What's wrong with Madison's left

Alarmed at "our culture's ignorance of our own history," Isthmus editor Marc Eisen recommends a new essay collection, History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin, 1950-1970, edited by Paul Buhle, to anyone interested in understanding the city's political character. He highlights the closing contribution from famed historian William Appleman Williams, which challenges the "intellectual and cultural arrogance" of Madison's activists - "that is, the belief that the inherent superiority of their own values should translate into zero tolerance for anyone begging to disagree." Williams cut against this grain, writing that it was "essential for radicals to sustain a tough, honest and thoughtful dialogue with first-rate conservatives. The failure to do so is one of the grave weaknesses of the New Left, politically as well as intellectually."