Results by title
453 books match the query 'Wisconsin' and 29 start with a
A Blueprint for Worker Solidarity
Class Politics and Community in WisconsinNaomi R Williams
University of Illinois Press, 2025
Naomi R Williams traces the journeys of two local activists to highlight how people can support democracy and economic freedom in the twenty-first century. In Racine, ideas of class and race shifted but remained strong. The broad-based class politics that emerged drew on racial analysis, vigilant organizing, and agile labor leadership that organized more people. Unionized workers in turn won political power while uniting to resist conservative and corporate attacks. Charting Racine’s transition, Williams breaks down how worker solidarity persevered and presents lessons that can provide valuable guidance for today’s generation of activists.
A City At War
Milwaukee Labor During World War IIRichard L. Pifer
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2003
A Dog Lover's Guide to Hiking Wisconsin's State Parks
Danielle St. Louis
University of Wisconsin Press, 2022
A Dog Lover’s Guide to Hiking Wisconsin’s State Parks divides Wisconsin into five regions and further details specific trails, graded for dog reactivity as well as the fitness level of human and canine alike. St. Louis also helpfully notes the availability of nearby facilities such as bathrooms, water stations, trashcans, designated dog swimming areas, and veterinarians. Truly one of a kind, this book is a must have for any Wisconsin dog lover looking to go out into nature with their pup.
A Driftless Murder
Jerry McGinley
University of Wisconsin Press, 2021
As strange details continue to emerge, the detectives enlist the help of city cop and data expert Shea Sommers. As the team crisscrosses the state to chase a few promising leads, their search expands beyond local guides and neighbors to members of a sinister, secret hunting society. When Duggan mysteriously disappears—and becomes a suspect himself—Donegal must take over the investigation. He soon realizes the case might not only be unsolvable but could land him in prison—or an early grave.
A Grouse Hunter’s Almanac
The Other Kind of HuntingMark Parman
University of Wisconsin Press, 2017
"Notable and quotable. Parman stakes out original territory and provides a vivid snapshot of the Northwoods."—John Motoviloff, author of Wisconsin Wildfoods: 100 Recipes for Badger State Bounties
"Extremely rich and detailed. Parman puts forth original and genuine experiences."—Richard Yatzeck, author of Hunting the Edges
A History in Indigenous Voices
Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown Interactions in the Removal EraCarol Cornelius
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2023
Treaties made in the 1800s between the United States and the Indigenous nations of what is now Wisconsin have had profound influence on the region’s cultural and political landscape. Yet few people realize that in the early part of that century, the Menominee and Ho-Chunk Nations of Wisconsin signed land treaties with several Indigenous nations from New York State. At the onset of the removal era, these eastern nations, including the Oneida Nation and the Six Nations Confederacy, were under constant pressure from the federal government and land speculators to move to lands around Green Bay and Lake Winnebago.
In this groundbreaking book, Carol A. Cornelius has compiled a careful account of these nation-to-nation treaties, in large part in the words of those Indigenous leaders who served as the voices and representatives of their nations. Drawing on a rich collection of primary sources, Cornelius walks readers through how, why, and for whom these treaties were made and how the federal government’s failure and unwillingness to acknowledge their legitimacy led to the further loss of Indigenous lands. The living documents transcribed here testify to the complexity and sovereignty of Indigenous governance then and now, making this volume a vital resource for historians and an accessible introduction to Indigenous treatymaking in Wisconsin.
Winner of the 2024 Wisconsin Historical Society’s Book of Merit Award
Finalist for the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Adult Nonfiction History
A History of Badger Baseball
The Rise and Fall of America's Pastime at the University of WisconsinSteven D. Schmitt
University of Wisconsin Press, 2017
There is painful history here, too. African Americans played on Wisconsin's first Big Ten championship team in 1902, including team captain Julian Ware, but there were none on the team between 1904 and 1960. Heartbreaking to many fans was the 1991 decision to discontinue baseball as a varsity sport at the university. Today, Wisconsin is the only member of the Big Ten conference without a men's baseball team.
Appendixes provide details of team records and coaches, All Big Ten and All American selections, Badgers in the major leagues, and Badgers in the amateur free-agent draft.
A History of the University of Wisconsin System
Patricia A. Brady
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020
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.
