Archival Resources in Wisconsin: Descriptive Finding Aids: Bibliography

The La Follette Papers held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin constitute only a portion of the papers relating to La Follette's life and work. In 1970 the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress opened their large collection of La Follette Family Papers for research. These papers date from the 1850s to 1967, and include, in addition to La Follette's own papers, those of Belle Case La Follette, Fola La Follette and George Middleton, Robert M. La Follette Jr., and La Follette's law partners, Alfred T. Rogers and Gilbert E. Roe. La Follette's official correspondence after 1910, all of the La Follette family's personal correspondence, and the political correspondence dealing with La Follette's Washington years previous to 1910 are contained in the collection at the Library of Congress.

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin also holds numerous collections relating to the political and social history of the La Follette era in the state's history:

Babcock, Joseph W.
Bancroft, Levi H.
Barton, Albert O.
Birge, Edward A.
Blaine, John J.
Bryant, George E.
Commons, John R.
Connor, William D.
Cooper, Henry A.
Davidson, James O.
Ekern, Herman
Ely, Richard T.
Esch, John J.
Frear, James A.
Gale, Zona
Gross, Edwin J.
Hall, Albert R.
Hannan, John J.
Haugen, Nils P.
Husting, Paul O.
Johnson, Henry
Keyes, Elisha W.
Kronshage, Theodore
La Follette, Philip F.
McCarthy, Charles
McGovern, Francis E.
Meyer, Balthasar H.
Payne, Henry C.
Philipp, Emanuel L.
Quarles, Joseph V.
Reinsch, Paul S.
Roe, Gwyneth K.
Ross, Edward A.
Stone, James A.
Stout, Charles F.
Strange, John
Van Hise, Charles R.
Whitehead, John M.

Further information on the above collections may be obtained from Archives Reference, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.

Secondary Sources

Historians differ greatly in their interpretations of La Follette's contributions to progressive reform in Wisconsin. For example, Russel B. Nye in Midwestern Progressive Politics: A Historical Study of its Origins and Development, 1870-1950 depicts La Follette as a Jeffersonian democrat. He suggests that La Follette relied upon traditional American beliefs and values, and that La Follette's reform efforts were not meant as a radical attack upon democracy and capitalism but as an effort to save the system from its own weaknesses. Other historians agree upon La Follette's essential agrarianism, but they interpret him in the radical, Populist tradition. Still other historians, such as Charles A. Madison in “Robert M. La Follette: Prophet of the New Deal,” in the Chicago Jewish Forum, find La Follette's advocacy of scientific investigation of social problems, co-operation between state and university, and the commission form of government to be a harbinger of the New Deal.

More recently a new group of historians has questioned La Follette's membership in the pantheon of Progressive heroes. Paramount among these young historians are David P. Thelen, The Early Life of Robert M. La Follette, 1855-1884, and Stanley P. Caine, The Myth of a Progressive Reform: Railroad Regulation in Wisconsin, 1903-1910. They charge that Robert S. Maxwell's La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives in Wisconsin, A.O. Barton's La Follette's Winning of Wisconsin (1894-1904), and Belle Case La Follette and Fola La Follette's Robert M. La Follette, June 14, 1855-June 18, 1925 are overly laudatory and incorrect in portraying La Follette as a lifelong opponent of special privilege. In his examination of La Follette's first thirty years, Thelen finds no predisposition toward radicalism. Furthermore, in Caine's view, La Follette was a politician driven more by expediency than by principle in his adoption of the railroad regulatory movement actually begun by Albert R. Hall.

Perhaps, however, these critics point to the need for a full reassessment of La Follette's contributions. In essence their books are more critical of La Follette's biographers than of the man himself. Indeed, their criticisms and evaluations are ones which La Follette made about himself in La Follette's Autobiography in 1912. Journalist Lincoln Steffens noted these same things following his visit to Wisconsin in 1904. He recorded that La Follette was no radical at the time of his confrontation with “Boss” Elisha W. Keyes in 1880, and that until 1891 La Follette remained unaware of the corruption within the government. He agreed that La Follette was an ambitious politician and that many of the ideas of “La Folletteism” were borrowed from A.R. Hall. Yet such an evaluation did not stop Steffens from becoming a great admirer of La Follette.

Steffens' judgment was echoed in William B. Hesseltine's moderate reassessment, “Robert M. La Follette and the Principles of Americanism,” in the Wisconsin Magazine of History. In La Follette's evolution from regular Republican to political reformer, Hesseltine saw an unusual capacity for intellectual and moral growth. Aroused by his experiences to the hard facts of political and economic life and driven by ambition, La Follette grew in reforming zeal and sought to adjust democratic processes to the modern world.

