006), p. 186</ref> Writing in 1931, former Secretary of the Treasury [[William Gibbs McAdoo]] stated that "with the exception of the men who have occupied the White House, Bryan ... had more to do with the shaping of the public policies of the last forty years than any other American citizen".<ref>Kazin (2006), p. 304</ref> Historian Robert D. Johnston notes that Bryan was "arguably [the] most influential politician from the [[Great Plains]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnston |first1= Robert D. |title="There's No 'There' There": Reflections on Western Political Historiography |journal=Western Historical Quarterly |date=2011 |volume=42 |issue=3 |page=334 |doi=10.2307/westhistquar.42.3.0331 |jstor=westhistquar.42.3.0331}}</ref> In 2015, political scientist Michael G. Miller and historian Ken Owen ranked Bryan as one of the four most influential American politicians who never served as president, alongside [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Henry Clay]], and [[John C. Calhoun]].<ref name="smasket1">{{cite news |last1=Masket |first1=Seth |title=A bracket to determine the most influential American who never became president |url=https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2015/11/19/9760888/most-influential-non-president |access-date=August 1, 2018 |publisher=Vox |date=November 19, 2015}}</ref>

Kazin emphasizes the limits of Bryan's influence by observing that "for decades after [Bryan]'s death, influential scholars and journalists depicted him as a self-righteous simpleton who longed to preserve an age that had already passed".<ref name="kazinxix"/> Writing in 2006, editor Richard Lingeman commented that "William Jennings Bryan is mainly remembered as the fanatical old fool [[Fredric March]] played in ''[[Inherit the Wind (1960 film)|Inherit the Wind]]''".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lingeman |first1=Richard |title=The Man With the Silver Tongue |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/books/review/the-man-with-the-silver-tongue.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 5, 2006}}</ref> Similarly, in 2011, John McDermott wrote that "Bryan is perhaps best known as the sweaty crank of a lawyer who represented Tennessee in the Scopes trial. After his defence of creationism, he became a mocked caricature, a sweaty possessor of avoirdupois, bereft of bombast".<ref name="FT">{{cite news |last1=McDermott |first1=John |title=The life of Bryan, or what did monetary policy ever do for us? |url=https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2011/08/19/656016/the-life-of-bryan-or-what-did-monetary-policy-ever-do-for-us/ |newspaper=Financial Times |date=August 19, 2011}}</ref> Kazin writes that "scholars have increasingly warmed to Bryan's motives, if not his actions" in the Scopes Trial because of Bryan's rejection of [[eugenics]], a practice that many evolutionists of the 1920s favored.<ref>Kazin (2006), p. 263</ref> Kazin also notes the stain that Bryan's acceptance of the [[Jim Crow laws]] places on his legacy, writing
{{Blockquote | His one great flaw was to support, with a studied lack of reflection, the abusive [[Jim Crow laws|system of Jim Crow]]—a view that was shared, until the late 1930s, by nearly every white Democrat… After Bryan's death in 1925, most intellectuals and activists on the broad left rejected the amalgam that had inspired him: a strict populist morality based on a close read reading of Scripture…  Liberals and radicals from the age of FDR to the present have tended to scorn that credo as naïve and bigoted, a remnant of an era of white Protestant supremacy that has, or should have, passed.<ref name="kazinxix">Kazin (2006), p. xix</ref>}}

Prominent individuals from both parties have praised Bryan and his legacy. In 1962, former President [[Harry Truman]] said Bryan "was a great one—one of the greatest". Truman also stated, "If it wasn't for old Bill Bryan, there wouldn't be any liberalism at all in the country now. Bryan kept liberalism alive, he kept it going."<ref>{{cite book|first=Merle|last=Miller|title=Plain Speaking|pages=118–19}}</ref> [[Tom L. Johnson]], the progressive mayor of [[Cleveland, Ohio]], referred to Bryan's campaign in 1896 as "the first great struggle of the masses in our country against the privileged classes".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XC6GmWJBBDYC&pg=PA66 |title= From Progressive to New Dealer: Frederic C. Howe and American Liberalism|last=Miller|first=Kenneth E.|date= 2010 |publisher= Penn State Press |isbn= 978-0-271-03742-4}}</ref> In a 1934 speech dedicating a memorial to Bryan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said:
{{Blockquote | I think that we would choose the word 'sincerity' as fitting him [Bryan] most of all ... it was that sincerity that served him so well in his life-long fight against sham and privilege and wrong. It was that sincerity that made him a force for good in his own generation and kept alive many of the ancient faiths on which we are building today.  We ... can well agree that he fought the good fight; that he finished the course; and that he kept the faith.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14861|title=Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address at a Memorial to William Jennings Bryan | publisher = UCSB |access-date=June 25, 2013|archive-date=May 25, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150525225047/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14861|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

