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How is the Civil War and the Wizard of Oz related?

How is the Civil War and the Wizard of Oz related?

I have heard that the Wizard of Oz is based off of the American Civil War. Is this true? If so, please give as many examples as possible.
Just because it's a children's story doen't mean it can't be brutal underneath the cutesy story. For example ring aroung the rosy is a CHILDRENS song designed to teach kids about DEATH AND DISEASE.
NEVERMIND, I FOUND WHAT I WANTED.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

My knowledge on this is a little hazy, but I think I can help a bit. First, the Wizard of Oz was written as a kind of satirical metaphor which was meant to critique the gold standard. The gold standard, back in the late 19th / early 20th century was considered by many to be the root cause of the deflation which was hurting a lot of people, especially farmers (and there was loooots of farmers back then).

The way that works is like this. Most farmers back then were debtors, so when they would take out a loan, let's say for $1,000. Deflation would cause the value of everything to go down, including the price of their crops which we'll say were worth $1,000 - or just enough to pay back the loan (not counting interest). Thanks to deflation, the value of those crops was lowered to, we'll say $700.

The values aren't really important here. What's important is that while the value of their crops (i.e. those things they sell to other people and thereby put food on their table) was getting lower and lower, the value of their debt - and more importantly, the interest rates - was staying the same. Which means that over time they had less and less money to pay it off with and eventually many of them could not keep up with their payments.

Now, here's where the Civil War comes in. When the war ended, there was a huge demand for goods and increasingly more productive ways to make them. BUT, the gold standard kept the money supply fixed, while the sudden increased productivity made good more plentiful and, naturally, lowered the price of good as well. For MOST people this wasn't a bad thing. However, for many - if not most - of the farmers out west who relied on loans - mostly mortgages - it WAS a bad thing because their repayment periods were generally very short and they had must less money to pay them back. Many farms were foreclosed.

So to put this into a (hopefully) coherent answer:

End of Civil War ==> increased productivity + lower prices + gold standard = Deflation

Wizard of Oz = critique of gold standard and, by implication, deflation

The main connection between the two is deflation. The Civil War more or less caused it and the Wizard of Oz lamented it.

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