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Academics, especially economists and historians, use the story to study the images of politics and economics in the U.S. in the 1890s. Several hundred college level economics courses feature a unit on the Wizard of Oz, to analyze money policy.
Academics, especially economists and historians, use the story to study the images of politics and economics in the U.S. in the 1890s. Several hundred college level economics courses feature a unit on the Wizard of Oz, to analyze money policy.
[[Image:OZ-TITLE.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Children read ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' as a fairy tale, but Baum and Denslow were using modern images that editorial cartoonists currently used to portray American politics.]]
==The books==
==The books==
==Political interpretations==
==Political interpretations==
Historians and economists have interpreted the 1900 book (as well as the 1902 play and 1939 movie) as an allegory of the political, economic and social upheavals of America of the 1890s.
Historians and economists have interpreted the 1900 book (as well as the 1902 play and 1939 movie) as an allegory of the political, economic and social upheavals of America of the 1890s.
:The old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.<ref>. Apart from the contemporary political allusions, there is nothing "modern" (post 1800) in the novel. Quote from [[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/wizoz10h.htm]</ref>(
:The old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.<ref>. Apart from the contemporary political allusions, there is nothing "modern" (post 1800) in the novel. Quote from [[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/wizoz10h.htm]</ref>(
[[Image:Oz-1903.jpg|thumb|left|275px|poster for 1903 Broadway version shows sexy Dorothy]]
[[Image:OZ-1903.JPG|thumb|left|275px|poster for 1903 Broadway version shows an adult Dorothy for an adult audience; it was one of the frist great Broadway musicals]]
The musical comedy version of 1902-3 was a rewritten version for an adult audience, with many sexual innuendos and a very sexy Dorothy.
The musical comedy version of 1902-3 was a rewritten version for an adult audience, with many sexual innuendos and a very sexy Dorothy.
==Sources==
==Sources==