A Keg of Their Best
Brewing in the Beer State Capital—From the Beer Baron Era to Modern MicrobrewsRobin Shepard
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2026
Wisconsin has long been known as “The Beer State,” and the history of its capital city brims with stories of brewing innovation—from the city’s earliest beer-makers and long-forgotten farmstead breweries to today’s experimental microbrewers and enterprising taprooms. In A Keg of Their Best: Brewing in the Beer State Capital—From the Beer Baron Era to Modern Microbrews, journalist and beer expert Robin Shepard offers an authoritative history of Madison’s brewing legacy and its key figures from the 1830s to the present.
A Keg of Their Best documents how the beer industry emerged before Madison became a city, starting with the arrival of its first white residents, Roseline and Eben Peck, who opened a tavern in the back room of their cabin in 1837. Subsequent waves of German and English immigrants brought their lager and ale recipes and brewing traditions—some of which live on today. The book also explores how the region’s environment—its rich soil and abundant water sources—made it ideal for beer-making. And it reveals how beer barons created and funded much of the early infrastructure that established Madison as the territorial capital.
Readers will discover how brewmasters, bootleggers, and homebrewers survived during Prohibition and the ways the post-Prohibition beer-making renaissance gave rise to the modern craft beer movement. Shepard brings Wisconsin’s brewing history up through today by highlighting the craft brewers, microbrewers, and regional breweries that are producing inspiring pilsners, IPAs, stouts, sours, and other tasty brews in Madison and Dane County’s thriving beer scene.
Drawing from newspaper accounts, ancestry and property records, and hundreds of personal interviews, Shepard has compiled a thorough and engrossing tribute to Madison’s beer-making heritage—including every known brewery in Dane County since the 1840s. Richly illustrated with historical and modern photos, maps, and breweriana, A Keg of Their Best is a must-have for beer enthusiasts, history lovers, and anyone who has raised a pint in the Beer State Capital.
A Mind of Her Own
Helen Connor Laird and Family, 1888–1982Helen L. Laird
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006
A Mind of Her Own: Helen Connor Laird and Family 1888–1982 captures the public achievement and private pain of a remarkable Wisconsin woman and her family, whose interests and influence extended well beyond the borders of the state. Spanning almost a century, the history speaks to the way we were and are: a stridently materialistic nation with a deep and persistent spiritual component.
A Nation within a Nation
Voices of the Oneidas in WisconsinL. Gordon McLester III
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2010
A Quiet Corner of the War
The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862–1863Gilbert Claflin and Esther Claflin; Edited by Judy Cook; Foreword by Keith S. Bohannon
University of Wisconsin Press, 2013
In 2002, Judy Cook discovered a packet of letters written by her great-great-grandparents, Gilbert and Esther Claflin, during the American Civil War. An unexpected bounty, these letters from 1862–63 offer visceral witness to the war, recounting the trials of a family separated. Gilbert, an articulate and cheerful forty-year-old farmer, was drafted into the Union Army and served in the Thirty-Fourth Wisconsin Infantry garrisoned in western Kentucky along the Mississippi. Esther had married Gilbert when she was fifteen; now a woman with two teenage sons, she ran the family farm near Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in Gilbert’s absence.
In his letters, Gilbert writes about food, hygiene, rampant desertions by drafted men, rebel guerrilla raids, and pastimes in the daily life of a soldier. His comments on interactions with Confederate prisoners and ex-slaves before and after the Emancipation Proclamation reveal his personal views on monumental events. Esther shares in her letters the challenges and joys of maintaining the farm, accounts of their boys Elton and Price, concerns about finances and health, and news of their local community and extended family. Esther’s experiences provide insight into family, farm, and village life in the wartime North, an often overlooked aspect of Civil War history.
Judy Cook has made the letters accessible to a wider audience by providing historical context with notes and appendixes. The volume includes a foreword by Civil War historian Keith S. Bohannon.
A Recipe for Success
Lizzie Kander and Her CookbookBob Kann
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007
A Settler's Year
Pioneer Life through the SeasonsKathleen Ernst
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2015
"This is a book with great meaning for those of us who grew up on farms, and a book to be shared with young people eager to know more about pioneer life." --Jerry Apps, author of "Old Farm: A History" and "Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalist's Memoir"
"A Settler's Year" provides a rare glimpse into the lives of early immigrants to the upper Midwest. Evocative photographs taken at Old World Wisconsin, the country's largest outdoor museum of rural life, lushly illustrate stories woven by historian, novelist, and poet Kathleen Ernst and compelling firsthand accounts left by the settlers themselves.