Into the 21st century, some conservative Republicans have hailed Bryan's legacy from a religious perspective. [[Ralph Reed]] described Bryan as "the most consequential evangelical politician of the twentieth century".<ref>Kazin (2006), p. 302</ref> Bryan's career has also been compared to [[Political career of Donald Trump|that of Donald Trump]].<ref name="lrothman1"/>

===In popular culture===
*It has been argued by economists, historians, and literary critics that [[L. Frank Baum]] satirized Bryan as the [[Cowardly Lion]] in ''[[Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', which was published in 1900. Those assertions are based partly on Baum's history as a Republican supporter who advocated in his role as a journalist on behalf of William McKinley and his policies.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rockoff | first1 = Hugh | year = 1990 | title = The "Wizard of Oz" as a Monetary Allegory | journal = Journal of Political Economy | volume = 98 | issue = 4 | pages = 739–760 | doi = 10.1086/261704 | jstor = 2937766| s2cid = 153606670 }}</ref><ref name="John G 2004 pp. 59–63">{{cite journal | last1 = Geer | first1 = John G. | last2 = Rochon | first2 = Thomas R. | year = 1993 | title = William Jennings Bryan on the Yellow Brick Road | journal = The Journal of American Culture | volume = 16 | issue = 4| pages = 59–63 | doi = 10.1111/j.1542-734X.1993.00059.x }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Dighe | first = Ranjit S. | title = The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WK3KHptGihwC&pg=RA1-PA32 | year = 2002 | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | pages = 31–32 | isbn = 978-0-275-97418-3}}</ref> 
*[[Vachel Lindsay]]'s 1919 "singing poem" "[[Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan]]" is a lengthy tribute to the idol of the poet's youth.
*Bryan played a minor role in [[Thomas Wolfe]]'s ''[[Look Homeward Angel]]'' (1929). 
*Bryan also has a biographical part in "The 42nd Parallel" (1930) in [[John Dos Passos]]' ''[[USA Trilogy]]''.<ref>Dos Passos, John (1896–1970). ''U.S.A.'' Daniel Aaron & Townsend Ludington, eds. New York: Library of America, 1996.</ref> 
*[[Edwin Maxwell (actor)|Edwin Maxwell]] played Bryan in the 1944 film ''[[Wilson (1944 film)|Wilson]]''. 
*''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit the Wind]]'', a 1955 play by [[Jerome Lawrence]] and [[Robert Edwin Lee]], is a highly fictionalized account of the Scopes Trial written in response to [[McCarthyism]]. A populist thrice-defeated presidential candidate from Nebraska named Matthew Harrison Brady (based on Bryan) comes to a small town to help prosecute a young teacher for teaching evolution to his schoolchildren. He is opposed by a famous trial lawyer, Henry Drummond (based on Darrow) and mocked by a cynical newspaperman (based on Mencken) as the trial assumes a national profile. The [[Inherit the Wind (1960 film)|1960 film adaptation]] was directed by [[Stanley Kramer]] and starred [[Fredric March]] as Brady and [[Spencer Tracy]] as Drummond.
*Bryan appears as a character in [[Douglas Moore]]'s 1956 opera ''The Ballad of Baby Doe''. 
*[[Ainslie Pryor]] played Bryan in a 1956 episode of the [[CBS]] [[anthology series]] ''[[You Are There (series)|You Are There]]''. 
*Bryan also appears in ''[[And Having Writ]]'' (1978) by [[Donald R. Bensen]]. 
*Bryan appears in [[Gore Vidal]]'s 1987 novel ''[[Empire (Vidal novel)|Empire]]''.
*The 1992 short story [[Alternate Presidents|"Plowshare"]] by [[Martha Soukup]] and part of the 1984 novel ''[[Job: A Comedy of Justice]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] are set in worlds where Bryan became president.
*Bryan is mentioned in the folk song "Blue Water Line" as stoking coal on a restored train.

