BELLE LA FOLLETTE

On August 20, 1931, the New York Times hailed Belle Case La Follette as “probably the least known yet most influential of all the American women who have had to do with public affairs.” A dedicated advocate for women’s suffrage, peace, and other causes, she served as a key advisor to her husband, leading Progressive politician Robert La Follette. She also wielded consider- able influence through her own speeches and journalism, as when she opposed racism by speaking out against the segregation of the federal gov- ernment under President Woodrow Wilson.

In a concise, lively, and engaging narrative, Nancy C. Unger shows how Belle La Follette uniquely contributed to progressive reform, as well as the ways her work was typical of women—and progressives—of her time. Supported by primary documents and a robust companion website, this book intro- duces students of American history to an extraordinary woman and the era of progressive reform.

Nancy C. Unger is Professor of History at Santa Clara University. She is the author of Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers: American Women in Environmen- tal History and Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. ROUTLEDGE HISTORICAL AMERICANS

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Routledge Historical Americans is a series of short, vibrant biographies that illuminate the lives of Americans who have had an impact on the world. Each book includes a brief overview of the person’s life and puts that person into historical context through essential primary documents, written both by the subjects and about them. A series website supports the books, con- taining extra images and documents, links to further research, and where possible, multimedia sources on the subjects. Perfect for including in any course on American History, the books in the Routledge Historical Ameri- cans series show the impact everyday people can have on the course of history.

Woody Guthrie: Writing America’s Songs Ronald D. Cohen Frederick Douglass: Reformer and Statesman L. Diane Barnes Thurgood Marshall: Race, Rights, and the Struggle for a More Perfect Union Charles L. Zelden Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War Nicole L. Anslover John Winthrop: Founding the City upon a Hill Michael Parker John F. Kennedy: The Spirit of Cold War Liberalism Jason K. Duncan Bill Clinton: Building a Bridge to the New Millennium David H. Bennett Ronald Reagan: Champion of Conservative America James H. Broussard Laura Ingalls Wilder: American Writer on the Prairie Sallie Ketcham Benjamin Franklin: American Founder, Atlantic Citizen Nathan R. Kozuskanich Brigham Young: Sovereign in America David Vaughn Mason Mary Lincoln: Southern Girl, Northern Woman Stacy Pratt McDermott Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Civil War Soldier, Supreme Court Justice Susan-Mary Grant Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer Nancy C. Unger Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century Kristen T. Oertel This page intentionally left blank BELLE LA FOLLETTE PROGRESSIVE ERA REFORMER

NANCY C. UNGER

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Unger, Nancy C. Belle La Follette : progressive era reformer / Nancy C. Unger. pages cm. — (Routledge historical Americans) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. La Follette, Belle Case, 1859–1931. 2. Legislators’ spouses—United States— Biography. 3. Suffragists—United States—Biography. 4. Feminists—United States—Biography. 5. La Follette, Robert M. (Robert Marion), 1855–1925. 6. Progressivism (United States politics)—History—20th century. I. Title. E664.L155U54 2015 305.42092—dc23 [B] 2015008160

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6241-959-Finalpass-0FM.indd 6 7/20/2015 8:26:18 PM For my mother Eunice M. Unger This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS

Acknowledgments and a Note on Sources xi

Abbreviations in Notes xiii

Introduction “One of the Nation’s Greatest Women” 1

PART I Belle La Follette 9

Chapter 1 The Making of a Feminist 11

Chapter 2 Seeking Balance: Marriage, Motherhood, and the Challenges of Progressive Womanhood 32

Chapter 3 The Flowering of a Progressive: Journalist and Suffrage Leader 58

Chapter 4 “The Successor to Harriet Beecher Stowe” 88

Chapter 5 Champion of World Peace and Disarmament 116

Chapter 6 Ensuring a Legacy 142

PART II Documents 161 Index 195 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND A NOTE ON SOURCES

