Professor Nancy C. Unger is an historian with a special interest in the progressive era in American history and an author of biographies of progressive era reformists Bob and Belle La Follette. Senator Robert La Follette was a third-party candidate at the 1924 US presidential election (100 years ago) for the Progressive Party and Belle La Follette was active on the women’s suffrage circuit.
You can listen to the conversation using the audio player above or access the podcast via iTunes or Spotify (or search for “Wide Open Air Exchange” on your preferred podcast platform).
Below are links to Professor Unger’s books and other sources starting with presidential election analysis.
Presidential election analysis
‘How Wisconsin Became the Ultimate Purple State‘, TIME, October 28, 2024 (Professor Unger’s article for the Made By History platform).
‘How could the return of Trump-era “Schedule F” job appointments reshape the federal workforce?‘, Marketplace, Oct 31, 2024 (an article by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry quoting an interview with Professor Unger on National Public Radio).
Books
A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2017, co-edited with Christopher McKnight Nichols, Wiley-Blackwell.
Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer, 2016, Routledge.
Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History, 2012, Oxford University Press.
Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer, 2000, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.
Talks
Women’s Rights Activist Belle La Follette | C-SPAN.org (video of a talk by Professor Unger, C-SPAN)
The Unexpected Belle LaFollette | YouTube (video of a talk by Professor Unger, PBS Wisconsin University Place)
Fighting Bob La Follette’s Progressivism | PBS (video of a talk by Professor Unger, PBS University Place)
The images of Professor Unger have been used with permission.