===Memorials===
[[File:William Jennings Bryan bust.jpg|thumb|A bust of Bryan, created by William Whitney Manatt in 1905 for the [[Nebraska Hall of Fame]].]]
The [[William Jennings Bryan House (Lincoln, Nebraska)|William Jennings Bryan House]], in Nebraska, was named a U.S. [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1963. The Bryan Home Museum is an appointment-only museum at his birthplace in Salem, Illinois. Salem is also home to Bryan Park and a large statue of Bryan. His home at [[Asheville, North Carolina]], from 1917 to 1920, the [[William Jennings Bryan House (Asheville, North Carolina)|William Jennings Bryan House]], was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1983.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a|dateform=mdy}}</ref> [[Villa Serena]], Bryan's property in [[Miami, Florida]], is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] delivered an address on May 3, 1934, dedicating a statue of William Jennings Bryan created by [[Gutzon Borglum]], the sculptor of [[Mount Rushmore]]. This Bryan statue by Borglum originally stood in Washington, D.C., but was displaced by highway construction and moved by an Act of Congress in 1961 to Salem, Illinois, Bryan's birthplace.<ref>http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Address_President_Dedication_Bryan_Memorial_05_03_1934.pdf "Address of the President at the Dedication of the Bryan Memorial".</ref><ref>http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=7 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712224145/http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=7 |date=July 12, 2017}} "Government Documents: Address of the President at the Dedication of the Bryan Memorial May, 1934".</ref>

A [[statue of William Jennings Bryan|statue of Bryan]] represented the state of Nebraska in the [[National Statuary Hall]] in the [[United States Capitol]], as part of the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]]. In 2019, a statue of Chief [[Standing Bear]] replaced the statue of Bryan in the National Statuary Hall.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/20/civil-rights-leader-almost-nobody-knows-about-gets-statue-us-capitol/|title=The civil rights leader 'almost nobody knows about' gets a statue in the U.S. Capitol|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=7 |title=The Clarence Darrow Collection |access-date=March 28, 2021 |archive-date=July 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712224145/http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=7 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Bryan was named to the [[Nebraska Hall of Fame]] in 1971, and a bust of him resides there, in the [[Nebraska State Capitol]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nebraskahistory.org/admin/hall_of_fame/inductees.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714090748/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/admin/hall_of_fame/inductees.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=July 14, 2006|title=Nebraska Hall of Fame Members|work=nebraskahistory.org}}</ref> Bryan was honored by the [[United States Postal Service]] with a $2 [[Great Americans series]] [[postage stamp]].

Numerous objects, places and people have been named after Bryan, including [[Bryan County, Oklahoma]],<ref name="okhs-bryan-county">Oklahoma Historical Society. [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v002/v002p075.html "Origin of County Names in Oklahoma"], ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 2:1 (March 1924) 7582 (retrieved August 18, 2006).</ref> [[Bryan Health|Bryan Medical Center]] in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], and [[Bryan College]], located in Dayton, Tennessee. [[Omaha Bryan High School]] and Bryan Middle School in [[Bellevue, Nebraska]], are also named for Bryan. During World War II the [[Liberty ship]] {{SS|William J. Bryan}} was built in [[Panama City, Florida]], and WJ A Bryan Elementary School in Miami, named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Williams
 |first=Greg H.
 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A5oWBAAAQBAJ
 |title= The Liberty Ships of World War II: A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien
 |year= 2014
 |publisher= McFarland
 |isbn= 978-1-4766-1754-1
 |access-date= December 7, 2017
}}
</ref>