Acrea, Kenneth. “The Wisconsin Reform Coalition, 1892-1900.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 52, No. 2, Winter 1968-1969.
Barton, Albert 0. La Follette's Winning of Wisconsin (1849-1904). Madison, 1922.
Brandes, Stuart. “Nils Haugen and the Wisconsin Progressive Machine.” Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1965.
Burton, William L. “The First Wisconsin Railroad Commission: Reform or Political Expediency?” Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1952.
Caine, Stanley P. The Myth of a Progressive Reform: Railroad Regulation in Wisconsin, 1903-1910. Madison, 1970.
Current, Richard N. Pine Logs and Politics: A Life of Philetus Sawyer, 1816-1900. Madison, 1950.
Doan, Edward N. The La Follettes and the Wisconsin Idea. New York, 1947.
Fowler, Dorothy G. John Coit Spooner, Defender of Presidents. New York, 1961.
Frear, James A. Forty Years of Progressive Public Service. Washington, D.C., 1937.
Ganfield, Dorothy F. “The Influence of Wisconsin on Federal Politics, 1880-1907.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 16, No. 1, September 1932.
Griffith, Robert. “Prelude to Insurgency: Irvine L. Lenroot and the Republican Primary of 1908.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 49, No. 1, Autumn 1965.
Haines, William M. “Fifty Years of Civil Service: An Informal Review of the Origins and Development of Wisconsin's Civil Service.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 39, No. 1, Autumn 1955.
Hantke, Richard W. “The Life of Elisha William Keyes.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1942.
Haugen, Nils P. “Pioneer and Political Reminiscences.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 11, No. 2-4; Vol. 12, No. 1-4; Vol. 13, No. 2; 1928-1929.
Helgeson, Arlan, “The Wisconsin Treasury Cases.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 35, No. 2, Winter 1951.
Hesseltine, William B. “Robert M. La Follette and the Principles of Americanism.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 31, No. 3, March 1948.
Kennedy, Padraic M. “La Follette's Imperialist Flirtation.” Pacific-Historical Review. Vol. 39, 1960.
Kennedy, Padraic M. “Lenroot, La Follette, and the Campaign of 1906.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 42, No. 3, Spring 1959.
La Follette, Belle Case, and Fola La Follette. Robert M. La Follette, June 14, 1855-June 18, 1925. New York, 1953.
La Follette, Robert M. La Follette's Autobiography. Madison, 1960.
Lehman, Carroll P. “Robert La Follette as Public Speaker and Political Leader, 1855-1905.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1939.
Lovejoy, Allen F. La Follette and the Establishment of the Direct Primary in Wisconsin, 1890-1904. New Haven, 1941.
Madison, Charles A. “Robert M. La Follette: Prophet of the New Deal.” Chicago Jewish Forum. Vol. 10, Winter 1951-1952.
Margulies, Herbert F. The Decline of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1920. Madison, 1968.
Maxwell, Robert S. “La Follette and the Election of 1900: A Half Century of Reappraisal.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 35, No. 1, Autumn 1951.
Maxwell, Robert S. La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives in Wisconsin. Madison, 1956.
Nye, Russel B. Midwestern Progressive Politics: A Historical Study of its Origins and Development, 1870-1950. East Lansing, 1951.
Ogg, Frederic A. “Robert M. La Follette in Retrospect.” Current History. Vol. 33, February 1931.
Roe, Gwyneth K. “Two Views of the La Follette's.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 42, No. 2, Winter 1958-1959.
Sandford, Harold E. “The Political Liberalism of Robert La Follette.” Doctoral dissertation, Boston College, 1938.
Sayre, Wallace S. “Robert La Follette: A Study in Political Methods.” Doctoral dissertation, Boston College, 1938.
Steffens, Lincoln. “Enemies of the Republic: Wisconsin, A State Where the People Have Restored Representative Government--The Story of Governor La Follette.” McClure's Magazine, Vol. 23, October, 1904.
Thelen, David P. The Early Life of Robert M. La Follette, 1855-1884. Chicago, 1966.
Torelle, Ellen (compiler). The Political Philosophy of Robert M. La Follette. Madison, 1920.
Twombly, Robert. “Reformer as Politician: La Follette in the Election of 1900.” Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1964.
Ulrich, Robert J. “The Bennett Law of 1889.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1956.
Weibull, Jorgan. “The Wisconsin Progressives, 1900-1914.” Mid-America. Vol. 47, No. 3, July 1965.
Wyman, Roger E. “Wisconsin Ethnic Groups and the Election of 1890.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 51, No. 4, Summer 1968.