The History of Wisconsin, Volume V


Book Description

The fifth volume in The History of Wisconsin series covers the years from the outbreak of World War I to the eve of American entry into World War II. In between, the rise of the woman's movement, the advent of universal suffrage, and the "great experiment" of Prohibition are explored, along with the contest between newly emergent labor unions and powerful business and industrial corporations. Author Paul W. Glad also investigates the Great Depression in Wisconsin and its impact on rural and urban families in the state. Photographs and maps further illustrate this volume which tells the story of one of the most exciting and stressful eras in the history of the state.




The University of Wisconsin


Book Description

If you have ever spent part of your life on the shores of Lake Mendota--whether student or staff, whether personally or vicariously as a parent, whether then or now--you will immediately recognize The University of Wisconsin: A Pictorial History as a celebration of that time and memory, of that community. It is part of your family tree. In eight lively, readable chapters Arthur Hove tells us the story of a tiny pre-Civil War land grant college that grew into the modern "multiversity" we know today (which, by itself, would be the sixth largest "city" in the state). But the text, engaging as it is, is really the frame for the book's most impressive feature--the exquisite album of nearly 400 photographs, thirty-two pages of them in full color, that capture the timeless moments and faces, the unforgettable characters and controversies, the high points (and the hijinks!) of 130 years of Badger lore. The words and images tell countless stories: of Bascom Hall, which was originally domed. After a mysterious fire destroyed the dome in 1916 it was simply never restored. of the famous "sifting and winnowing" plaque. The regents of the time didn't care for it much--academic "freedom" was a radical idea. It gathered dust in a basement for years before it was finally mounted in 1915. of Pat O'Dea, who made a sixty-three-yard drop kick against Northwestern in 1899. Lost and presumed dead in World War I, he was "discovered" in 1934 living under an assumed name in California. of Harry Steenbock, who was offered $900,000 (in 1925!) for commercial rights to his food irradiation process that eliminated rickets in children. Instead, he helped set up the WARF foundation to fund research from his patent proceeds.







A Socrates for All Seasons - Alexander Meiklejohn and Deliberative Democracy


Book Description

This is the story of a reform minded man who translated his interest in liberal education and academic freedom into a unique interpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although he died in 1964 his interpretation is still being applied to free speech cases that come before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the early days of the 20th century he was Dean at Brown University, President of Amherst College and founder of the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin. In the xenophobic aftermath of World War II he became a national leader in defense of political speech. This led him into a dialogue with justices of the Supreme Court, despite the fact he had no formal training in the law. His theory of the First Amendment holds that its provision for free speech exists as much for the publics need to hear and know as it does for the individuals right to speak.




Fighting Bob La Follette


Book Description

Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette (1855-1925) was one of the most significant leaders of American progressivism. Nancy Unger integrates previously unknown details from La Follette's personal life with important events from his storied political career, revealing a complex man who was a compelling mixture of failure and accomplishment, tragedy and triumph. Serving as U.S. representative from 1885 to 1891, governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906, and senator from Wisconsin from 1906 to his death in 1925, La Follette earned the nickname "Fighting Bob" through his uncompromising efforts to reform both politics and society, especially by championing the rights of the poor, workers, women, and minorities. Based on La Follette family letters, diaries, and other papers, this biography covers the personal events that shaped the public man. In particular, Unger explores La Follette's relationship with his remarkable wife, feminist Belle Case La Follette, and with his sons, both of whom succeeded him in politics. The La Follette who emerges from this retelling is an imperfect yet appealing man who deserves to be remembered as one of the United States' most devoted and effective politicians.




The University of Wisconsin V. 4; Renewal to Revolution, 1945-71


Book Description

A great university in turbulent times From the deluge of World War II vets on the GI bill through the 1960s radicalism that made national headlines, the University of Wisconsin's history has been a part of American history. Historians, as well as the University's hundreds of thousands of alumni, faculty, staff, and students, will welcome this fourth volume covering the University's recent past. E. David Cronon and John W. Jenkins record in lively, readable prose a period that began with the influx of returning war veterans, more than doubling the University's enrollment in a single year. They explore the dark McCarthy era of loyalty oaths and blacklists during the 1950s and detail the actions of University president E. B. Fred, who stood out among American academic leaders for his commitment to principle and fair play. The turbulent 1960s, which opened with students reporting on their summertime Freedom Ride experiences throughout the American South and ended with the Vietnam War-related bombing of Sterling Hall in 1970, are a record of how an era of idealism gave way to one characterized by angry dissent and disorder, the rise of women's liberation, flower power, black power, and student power. The history concludes with the passage of legislation creating the University of Wisconsin System of campuses in 1971--an action that followed nearly three decades of experiments, compromises, and political struggles involving several governors.




Creating the Big Ten


Book Description

Big Ten football fans pack gridiron cathedrals that hold up to 100,000 spectators. The conference's fourteen member schools share a broadcast network and a 2016 media deal worth $2.64 billion. This cultural and financial colossus grew out of a modest 1895 meeting that focused on football's brutality and encroaching professionalism in the game. Winton U. Solberg explores the relationship between higher education and collegiate football in the Big Ten's first fifty years. This formative era saw debates over eligibility and amateurism roil the sport. In particular, faculty concerned with academics clashed with coaches, university presidents, and others who played to win. Solberg follows the conference's successful early efforts to put the best interests of institutions and athletes first. Yet, as he shows, commercial concerns undid such work after World War I as sports increasingly eclipsed academics. By the 1940s, the Big Ten's impact on American sports was undeniable. It had shaped the development of intercollegiate athletics and college football nationwide while serving as a model for other athletic conferences.




Robert M. Hutchins


Book Description

As president of the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1951, Robert Maynard Hutchins came to be one of the most prominent and controversial figures in American higher education. To this day, his vision of what the university should be has given shape to twentieth-century debates over the content and function of education in the United States. In her critical biography, the first to focus on Hutchins' University of Chicago decades, Mary Ann Dzuback gives a full and fascinating account of this complex man—his development, his achievements and failures, and finally, his legacy.







Historians on the Homefront


Book Description

When Woodrow Wilson called on the American people to mobilize for war in April 1917, it was hardly surprising that historians should respond to their one-time colleague. Mobilization produced three organizations staffed by many of America's leading historians. All three organizations, the author shows, viewed as their task the mobilizing of America's intellectual resources in support of Wilson's war policies. The postwar decade saw an inevitable cooling of wartime passions and a reevaluation of the causes of the war. George T. Blakey examines the postwar reaction to the activities of the CPI, NBHS, and NSL, which included congressional investigations and acerbic attacks in popular and scholarly periodicals. A number of the historians came to regret their wartime propaganda work; a few of these joined the ranks of the revisionists and turned on their colleagues. Others merely strengthened their Germanophobia. The majority, Mr. Blakely finds, resumed their academic careers, apparently untouched by the part they had played in mobilizing the American war effort. The question of scholarly integrity versus propaganda has never been fully resolved, the author concludes, but later generations of historians can still learn much from the example of America's World War I historians-turned-propagandists.