The history of the sixties at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is both typical of other large universities in the United States and, at the same time, distinctive within the national and even international upheaval that marked the era. Madison's history shows how higher education transformed in the decades after World War II, influenced…

Analysts frequently credit prominent politicians with the avant-garde direction taken by the state government, though a powerful force in Wisconsin was the often overlooked Legislative Reference Library, brain child of the historian-librarian Charles McCarthy. (JB)