In this beautiful book, readers will discover the challenges and triumphs found in the seasonal rhythms of rural life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As they turn the pages--traveling from sprawling farm to tidy crossroads village, and from cramped and smoky cabins to gracious, well-furnished homes--they'll experience the back-straining chores, cherished folk traditions, annual celebrations, and indomitable spirit that comprised pioneer life.
At its heart "A Settler's Year" is about people dreaming of, searching for, and creating new homes in a new land. This moving book transports us back to the pioneer era and inspires us to explore the stories found on our own family trees.
A Short History of Wisconsin
Erika Janik
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2010
Rediscover Wisconsin history from the very beginning. A Short History of Wisconsin recounts the landscapes, people, and traditions that have made the state the multifaceted place it is today. With an approach both comprehensive and accessible, historian Erika Janik covers several centuries of Wisconsin's remarkable past, showing how the state was shaped by the same world wars, waves of new inhabitants, and upheavals in society and politics that shaped the nation.
Swift, authoritative, and compulsively readable, A Short History of Wisconsin commences with the glaciers that hewed the region's breathtaking terrain, the Native American cultures who first called it home, and French explorers and traders who mapped what was once called "Mescousing." Janik moves through the Civil War and two world wars, covers advances in the rights of women, workers, African Americans, and Indians, and recent shifts involving the environmental movement and the conservative revolution of the late 20th century. Wisconsin has hosted industries from fur-trapping to mining to dairying, and its political landscape sprouted figures both renowned and reviled, from Fighting Bob La Follette to Joseph McCarthy. Janik finds the story of a state not only in the broad strokes of immigration and politics, but also in the daily lives shaped by work, leisure, sports, and culture. A Short History of Wisconsin offers a fresh understanding of how Wisconsin came into being and how Wisconsinites past and present share a deep connection to the land itself.
A Summer Up North
Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire BaseballJerry Poling
University of Wisconsin Press, 2002
June 12, 1952—only a local sportswriter showed up at the Eau Claire airport to greet a newly signed eighteen-year-old shortstop from Alabama toting a cardboard suitcase. "I was scared as hell," said Henry Aaron, recalling his arrival as the new recruit on the city’s Class C minor league baseball team.
Forty-two years later, as Aaron approached the stadium where the Eau Claire Bears once played, an estimated five thousand people surrounded a newly raised bronze statue of a young "Hank" Aaron at bat. "I had goosebumps," he said later. "A lot of things happened to me in my twenty-three years as a ballplayer, but nothing touched me more than that day in Eau Claire." For the people of Eau Claire, Aaron’s summer two years before his Major League debut with the Milwaukee Braves symbolizes a magical time, when baseball fans in a small city in northern Wisconsin could live a part of the dream.
A Thousand Pieces of Paradise
Landscape and Property in the Kickapoo ValleyLynne Heasley
University of Wisconsin Press, 2012
A Thousand Pieces of Paradise is an ecological history of property and a cultural history of rural ecosystems set in one of the Midwest’s most historically significant regions, the Kickapoo River Valley. Whether examining the national war on soil erosion, Amish migration, a Corps of Engineers dam project, or Native American land claims, Lynne Heasley traces the history of modern American property debates. Her book holds powerful lessons for rural communities seeking to reconcile competing values about land and their place in it.
A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie
Civil War Letters of James K. NewtonSelected and Edited by Stephen E. Ambrose
University of Wisconsin Press, 1995
“When I wrote to you last I was at Madison with no prospect of leaving very soon, but I got away sooner than I expected to.” So wrote James Newton upon leaving Camp Randall for Vicksburg in 1863 with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Newton, who had been a rural schoolteacher before he joined the Union army in 1861, wrote to his parents of his experiences at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, on the Red River, in Missouri, at Nashville, at Mobile, and as a prisoner of war. His letters, selected and edited by noted historian Stephen E. Ambrose, reveal Newton as a young man who matured in the war, rising in rank from private to lieutenant.
