'Brewtown Tales: More Stories from Milwaukee and Beyond' by John Gurda
“I didn’t realize how bad it was until I went up North,” John Gurda wrote. Milwaukee’s favorite historian ventured beyond the county and found that Trump lawn signs in northern Wisconsin “seemed as thick as the pine trees.” Rather than outrage, he stepped back and reflected on polarization with his usual thoughtfulness in one of his Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columns collected in the new anthology, Brewtown Tales.
Gurda has done more than anyone to awaken interest in Milwaukee’s past, the big picture as well as the unique neighborhoods, the small pockets of interest. He paints with warm nostalgia the old Polish South Side with its crowded corner bars and looks back with balanced perspective on the upheavals of his formative years, the 1960s. True to the Beyond of the subtitle, Brewtown Tales visits many places throughout the Dairy State; among other things, Gurda honors the prominent roles Wisconsinites played in environmental awareness. The Hoan Bridge is a Milwaukee landmark, but Gurda ventured out to Eagle River to take in the cottage once owned by Milwaukee Mayor Daniel Hoan.
The natural landscape hasn’t escaped Gurda, either. His “Saner Outside” column will be a gentle reminder of the solace many of us found during the COVID lockdown, simply walking the streets, breathing the fresh air.
Gurda will talk about his book Dec.11 at the Milwaukee County Historical Society and Dec. 17 at Boswell Books.
