Book excerpt: This landmark study meticulously traces the evolution of the farmers' movement on the prairies, which led to the birth of the co-operative movement and such populist political movements as the Progressive Party, the Social Credit, and the CCF/NDP. Out of print for almost 30 years, "The Agrarian Revolt" has remained a primary resource for scholars studying the history of this region. The trends which Sharp identified and examined continue to be crucial for an understanding of prairie politics today, for the Reform Party (now the Canadian Alliance Party) is a direct ideological descendant of the earlier populist movements considered in "The Agrarian Revolt."