Abstract
The eyes of the world were on Madison, Wisconsin during early 2011, as massive protests filled Capitol Square and the surrounding city blocks. While the public rightfully focused on these protests, there was just as much happening behind closed doors, according to longtime Milwaukee Journal Sentinel scribes Jason Stein and Patrick Marley. Stein and Marley detail the events of that fateful winter in Madison in their recent book, More than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.
As the authors make clear, the impetus for these protests was the significant reduction in public sector collective bargaining laws, as proposed by Governor Scott Walker. The content of these battles never is far from the reader’s mind, particularly because Stein and Marley choose to tell the story of Wisconsin through a number of compelling figures who emerged during these events. This choice allows them to depict the passion of all participants in Madison and to demonstrate that this dispute became more than a fight about policy for the state of Wisconsin. Importantly, the fight clearly becomes personal, not only for political figures embroiled in the debates and maneuvering around this bill but also for the thousands of protestors who occupied the capitol rotunda and marched around the capitol building.
Stein and Marley, however, do not focus only on the intense rhetoric between supporters and opponents of the bill. They also paint a picture of internal turmoil for both sides of this debate. This turmoil is evident in both political parties, as various leaders of each party work to shore up political support for their endeavors at a time when those same leaders know that their members are under a great deal of stress to acquiesce to the efforts of the other side. Still, no place in the narrative captures this turmoil better than when the authors describe the decision to pursue a recall against Governor Walker. They convey the concerns raised by Democratic Party leaders about the recall strategy and timing with the recognition that the rise of organizations such as United Wisconsin meant that “this train was leaving whether we [the Democratic Party, labor leaders, and others involved in the political operation] liked it or not” (p. 278).
Despite their efforts to introduce additional voices and share the behind-closed-door decisions and debates that ultimately shaped these events, Stein and Marley do fall prey to the inclination to rely on a few major figures for the bulk of their narrative. This criticism is not meant to quibble with their choices. Rather, it is intended to point out that the events in Madison were driven by a mixture of both major figures and relatively unknown people who used the resources available to them to impact this political debate. While the authors do highlight a select few people and allude to many other lesser-known figures, they focus the vast majority of their attention on those major figures who provided easy, regular access.
This work is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning literature exploring the Wisconsin protests and subsequent recall elections that started in 2011. Unlike authors of previous works, Stein and Marley build on their reporting background to create an in-depth political narrative that not only tells the story of these protests through the major rallies, speeches, and legislative votes but also provides insight into the chaos, clandestine meetings, and back-channel conversations that were also part of these events. What emerges is a much richer narrative that will serve future scholars well.
For labor educators, union leaders, and other scholars, this work is an important contribution to understanding the protests in Wisconsin. Anyone looking for an accessible narrative that provides an overview of the events should be pleased by this work.