Writing this book was a joy. My gratitude knows no bounds for the faith Routledge editor Kimberly Guinta and series editor Paul Finkelman placed in Belle La Follette’s story (and in me). The anonymous readers’ reports they garnered on the original proposal were enormously helpful and encouraging. Paul cast his keen editorial eye on the manuscript and improved it in important ways. My thanks to Santa Clara University for a course release and generous grant that allowed me to revisit the La Follette Family Collection in the Library of Congress in the spring of 2014. The staff at the Library of Congress is superb, and I am especially indebted to Barbara Natanson in the Prints and Photographs Division. I’m also grateful to John Buenker, Naomi Andrews, and Joshua Maricich for their careful reading of this manuscript, and for their thoughtful contributions and enthusiastic support. Christopher McKnight Nichols, despite the press of many other obligations, generously brought his considerable expertise to Chapter Five. My husband Don Whitebread, who’s been forced to live with the La Follettes as unofficial members of our marriage, remains unstinting in his encouragement as well as commentary. Mary Whisner, editor extraor- dinaire, brought her magic as well to every chapter. The History Depart- ment’s office manager Judy Gillette, and student workers Michaela Ahlstrom and Allison Byrne, provided printouts and meticulous transcriptions of scans of the original documents. Gloria Hofer provided brilliant technical assistance. Maggie Stich carried out research, bringing back valuable docu- ments from Wisconsin, and Mary Stieve sent the results of important research as well. At Routledge, Genevieve Aoki expertly shepherded this manuscript throughout the entire process from proposal through publica- tion. Thanks also to my students, especially in my women’s history classes xii • Acknowledgments and a Note on Sources and the Progressive Era seminar, for their interest in the La Follettes and enthusiasm for progressive reform. Words that appear in italics were emphasized in the original. Misspell- ings and typos have been corrected, and punctuation added for the sake of clarity. ABBREVIATIONS IN NOTES

APB Albert Barton Papers BCL Belle Case La Follette FL Fola La Follette LFP La Follette Family Papers, Library of Congress LM La Follette’s Magazine ML Mary La Follette PFL Philip Fox La Follette RLP Robert La Follette Papers RML Robert M. La Follette RML, Jr. Robert M. La Follette, Jr. WHS Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin WW Woodrow Wilson This page intentionally left blank “One of the Nation’s Greatest Women”

introduction “One of the Nation’s Greatest Women”

When Belle Case La Follette died in 1931 at the age of seventy-two, newspa- pers across the nation carried the story on their front page. Many of the tributes featured variations of one paper’s prediction that “Mrs. La Follette will go down in history as one of the nation’s greatest women.” Yet she faded quickly from popular memory. In the twenty-first century, those few who have heard of her are primarily in her home state of Wisconsin, and even they continually mispronounce her name (“Follette” rhymes with “wallet,” and her first name is pronounced “Bell,” not “Bella.”) Although she is rarely recalled, Belle Case La Follette nevertheless remains critical to the Ameri- can experience. She campaigned tirelessly and effectively in support of a variety of causes. She was particularly dedicated to world disarmament and to civil rights for African Americans, and always and most avidly to advanc- ing women’s rights. All three causes, she believed, were inextricably bound together, especially the last two. In her words, “The business of being a woman is, in many ways, like being a member of a despised race.”1 Despite her activism, even scholars of the period of progressive reform to which she contributed so significantly seldom note Belle La Follette. Instead, texts that feature women’s reform achievements at the turn of the twentieth century perpetually highlight Jane Addams, pioneering social worker, author, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. There are a number of possible candidates to chronicle from this period in order to broaden awareness of women’s contributions through their activism: radical Emma Goldman; philanthropist Mary Dreier; labor activists Florence Kelley and Rose Schneiderman; industrial medicine pioneer Alice Hamilton; and civil 2 • Introduction rights activists Ida Wells Barnett and Mary Church Terrell. So why this biography of Belle Case La Follette? Like Addams, La Follette is a particu- larly rich subject who highlights the complexity of the Progressive Era because she contributed significantly to a variety of reforms and move- ments rather than dedicating herself to a single issue. But perhaps more importantly, unlike Addams and most other women reformers of her day and the society that shaped them, she did not believe that a life of activism precluded a woman from marriage and children. As a wife and the mother of four children, La Follette experienced the endless conflicts and pro- found rewards of combining career and family as she struggled to balance her progressive reform activities with domestic obligations. She was one of the rare women of her race and class to consciously take on this double shift. Although many of the struggles she encountered in her efforts to combine work and family were unique to her day and age, some of the most taxing challenges persist, making her efforts all the more instructive in the present day. In addition to illuminating her personal and political failures and achievements, an examination of the life of Belle La Follette reveals the great changes that affected American women as the gender prescriptions (the qualities and behaviors that men and women are told make them “true” men and women) of the early to mid-nineteenth century gave way to the challenges and reforms of the twentieth. La Follette’s shyness and longings for the perceived security of a simple life as a sheltered homemaker con- flicted with her sense of duty to help others no matter the personal or polit- ical cost. She seemed to have a foot in each century and struggled mightily with the strengths and limitations that each had to offer a woman of her position. Despite her frequently expressed desire to avoid the limelight, Belle La Follette was the first woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She was dedicated not just to women’s suffrage (she was a prominent speaker on the suffrage circuit and testified before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage in 1913), but openly advocated feminism—the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Her contemporary, Alice Paul, called La Follette “the most consistent supporter of equal rights of all the women of her time.” A gifted journalist, La Follette wrote hundreds of articles over a period of more than fifty years, primarily for La Follette’s Magazine (published today as The Progressive.) She was hailed as “a pioneer in the establishment of a new sort of women’s page” because she provided “stronger intellectual food” than the usual fare of “Vaseline and cold cream.” “I have written upon the supposition,” she said in describing her Home and Education department of the magazine, “that no subject is too broad, too dignified, too advanced for women readers.”2 Introduction • 3

