At the urging of my friends, my colleagues, some journalists, and importantly my editor, I have written a book-length account of what is going on in Wisconsin and what it means historically. “The Battle for Wisconsin: Scott Walker and the Attack on the Progressive Tradition” is only 99¢ and available now as an e-book for your computer, tablet, or e-reader at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, iTunes, and plenty of other places.
Here’s the description:
This past January, the newly elected governor Scott Walker declared war on Wisconsin’s progressive roots. Under the guise of budget repair, he and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature introduced a whole host of initiatives meant to roll back hard-won gains for workers and recast the role of government in the state to fit his own conservative ideology.
In The Battle for Wisconsin, the labor historian Andrew E. Kersten shows just how far-reaching these “reforms” really are—and why they fly in the face of the state’s long progressive tradition. Kersten is a Wisconsin native, a product of the state’s renowned public education system that is now under attack. In this eye-opening new book, he takes us back to the days of the robber barons, explaining why our forefathers fought so hard for real reform in the Progressive Era and why those principles are worth protecting today.

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August 12, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Professor Kersten:
It would be great if “The Battle for Wisconsin…” was also available in PDF, whatever the additional requested cost, for those of us who just have computers though not compatible with e-reader applications. It would make it more available to more people. (Just an observation, for said work is certainly most pertinent now, rather than latter as then merely an historical writing alone—in comparison; for it seems obvious that the motive of the timing regarding this work was most likely to address the history both behind and of the moment, unfolding, besides.)
Thankfully and respectfully,
John