Thursday, April 23, 6:15 pm at Dotters Books. Prof. Cory Haala speaks about "When Democrats Won the Heartland: Progressive Populism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1922". Details: https://dottersbooks.com/pages/events.

We're celebrating the release of When Democrats Won the Heartland: Progressive Populism in the Age of Reagan 1978-1992 by Cory Haala, Assistant Professor of History and the Museum Studies Coordinator at UW-Stevens Point. Cory will be in Conversation with Ryan Weichelt, Political Geographer and Chair of the Department of Geography and Anthropology at UW-Eau Claire.

Detailing the parallel and intersecting careers of activists and politicians--local, state, and national--amid the Farm Crisis and deindustrialization of the 1980s, When Democrats Won the Heartland details a uniquely Midwestern strain of "progressive populism," a community-oriented, farmer-labor approach to politics that used public events like labor rallies, tractorcades, sit-ins, and religious services to call attention to Wisconsinites' shared economic plight across rural-urban, gendered, and racial lines. These ordinary folks won victories like farm foreclosure moratoria and plant closing laws, elected candidates like Joe Looby to the Assembly and Russ Feingold to the U.S. Senate, and elevated progressive national candidates like Jesse Jackson in the 1988 presidential election.

Books will be available for purchase and the author will take questions and sign books.