In 1913 La Follette launched, in the family magazine’s pages, a very pub- lic attack on the Wilson administration’s efforts to racially segregate the streetcars and all government agencies in Washington, D.C., and effectively eliminate African Americans from federal service. She appealed directly to Wilson as she openly criticized his administration’s policies as well as the racist speeches of several senators. The author of a crank letter called her “disgraceful to the white race” for her assertion that “continued violations of fundamental principles of human rights touching a race that constitutes one-tenth of our citizenship must ultimately degrade our standards, cor- rupt our ideals, and destroy our sense of democracy.” For promoting her egalitarian sentiments, grateful African Americans publicly hailed her as the successor to Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the 1852 novel that so compellingly exposed the evil and immorality of slav- ery). Of particular significance is how La Follette incorporated progressive visions of gender and class into her appeals for justice. For example, she appealed specifically to her female peers in the nation’s capital to actively oppose racial segregation, reminding them that they were “not supposed to belong to the butterfly and parasitic class,” but “should represent the earnest, intelligent womanhood of the nation.” Until her death, the family magazine carried her articles decrying segregation and lynching while promoting racial equality and cooperation.3 La Follette’s final two decades were marked by her dedication to interna- tional peace. She was a cofounder of the Woman’s Peace Party (WPP), a forerunner of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom still active today. Her speeches on behalf of the WPP as well as her pub- lished response to former President Theodore Roosevelt’s claim that the WPP was “silly and base” reveal much about the controversies surrounding the entry of the United States into World War I, as well as the larger debates about what constitutes patriotism and how best to settle international dif- ferences. La Follette protested not only war itself, but also the draft, and even the misleading nature of armed services’ recruiting posters. In the aftermath of the war, La Follette shared her views about the Ver- sailles treaty and the future of the world order, and served as an executive of the Women’s Committee for World Disarmament. Her insistence that women make their voices heard in the promotion of peace contributed directly to the 1921–1922 Washington Naval Conference, which resulted in three major international treaties. In 1923 she toured England, Germany, the Soviet Union, Poland, Austria, Denmark, and France. With her husband, she met with government leaders (including Benito Mussolini and Gustav Stresemann, Germany’s new prime minister) and reported her political and material findings in La Follette’s Magazine. She did not unquestionably accept American exceptionalism, noting, for example, the fact that the 4 • Introduction