A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie reveals Newton as a young man who grew to maturity through his Civil War experience, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. Writing soberly about the less attractive aspects of army life, Newton's comments on fraternizing with the Rebs, on officers, and on discipline are touched with a sense of humor—"a soldier's best friend," he claimed. He also became sensitive to the importance of political choices. After giving Lincoln the first vote he had ever cast, Newton wrote: "In doing so I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle."
Add This to the List of Things That You Are
Chris Fink
University of Wisconsin Press, 2019
Many of the narratives center on the melancholic dislocations of Midwestern men—dislocations provoked by forces ranging from the unknown terrain of travel to emerging romantic relationships. Fink's gift for voice and keen observation of place display the male psyche against unfamiliar backgrounds in high relief. These quiet, often introspective stories pack an outsized punch.
After The Fire
A Writer Finds His PlacePaul Zimmer
University of Minnesota Press, 2002
Looking back at a lifetime of rich experience from Wisconsin’s driftless hills
We all dream of finding the place we can be most ourselves, the landscape that seems to have been crafted just for us. The poet Paul Zimmer has found his: a farm in the driftless hills of southwestern Wisconsin, a region of rolling land and crooked rivers, "driftless" because here the great glaciers of the Patrician ice sheet split widely, leaving behind a heart-shaped area untouched by crushing ice. After the Fire is the story of Zimmer’s journey from his boyhood in the factory town of Canton, Ohio, and his days as a soldier during atomic tests in the Nevada desert, to his many years in the book business as a writer and publisher, and the rural tranquillity of his present life.
Zimmer juxtaposes timeless rustic subjects (tending the land, country people and their ways, the ever-changing beauty of his natural surroundings) with flashbacks to key moments: his first and only boxing match, hearing Count Basie play and discovering his lifelong love of jazz, his return to the France of his ancestors, his painful departure from the publishing world after forty years. These stories are full of humor and pathos, keen insights and poignant meditations, but the real center of the book is the abiding beauty of the driftless hills, the silence and peace that is the source of and reward for Zimmer’s hard-won wisdom. Above all, it is a meditation on the ways that nature provides deep meaning and solace, and a consideration of the importance of finding the right place.
Aldo Leopold
His Life and WorkCurt D. Meine
University of Wisconsin Press, 2010
This biography of Aldo Leopold follows him from his childhood as a precocious naturalist to his profoundly influential role in the development of conservation and modern environmentalism in the United States. This edition includes a new preface by author Curt Meine and an appreciation by acclaimed Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry.
All the Hometown Boys
Wisconsin's 150th Machine Gun Battalion in World War IBrad Larson
University of Wisconsin Press, 2019
American Birkebeiner
The Nation's Greatest Ski MarathonJerome P. Poling
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2025
An exhilarating behind-the-scenes journey into the history of America’s largest cross-country ski race
Each February, cross-country skiers from across the nation and around the world descend upon the sleepy northern Wisconsin town of Hayward to compete in the American Birkebeiner—the largest cross-country ski race in North America. In American Birkebeiner: The Nation’s Greatest Ski Marathon, author and skier Jerome P. Poling traces the remarkable history of the famed “Birkie,” from its modest origins in the early 1970s to its modern incarnation as an international Nordic-themed festival and multi-day racing event drawing more than 30,000 skiers and spectators.
American Birkebeiner offers an up-close, behind-the-scenes tour of all things Birkie—from pre-race preparations and skier profiles to race-day highlights and history-making finishes. It also tells the story of visionary race founder Tony Wise and his efforts to popularize the sport of cross-country skiing in the Upper Midwest. The book delves into the origin and evolution of the world-class Birkebeiner Trail and the communities that support it, as well as the ways the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation is adapting to climate change to help ensure the event thrives for years to come.
American Birkebeiner sparks with lively, narrative-driven prose and is based on extensive archival research, reporting, and personal interviews. The lavishly illustrated book also features 150 photographs, including intimate portraits of athletes pushed to the limits of their endurance, sweeping aerial shots of skiers and cheering crowds, and awe-inspiring winter vistas. An exquisitely crafted ode to an extraordinary race, American Birkebeiner will inspire winter sports fans and outdoor enthusiasts alike.
