Populists and progressives had similar reform policies, but in the 1890s progressives sided with conservatives to defeat the populist movement. This article attempts to understand why the leader of the progressives, Theodore Roosevelt, clashed with populists in the 1890s. Roosevelt's journalism exemplified the broader progressive impulse of pragmatic professionalism, while populist political communication was more combative and partisan. Roosevelt's style of political rhetoric and his critique of populism evolved over time. Early in the populist movement Roosevelt focused on moderate reforms and criticized partisan slander. Then, leading up to the 1896 election, he adopted the same tactics of the partisan press that he criticized throughout his career. After the populist movement collapsed, Roosevelt accommodated populist policies and attempted to build a coalition with the same populist leaders he had previously attacked in the press.
