Consider these remarks, from a Wisconsin politician: What is it that is swelling the ranks of the dissatisfied? Is it a growing conviction in state after state, that we are fast being dominated by forces that thwart the will of the people and menace representative government? Do you not know people who feel, as perhaps…
History
History, Human Nature
Franklin on Success
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a famous saying, of Benjamin Franklin, that “success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.” It’s very true, and evergreen: one often comes upon new examples of this observation. Human nature has not changed, these intervening centuries, and it likely never will. How telling, that for all our many advances, our supposed…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, History, Nature, University
Natural Plant Communities Talk & Tour at the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve on Saturday, May 26th at 10 AM
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received the following press release that I’m happy to post: Renae Prell-Mitchell, from UW-Whitewater, will lead a ‘Natural Plant Communities Talk & Tour’ at the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve on Saturday, May 26th at 10 AM. Renae will talk about the existing wetlands, DOT prairie and Silver maples/bur oak stand, as well as the…
History, University, Wisconsin
On This Day in Wisconsin History: University of Wisconsin Opens
by JOHN ADAMS •
Happy Birthday: 1849 – University of Wisconsin opens On this day in 1849 the University of Wisconsin began with 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. The first class was organized as a preparatory school in the first department of the University: a department of science, literature, and the arts. The university was initially…
History, Wisconsin
When a woman calmed enraged, potential draftees with crackers, refreshments
by JOHN ADAMS •
History, Recall, Wisconsin
History of Recall Elections in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
History, Wisconsin
A Wisconsin archeological blunder from 1878
by JOHN ADAMS •
When white settlers arrived in Wisconsin, they were intrigued by the ancient mounds that dotted the landscape. This sparked excitement about archaeology generally, and during the late 19th century the discovery of new “antiquities” fueled speculation about the state’s ancient past. It also led to one memorable blunder in 1878 concerning a find at Hartford, in Washington Co.…
History, Holiday
The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving Lesson
by JOHN ADAMS •
A change in rights offered a path from starvation to dependable sustenance: Faced with potential starvation in the spring of 1623, the colony decided to implement a new economic system. Every family was assigned a private parcel of land. They could then keep all they grew for themselves, but now they alone were responsible for…
History, Politics
Bob Strauss on Jimmy Carter
by JOHN ADAMS •
Not long after Jimmy Carter was elected, things began to go sour for his administration. Just about everything, including opposition from both Republicans and sometimes even the Democratic majority in Congress, bedeviled him. Carter called longtime Democratic politician Bob Strauss into the Oval Office, after the Bert Lance scandal broke. Carter found the change in…