Soviets had quickly embraced gender equity as well as the kinds of labor reforms that the National Consumers League (led by Florence Kelley) con- tinued to demand, without success, in the United States. For all of her achievements, even her contemporaries recognized that La Follette was not as well known as many considerably less accomplished female reformers. The New York Times, for example, hailed Belle Case La Follette as “perhaps the least known, yet the most influential of all American women who have had to do with public affairs in this country.” TheTimes accounted for this unusual combination by declaring that “her personality along with her work was merged in the fame of her menfolk.”4 Belle La Follette was called “my wisest and best counselor” by her hus- band, progressive reform giant Robert M. La Follette. He openly deferred to her judgment throughout his storied professional life: as a district attorney, three-term congressman (1885–1891), lawyer (1891–1900), three-term governor of Wisconsin (1900–1906), and, most significantly, during his nineteen years in the U.S. Senate (1906–1925). According to their son-in- law, playwright George Middleton, “Except John Adams with his Abigail, no man in public life was to have so equal a mate.” And like Abigail Adams, Belle La Follette was wife to one powerful politician and mother to another. After her husband’s death in 1925, Belle La Follette refused the Senate seat that was hers for the asking, insisting that it go to her older son. She served as Robert La Follette, Jr.’s, most trusted advisor. By the time of her death, her political guidance was also key to the second La Follette son, Philip, who was serving the first of three terms as Wisconsin governor.5 It should not be surprising, then, that in accordance with the gender standards of her day, this woman should be primarily identified by her rela- tionships with her “menfolk.” The contemporary press helped to cement and perpetuate her primary identity as helpmate, “the little woman behind the big man.” The Philadelphia Inquirer summed up her life as “a reminder of the powerful influence which is often exerted by the comparatively unknown wives of famous men.” The Portland, Maine,News declared that, “she gave up her own promising career to devote her abilities to that of her husband,” and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle hailed her for being “thoroughly a woman in attaching herself to the fortunes of her family—husband and sons alike.” In tributes and commemorations, newspapers across the nation praised her for her selflessness, her willingness to remain in the background, out of the public eye, her lack of personal ambition, her contentment in eschewing a career for herself in favor of carrying out a higher calling—that of wife and mother. “She had a masculine mind,” one backhanded accolade conceded, but quickly praised her for being “essentially feminine, maternal.” Another tribute concluded, “Hers is an interesting career for those women who, of necessity, must remain in the background.” Introduction • 5

