Grassroots participation in government took on a whole new meaning in Wisconsin in 2011 as the state erupted in political ferment.
A new book with north central Wisconsin perspectives of those tumultuous times will be discussed by four of its contributors at T.B. Scott Free Library on Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. “A Whole Which is Greater: Why the Wisconsin ‘Uprising’ Failed,” published last December, is edited by political thinker Paul Gilk of rural Merrill and David Kast, mathematics instructor at Nicolet Area Technical College.
The book’s 14 essays address issues raised by the political actions and reactions of 2011. For example, UW-Marathon County history professor Jeff Leigh, who was in Beirut, Lebanon as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in 2011, had the unusual perspective of observing the events in his home state from thousands of miles away.
Some of the essays compare 2011 to other political revolutions, such as the Arab Spring political uprisings, and the Progressive Era of the early 20th century in which Wisconsin was also a crucible of activity. Other writers ponder the ways in which corporations and capitalism, whose power has ebbed and flowed throughout American history, appears to be driving recent public policy decisions.
Gilk, Kast, Leigh, and James Botsford, director of the Indian Law Office of Wisconsin Judicare, all contributors to the book, will present their views on the history that was made – and is still being made – in Wisconsin, and be ready for a lively discussion on what the future might hold.
The program, part of the library’s Words Worth Hearing adult programming series, is free to the public. Refreshments will be served, compliments of First Street Coffee Station and The Checkered Churn.
Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing by the editors and contributors.
This is National Library Week. For information about the library and its activities, go to www.tbscottlibrary.org on the Internet, or Facebook’s “T.B. Scott Free Library” page.