Review, “The Wisconsin Idea,” Second Edition, Edited by Ross Tangedal and Jeff Snowbarger.
Charles McCarthy. The Wisconsin Idea. Edited by Ross Tangedal and Jeff Snowbarger. Wisconsin: Cornerstone Press, 2018.
The power of a historical document is a true tour de force. It is one of the primary backbones of historical research and shapes how historians understand and process the world of bygone eras. It serves as a handy teaching tool with students in processing historical significance across multiple disciplines. As an information source, it adds to the collective of human knowledge on a particular subject. However, does this necessitate the need for a historical document to be reprinted for a modern-day audience’s examination? The answer to that question is subjective, but in the case of Charles McCarthy’s The Wisconsin Idea, the editors, Ross Tangedal and Jeff Snowbarger, and I ultimately come to the same conclusion, “Yes, it is.”
The Wisconsin Idea is a multi-layered work in which it serves as an important piece of Wisconsin state history and a foundational document of Progressivism ideas and philosophies. McCarthy, author, librarian, and Chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Department, chronicles in impressive detail the robust 1911 Wisconsin Legislative session which passed groundbreaking legislation regarding the state regulation of railroads and public utilities. This same legislature also addressed education, labor, and public welfare reform legislation. Printed in 1912, McCarthy provided nuanced background histories for each chapter as to why the 1911 Wisconsin Legislature had to undertake such massive reforms—in general, to address the corruptions of the Gilded Age’s cronyism and lobbyism.
The editors highlight very clearly in the book’s foreword how McCarthy saw the Wisconsin Idea as “the state’s obligation towards protecting the public good” which both note is slightly different than how it is understood today.[1] An introduction written by former President Theodore Roosevelt, that is full of praise for the state of Wisconsin and a call to the “true reformer” to study this text, opens the book followed by the preface written by McCarthy which laid out the rationale for writing this text. McCarthy also acknowledges his limitations and personal bias, which I find as one of the many strengths of this historical document. What follows next are ten chapters that cover different legislation reforms passed during the 1911 Wisconsin Legislative session. The introduction and chapters one, three, and five lay out McCarthy’s conception of the Wisconsin Idea as noted by the editors.
Chapter three covers the regulation of business and the effects on public interest. McCarthy dives into the issues of railroad monopolies and how the Railroad Commission Act became a foundational piece of legislation for future Wisconsin laws. Chapter five talks about educational legislation. It focuses on the changes within agriculture and how the University of Wisconsin played a crucial role. In chapter 6, the legislative law reforms to the areas of labor, health and public welfare are detailed with the passing of laws like the Workers’ Compensation Act while in chapter 8, reforms to the Wisconsin Legislature are discussed to explain how such sweeping reforms were implemented.
The book as a historical document has numerous strengths with the first being an excellent example of contemporary thought from the Progressive Era. The chronicled legislative history is so tightly intertwined with Progressivism philosophy that one cannot be considered without the other. While philosophical thought can sometimes be difficult to surmise, McCarthy’s use of prose, while very wordy, with close reading can be easily digestible for any scholar engaging with Progressivism thought. The editors put it best when they acknowledged, “some have described McCarthy’s Wisconsin Idea as an exhaustive… campaign brochure.”[2] McCarthy’s text emphasizes his understanding and belief of Progressivism and how it fits within Wisconsin politics, laws, and policies. While The Wisconsin Idea may be exhaustive, it is also most impressive due to McCarthy’s detailed description and heavy use of primary sources within his 1912 edition which has been kept in its entirety by the editors.
Another strength comes from the reprinting and structuring of the text. Taneda and Snowbarger acknowledge that this current edition is based on the 1912 edition and very few changes were made. Their goal with this reprinting was to bring back this book as a historical document and keep the text as Charles McCarthy intended. The only changes made were updating the index page numbers and adding a Notes section for the contemporary reader which proves to be an invaluable tool for referencing people and terms. The editors also noted McCarthy’s usage of Eurocentric or ethnocentric language when he references the “the Germanness of Wisconsin”[3] as well as acknowledged the racism that was an endemic part of the Progressive Era leadership. While the editors recognized these inherent issues and indicated that action within today’s Wisconsin Idea must be taken, I wish that section had been more thoroughly discussed for context for the modern reader. Such an addition, like the Notes section, I believe would only add to the value of this unedited historical document allowing for further critical dissection.
Many pieces of legislation and polices that came out of the Wisconsin Idea in 1911 would go on to be adopted by other states and the federal government. McCarthy’s work was created as a sort of blueprint to address the inquiries of these parties. In today’s current climate where debates are being held once more on issues of monopolies but instead of railroads it is big tech and the overturning of the Chevron Doctrine and the role of the courts in business regulation and public interest, McCarthy’s The Wisconsin Idea reemerging could not be more timely or important. I would recommend this historical document to not only those examining the Progressive Era, but to any scholar investigating current political or economic history. This would also make an outstanding primary source supplementary text for an American History course or library collection.
Karlie Johnson is the History, Anthropology, and Geography Librarian at Jacksonville State University and obtained her Master of Library and Information Science in 2012 from The University of Alabama. She also holds a Master of Arts in History. She has co-authored two book chapters, a peer-reviewed article, and presented widely at international, national, and regional conferences. Karlie is a member of the American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Alabama Library Association. Her research focus is on oral history projects and higher education, library instruction, gamification, mentorship and student motivations.
Works Cited
[1] Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea. (Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Cornerstone Press, 2018), xiii.
[2] Ibid., viii.
[3] Ibid., ix.