Among the Aspen
Northwoods Grouse and Woodcock HuntingMark Parman
University of Wisconsin Press, 2018
Among the Aspen interweaves tales of companionable dogs, lucky hunts, and favorite coverts where quarry lurks with ruminations on the demise of hunting traditions, the sale of public lands and the privatization of places to hunt, the growing indifference to science, and the loss of wilderness on a planet increasingly transformed by the sprawl of humanity.
An Analysis of Effigy Mound Complexes in Wisconsin
William M. Hurley
University of Michigan Press, 1975
An Elegant Edifice
The Women Who Forged a Legacy at Villa LouisMary Elise Antoine
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2026
On the banks of the upper Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, stands Villa Louis, the majestic Italianate-style mansion and estate built by the prosperous Dousman family in 1871. An Elegant Edifice tells the stories of the women of the Dousman residence. Jane, who outlived her husband by fourteen years, oversaw the estate and maintained the family’s presence in Prairie du Chien. Jane’s daughter-in-law, Nina, managed the property and assumed the role of head of the family following her husband’s death, ensuring stability for her children during times of tragedy. Finally, Nina’s daughters Violet and Virginia helped to restore the family home in the 1930s, secure its future as a historic site, and record the Dousmans’ history for posterity.
An Elegant Edifice illustrates the broad strokes of American expansionism through the backgrounds and activities of these influential women, complete with marriages and separations, births and deaths, business disputes, lawsuits, and reconciliations. With stories of St. Louis and St. Paul society, the stylish shops of New York City, and the prominence of Prairie du Chien in the nineteenth century, this book reveals the leisure activities and extravagant lifestyle afforded to the family by their wealth—Tiffany jewelry and housewares, William Morris wallpaper and fabrics, Jaccard silver, and a fine art collection to rival the public museums of the era.
Thanks to the women’s fortitude and shared conviction in the importance of family, Villa Louis has been preserved and restored to its 1890s splendor and is today considered one of the most authentically restored Italianate villas in the United States. While previous histories have focused on the Dousman patriarchs, public historian Mary Elise Antoine offers a new perspective on the Dousman family history by bringing into focus Jane, Nina, Violet, and Virginia. These women’s lives—historically less well-documented than the lives of their husbands, fathers, and sons—contributed greatly to the preservation of Villa Louis and to our understanding of an important chapter in American history.
Apple Betty and Sloppy Joe
Stirring Up the Past with Family Recipes and StoriesSusan Sanvidge
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007
Compiled by four sisters and based on their recollections of their childhood in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe captures the glow of memories formed while growing up in a midwestern kitchen. From Lemon Meringue Pie to Tomato Soup Cake, from Mom's Chicken Pie to Grandma Noffke's Sliced Cucumber Pickles, this charming book features hundreds of recipes (some classic, some quirky), plus dozens of food and cooking-related anecdotes, memories, humorous asides, and period photos that transport readers back to Mom's or Grandma's kitchen, circa 1950.
The Sanvidges share a legacy of beloved dishes and food memories that resonate not just for their family, but for readers everywhere who grew up in a small midwestern town - or wish they had. Nostalgic, funny, and warmhearted, Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe celebrates the ways food and food memories link us to our past, and to each other. A delightful gift for food lovers of any generation.
As the Twig Is Bent
A MemoirWallace Byron Grange, Edited by Joseph L. Breitenstein and Richard P. Thiel
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020
Written when Grange was in his sixties, As the Twig Is Bent conveys how a leading conservationist was formed through his early relationship to nature. In beautifully composed vignettes, he details encounters both profound and minute, from the white-footed mice attracted by cookie crumbs in his boyhood clubhouse to the sounds of great horned owls echoing through the wintry woods. As he develops his own understanding of the natural world, he comes to an awareness of the dramatic and devastating role of humankind on ecosystems. Grange’s poignant observations still resonate today amid global conversations about the fate of our natural resources and climate change.
Aztalan
Mysteries of an Ancient Indian TownRobert A. Birmingham and Lynne Goldstein
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2006
Birmingham and Goldstein attempt to unlock some of the mysteries, providing insights and information about the group of people who first settled here in 1100 AD. Filled with maps, drawings, and photographs of artifacts, this small volume examines a time before modern Native American people settled in this area.