During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt established a program that paid writers to write. Much of their work was devoted to guide books for each state and a projected series of guides to big cities. The state books were completed but in many places local officials thwarted the city guides. Those grandpas of the Tea Party were paranoid pinchpennies who feared not only cost but also a hidden liberal agenda.
Sadly, such was the case in Milwaukee. But fortunately, the manuscript survived and has finally been published as Milwaukee in the 1930s: A Federal Writers Project City Guide (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). Edited by John D. Buenker, UW-Parkside professor emeritus of history, Milwaukee in the 1930s is a fascinating portrait of the city circa 1939. So much has changed but a few things remain. Landmarks such as City Hall and the Central Library (which also housed the Milwaukee Public Museum) continue to occupy entire Downtown blocks, the draw bridges still block traffic as boats make their way along the rivers and a network of parks remain along Bay View’s lakeshore (but not the shanty town on Jones Island).
Milwaukee in the 1930s often describes a city in size but a village in temperament. Included are such interesting appendices as a “Calendar of Annual Events,” a sparse roster in the age before lakefront festivals that includes such defunct doings as the Truck Drivers Ball at the Milwaukee Arena (first Saturday of May) and the Walrus Club Ball (second Saturday before Lent). Also listed are phone numbers for the rescue squad (as paramedics were known) and information on mass transit. Fares on buses, trackless trolleys and (yes) streetcars were 10 cents.
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Conservative Counterrevolution: Challenging Liberalism in 1950s Milwaukee (University of Illinois Press), by Tula A. Connell
Milwaukee had Socialist mayors through much of the 20th century until Frank Zeidler stepped down in 1960, but that didn’t mean everyone in town was happy with their progressive agenda. In Conservative Counterrevolution, Tula A. Connell explores the opposition not only to socialism but also to unions, the New Deal and desegregation as a right-wing backlash gathered force in Milwaukee (and suburbs) during the 1950s. Reactionary talk radio already existed on Hearst-owned WISN, right-wingers purchased a chain of suburban newspapers and the Milwaukee Sentinel warned of the Red Menace. Zeidler’s effort to clear slums, strengthen mass transit and run a clean government for the collective wellbeing of Milwaukee was attacked as quasi-Marxist. As Connell mentions in her conclusion, the seeds of Scott Walker were planted decades ago.
Jews in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), by Sheila Terman Cohen
Milwaukee was the primary magnet in Wisconsin for Jews, who began to arrive in large number from Germany in the 1840s. As Madison writer Sheila Terman Cohen points out in her succinct history, the first wave of migrants weren’t fleeing persecution but simply sought opportunities in the New World. Refugees from oppression came soon enough as pogroms swept Eastern Europe. Wisconsin Jews have been diverse, sometimes linked by little else than shared history, and yet have made important contributions to the state’s social, cultural and economic life. Milwaukee may have been the center of Jewish life but Cohen traces Jewish presence across the state. Appleton, after all, was home to a rabbi’s son who became famous as Harry Houdini.