Famed journalist and family friend Lincoln Steffens called La Follette “a great woman, great as great men are great,” and recognized that “she too was a statesman, politician.” Even he, however, painted her as a self-sacrificing woman who consciously surrendered her own ambitions: “She wanted to fly; she inspired flight and she bore fliers, but she herself—Belle La Follette—walked all her life on the ground to keep the course for her fliers. That was her woman’s victory; that was a woman’s tragedy, too.” Steffens concluded that “she could act, but she was content to beget action and actors. She played, herself, the woman’s part: she sat in the gallery in the Congress or at home with the children and the advisors. She could but she did not often make the speeches or do the deeds.” Although it was likely this image that contributed to her fading from history, particularly more modern women’s history, the facts reveal a far more complicated and independent Belle Case La Follette. I missed many of these aspects of La Follette in my own earlier research. Although I ­dedicated a chapter to her in my biography of her husband Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer, gave talks and interviews about her, and published a journal article, an essay, and a Web project all devoted exclusively to her, it wasn’t until I was conducting the research for this book that I realized that I too had been taken in by her devaluation. I finally see that when Steffens wrote to her in 1929, “In history you will stand behind the scenes,” it was a statement that laid the groundwork for a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy. Repeated tributes and memorials to La Follette that did not take into account her fierce drives and desires ultimately culminated in false or at least insufficiently vibrant portraits.6 While assessments like Steffens’s have prevailed, other tributes to Belle La Follette, both during her lifetime and at the time of her death, stress the considerable strength and power she exhibited in pursuing her social and political goals. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “As a wife and mother of public men, Mrs. Belle La Follette achieved a place all the more notable because the feminist doctrine she promoted in her writings reflected the more advanced idea that women should take their own places in public life rather than fill the old-fashioned role of the power behind the throne.” The Washington, D.C., Daily News emphasized that she was “a person of importance in her own right,” and the Philadelphia Record asserted that “she had a brilliant mind and a political power all her own.” Other papers hailed her as “a born politician,” noting that her influence was often extended directly, not filtered through her husband or sons: “She took an active part in many political battles,” “was one of the originators and an active leader in the Progressive party,” “was active in woman suffrage and in peace and dis- armament movements,” was “an accomplished public speaker,” and “a cul- tured and interesting writer . . . [who] wrote much for magazines and other 6 • Introduction periodicals on behalf of women in politics and for the Progressive move- ment.” “She gave some of the very best years of her life to suffrage,” notes one admirer, but “she did not stop there. The use of the vote interested her. She took her place as leader, as advisor in new and progressive movements. She seemed always at work on the frontiers of thinking for men and women, as one who follows a vision of a better world.” Moreover, noted one congress- man, she “had a quiet way of enlisting support for the many activities with which she was connected, and these covered practically every phase of political problems where the men and women of the country were pro- foundly concerned.” In other words, although the helpmate-behind-the-scenes assessment came to dominate the historical record, in reality Belle La Follette exhibited considerable leadership when it came to the political agenda she valued. Although she and her husband worked together to promote the many pro- gressive goals they shared, she was far from being only an assistant. She held no elected office and could not even cast a ballot until she was sixty-one years old, yet she wielded tremendous influence as a popular journalist and public speaker, activities she took on not only out of idealism, but because her family needed money. Far more ambitious in her promotion of woman suffrage and racial equality than was her husband, she used her pen and her voice to pursue what she believed was right. Although both La Follettes opposed American entry into World War I, only she identified as being ardently devoted to pacifism, an ideal that she promoted in speech after speech for peace and disarmament. Belle La Follette was, noted Jane Add- ams, “always ready to stand by unpopular causes,” as when she was “shoved by a policeman and told to move on” during the Chicago garment workers’ strike in 1909. All those who joined Lincoln Steffens in identifying her pri- marily as what he called “The Victorious Mother,” did her a grave disservice. She did, in truth, make the speeches and do the deeds, and the nation improved because she did.7 As confusing and contradictory as the accounts of others concerning Belle La Follette’s life and legacy are some of the revelations that she herself provided. When she was fifty-eight, she confided in her daughter Mary that, despite all her experience, she remained uncomfortable with public life. She noted repeatedly in the family magazine her dread of being away from home, “the thought of which has been suggestive to me of an uprooted tree,” yet she continued to accept, and sometimes actively seek, public speaking opportunities in distant places, including those that brought con- troversy and criticism but no monetary compensation. There were many enormous gaps between what Belle La Follette preached and what she practiced, especially concerning her vaunted role as wife and mother. She wrote frequently on the sacred nature of motherhood and the necessity of Introduction • 7 family togetherness, yet despite her children’s bitter complaints, she left them in Wisconsin for long periods more than once while she helped her husband in Washington or campaigned for her own causes. Later, in her widely syndicated column she lectured parents on the need to respect the independence of children (“we should discipline ourselves to hold our hands off and leave them as much as we can, to think and act and do for themselves”). She, however, meddled repeatedly in the lives of her adult children. For example, she was so invested in her desire to see her oldest son succeed in college that she met with each of his professors, providing them with self-addressed postcards on which they were instructed to report to her on his progress. She wrote extensively and earnestly of the damaging impact of stilted Victorian values on health and happiness, and celebrated less artificial, more natural ways of living. Especially did she emphasize the need for work to be balanced by recreation, but as her daughter Fola noted, “You and Dad both preach the gospel of rest and relaxation and playing as you go along, but Lordy you both do hate to take even a small dose of your own prescription.”8 Throughout her adult life Belle La Follette championed the abilities of women and was particularly insistent that they share political power equally with men. A contradiction that puzzled and disappointed many women was her refusal to take her husband’s Senate seat after his death in 1925. Virtu- ally guaranteed that she would become the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, La Follette declared herself “deeply mindful of the importance of women sharing the responsibilities of high office and of having a direct voice in shaping the government of the people.” Nevertheless, she refused this unprecedented opportunity to advance women’s political power and visibility. A shrewd politician, she sacrificed a temporary and largely sym- bolic gain for women for the promise of continuing indefinitely the family’s leadership in the progressive cause. She dedicated the remainder of her life not only to supporting her elder son as his father’s successor—but also to writing a “true and complete” biography of her late husband as well as to the continuance of La Follette’s Magazine, which she rescued from financial cri- sis in 1928 by a direct appeal to its readers, further ensuring the family’s legacy. This is not a comprehensive biography that always proceeds chronologi- cally. Rather than detailing all aspects and periods of La Follette’s life, the chapters focus instead on either key characteristics or signature campaigns that made her an historical American. Therefore, a single chapter may cover a number of time periods, and there is some overlap between certain chap- ters. That is, although her campaigns for women’s suffrage, civil rights for African Americans, and peace each merit a separate chapter, she did not carry out that work sequentially, but frequently divided her time between 8 • Introduction the intersecting movements in order to contribute to all three. Belle Case La Follette was a marvelously complex woman, deeply dedicated to the welfare of both her family and her nation. The life of this progressive reformer reveals the tensions that emerge when people strive to challenge prevailing standards and values, and expand traditional spheres of influence—and the good that can result.

