SOURCE: Ziaukas, Tim. “Baum's Wizard of Oz as Gilded Age Public Relations.” Public Relations Quarterly 43, no. 3 (fall 1998): 7-11.

In the following essay, Ziaukas interprets The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as propaganda for the gold and silver standard in United States economics at the turn of the twentieth century.

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

—from William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech, 1896

“The Wicked Witch … looked down at Dorothy's feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes, began to tremble with fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged to them.”

—The Wizard of Oz, 1900

L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, published nearly a century ago, has become the most popular American children's story, immortalized through a number of editions, stage and film productions, and especially the 1939 movie starring Judy...