Among the most famous American examples is the reaction to William Jennings Bryan's “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1896. A thirty-six-year-old former Nebraska congressman, with no following going into the convention, Bryan managed to win the nomination by delivering a plea for pegging the dollar to silver as well as gold in order to increase the monetary supply and broaden economic opportunity.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 400