front cover of Education for Democracy
Education for Democracy
Renewing the Wisconsin Idea
Edited by Chad Alan Goldberg
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020
American public universities were founded in a civic tradition that differentiated them from their European predecessors—steering away from the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Like many such higher education institutions across the United States, the University of Wisconsin’s mission, known as the Wisconsin Idea, emphasizes a responsibility to serve the needs of the state and its people. This commitment, which necessarily requires a pledge to academic freedom, has recently been openly threatened by state and federal actors seeking to dismantle a democratic and expansive conception of public service.

Using the Wisconsin Idea as a lens, Education for Democracy argues that public higher education institutions remain a bastion of collaborative problem solving. Examinations of partnerships between the state university and people of the state highlight many crucial and lasting contributions to issues of broad public concern such as conservation, LGBTQ+ rights, and poverty alleviation. The contributors restore the value of state universities and humanities education as a public good, contending that they deserve renewed and robust support.
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front cover of A History of the University of Wisconsin System
A History of the University of Wisconsin System
Patricia A. Brady
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020
A tumultuous 1971 merger that combined all of the state’s public colleges and universities into a single entity led to the creation of the University of Wisconsin System. Drawing on decades of previously unpublished sources, Patricia A. Brady details the System’s full history from its origin to the present, illuminating complex networks among and within the campuses and an evolving relationship with the state.

The UW System serves as a powerful case study for how broad, national trends in higher education take shape on the ground. Brady illustrates the ways culture wars have played out on campuses and the pressures that have mounted as universities have shifted to a student-as-consumer approach. This is the essential, unvarnished story of the unique collection of institutions that serve Wisconsin and the world—and a convincing argument for why recognizing and reinvesting in the System is critically important for the economic and civic future of the state and its citizens.
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