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.