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The James P. Danky Fellowship
2011 Danky Fellow: Josh Mound
The winner of the 2011 Danky Fellowship is Josh Mound. Josh is a PhD candidate in the departments of History and Sociology at the University of Michigan. His dissertation – tentatively titled “Inflated Hopes, Taxing Times: The Politics of Economic Crisis in the Long 1970s” – examines the contested economic politics surrounding the intertwined issues of taxes and inflation from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.
Recent “tea party” protesters and candidates have once again put the specter of high taxes and government-stoked inflation back onto the front pages of newspapers. Looking for a historical gloss on the phenomenon, many commentators have pointed to the “tax revolt” of the 1970s as the root of modern conservatism’s hold on tax politics. However, Josh’s research demonstrates that this history is misleading.
By the late 1960s, “squeezed” had become a keyword used by the press to describe both Americans’ psyches and pocketbooks. Polls showed that – even in an era marked by war, assassinations, and civil strife – rising taxes and prices dominated the concerns of all Americans across lines of race, class, and gender. Americans were angry not only at their own economic situations, but at what they saw as the system’s unfairness. As inflation pushed Americans into higher income tax brackets and spiked their property taxes, the era’s press provided a constant drumbeat of stories about millionaires, large corporations, and prominent politicians who escaped taxation altogether. Surveys soon showed that most Americans believed that the tax code was stacked against them, and many began to organize for tax reform and economic assistance at the local and national levels.
These grassroots groups produced publications with names like Tax Back Talk and People & Taxes charting their successes and failures. Now housed in the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society, such publications have provided Josh with an invaluable window into this forgotten movement. They demonstrate that activists with roots in the black freedom struggle, labor unions, consumer organizations, and other left-leaning groups not only pioneered the modern tax protest, but also organized around inflation-related issues like soaring utility and food prices.
With public opinion – and many prominent mainstream supporters – on their side, it seemed to many observers in the early-1970s that the decade’s economic issues would be a boon for the left. Josh’s dissertation seeks to solve the puzzle of how such auspicious beginnings for progressive economic politics at the beginning of the decade eventually culminated in what is now seen as a conservative triumph.
About the Fellowship
In honor of James P. Danky's long service to print culture scholarship, the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Historical Society, is offering an annual short-term research fellowship.
The Danky Fellowship provides $1000 in funds for one individual planning a trip to carry out research using the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society (please see details of the collections at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org). Grant money may be used for travel to the WHS, costs of copying pertinent archival resources, and living expenses while pursuing research here. If in residence during the semester, the recipient will be expected to give a presentation as part of the colloquium series of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture.
Preference will be given to:
- proposals undertaking research in print culture history
- researchers from outside Madison
- research likely to lead to publication
We strongly encourage applicants to speak with the Reference Archivist at the WHS (phone: 608-264-6460; email: askarchives@wisconsinhistory.org) before applying for a grant. We are happy to help identify potential collections of which you may not otherwise be aware.
There is no application form. Applicants must submit:
1) A cover sheet with name, telephone, permanent address and e-mail, current employer/affiliation, title of project, and proposed dates of residency.
2) A letter of two single-spaced pages maximum describing the project and its relation to specifically cited collections at the society and to previous work on the same theme, and describing the projected outcome of the work, including publication plans. If residents of the Madison area are applying, they must explain their financial need for the stipend.
3) Curriculum vitae.
4) Two confidential letters of reference. Graduate students must include their thesis advisor.
Applications are due by May 1st. The recipient will be notified by May 31st.
Please mail applications to:
Christine Pawley Ph.D.
Director, Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture
University of Wisconsin-Madison
4234 Helen C. White Hall
600 N. Park St .
Madison , WI 53706
All donations are tax deductible.
Please visit http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/supportus/ to make a donation to the Danky Fellowship. Leave a message in the Comments box to designate your donation for the Danky Fellowship.
You may also write a check (marked "Danky Fellowship") payable to the Wisconsin Historical Foundation and mail it to: Wisconsin Historical Foundation, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706-1482 (phone: 608-261-9364).
Thank you for your generosity.