Q & A with Jonathan Kasparek Wisconsin Historical Society Press:
How did you become interested in the La Follette family in
general and in Phil particularly? Jonathan Kasparek: I started
studying the La Follette family when researching a paper on
isolationism for a diplomatic history seminar. I became
intrigued by Phil and Bob Jr. arguing against American
involvement in World War Two between 1939 and 1941. It seemed so
strange that two liberal reformers would be so opposed to
Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy, but it began to make sense
when they wrote about their father, Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La
Follette, Sr. He had opposed World War One in 1917 because he
believed that Americans were being led into a war to protect the
selfish interests of European nations like Great Britain and
France and because he believed that war would jeopardize Woodrow
Wilson's reformist domestic agenda and possibly even democracy
itself. Twenty years later, Phil and Bob were convinced that
their father had been right and that t