NOTES 1 All quotations commemorating Belle La Follette’s life are taken from the memorial issue of The Progressive 2, no. 49, 7 Nov. 1931; Belle Case La Follette (BCL), “The Business of Being a Wom a n ,” La Follette’s Magazine (LM) 4, no. 35, 31 Aug. 1912, 11. 2 Dee Ann Montgomery, “An Intellectual Profile of Belle La Follette: Progressive Editor, Politi- cal Strategist, and Feminist,” (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1975), 225; Selene Armstrong Harmon, “A New Sort of Women’s Page,” Cincinnati Enquirer, reprinted in LM 6, no. 24, 13 June 1914, 6. 3 BCL, “Color Line to Date,” LM 6, no. 4, 24 Jan. 1914, 7; BCL, “In Washington,” LM 5, no. 51, 20 Dec. 1913, 6. 4 “Wisconsin’s Matriarch,” New York Times, 20 Aug. 1931, 15. 5 George Middleton, These Things Are Mine (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 96. 6 Lincoln Steffens to BCL, 12 Feb. 1929, La Follette Family Papers (LFP), Library of Congress, D-21. 7 The Jane Addams quote is from he memorial issue of The Progressive 2, no. 49, 7 Nov. 1931; the Chicago garment workers strike quote is from BCL, “Impression of the Garment Workers Strike,” LM 2, no. 45, 12 Nov. 1910, 11. 8 BCL, “On the Way to Panama,” LM 6, no. 19, 9 May 1914, 6; BCL, “Apron Strings: A Substitute,” Thought for Today, 1911, LFP, D-38; Fola La Follette (FL) to BCL, 16 Aug. 1919, LFP, A-25.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING Freeman, Lucy, Sherry La Follette, and George Zabriskie. Belle: A Biography of Belle Case La Follette. New York: Beaufort, 1986. Henningsen, Kate. “A History of Her Own: The Transformation of Belle Case La Follette, 1859–1914.” Senior honors thesis, Georgetown University, 2004. Montgomery, Dee Ann. “An Intellectual Profile of Belle Case La Follette: Progressive Editor, Politi- cal Strategist, and Feminist.” Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1975. Riley, Jocelyn. Belle Case La Follette, 1859–1931. Videotape and brochure. Madison, WI: Her Own Words, 1987. Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 2nd ed. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2008. —. “The Two Worlds of Belle Case La Follette.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 83, no. 2 (Winter 1999–2000): 82–110. —. “ ‘When Women Condemn the Whole Race’: Belle Case La Follette Attacks the Color Line.” In Women in Print, edited by James P. Danky and Wayne Wiegand, 281–296. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. Weisberger, Bernard. The La Follettes of Wisconsin: Love and Politics in Progressive America. Madi- son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. —. “Changes and Choices: Two and a Half Generations of La Follette Women.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 76, no. 4 (1993): 248–70.