Uprising ─ How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street

The protest movement that captivated the nation and paved the path for Occupy Wall Street. More than 100,000 public employees, teachers, students, and their allies descended on the capital in Madison, Wisconsin after Governor Scott Walker announced his plan to eliminate the right of public sector employees to unionize. The struggle (and the Democratic caucus’ escape to Indiana in order to prevent a quorum from being reached) elicited extensive national media coverage and debate?as well as enormous grassroots support for protestors. Uprising provides an anatomy of the event and its implications for the political future of the nation. As state legislatures across the US (in Ohio and New Hampshire, to name a few) take up union busting measures, Nichols shows how the Wisconsin case is a blueprint for progressives around America who’ve had enough. He also explores how Wisconsin protesters organized and inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement.

John Nichols is The Nation’s Washington correspondent and the Associate Editor of The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. He has covered seven presidential races and reported from two-dozen countries. The author or coauthor of eight books on media and politics Nichols delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens and addressed the 2009 Global Forum on Freedom of Expression in Oslo. He lives in Madison, WI and Washington DC.