UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #137
ROWEN, JAMES E.

ROWEN, James E. (1945- )
Undergraduate and Graduate Student, English
At UW: 1963-1969

Interviewed: 1978	
Interviewer: Laura Smail
Indexed (time code) by: Leah Kolb
Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Background; Reasons for coming to UW; Political beliefs in 1963; Influential teachers; Wisconsin Draft Resisters Union; "We Won't Go" statement in Daily Cardinal, 1967; SDS and its members; Mother Jones, TAA, Mifflin Street Co-op and Connections; Sexual revolution; Research on regents; UW financial structure; Cardinal articles; Democratization of Cardinal; Research on Mathematics Research Center; Spying on campus; Accuracy of facts.

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:01	Interviewer’s introduction. Origins and reasons for coming to UW.

00:02:39	Fields of study: political science and English.

00:03:22	His politics as of 1963.

00:05:00	Influential teachers--William A. Williams, Harvey Goldberg, Kenneth Dolbeare.

00:10:14	Not involved in anti-war organizations until senior year.  Did join in civil rights and anti-war demonstrations.

00:12:04	Wisconsin Draft Resisters Union.  Reasons for joining.  Dan Swinney.

00:13:48	Already opposed to Vietnam war in 1963.  Anecdote about September 1963.

00:16:31	The "We Won't Go" statement in the Cardinal, 1967.  Uncertainty of consequences.  Impact.

00:18:30	Susan McGovern (JR's wife) signed it.  Women's role in draft resistance.

00:19:39	More on WDRU.

00:20:58	Susan gave up a Vilas fellowship, left school to do anti-war work.  Many others did also.

00:21:40	Hank Haslach.  Dan Swinney.

00:23:02	Reasons for Joining SDS in 1969.

00:28:05	People in SDS--Bill and Michael Kaplan, Alan Hunter.

00:31:30	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:35	David Siff.

00:36:04	Numbers in SDS in late '60s.

00:36:40	Origins of Mother Jones.  An anecdote.  JR's opinion of it.

00:47:47	Three Demands as initiated by SDS.

00:49:46	Role of police brutality in creating protest.  JR's view of using this as tactic.

00:53:45	Explosion of alternative action organizations and attitudes in late '60s, catalyzed by Vietnam war--TAA, Mifflin Street Coop, Connections, etc.  Sexual revolution.

00:59:40	Question on sexism among leftists.  Reasons for it.  Women in SDS.

01:02:45	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 1

00:00:02	How JR got involved in Cardinal.

00:02:07	Rena Steinzor, editor-in-chief. Joke that all leftists are not bureaucrats. JR's research on regents, financial structure of University.  Reasons for doing it.  Working full-time for Cardinal.  

00:06:45	Series on regents printed in March 1969.  Impact of the articles.

00:07:11	Full-time work at Cardinal. JR's great power over Cardinal staff.  Reasons.  How he used it. Working with Steinzor.

00:13:45	Anecdote about discrepancy between how he viewed himself and how others viewed him.  Reputation for intimidation.  The consequence of living in a state of constant rage--at the war, at Johnson, at Nixon.  Arrogant, unforgiving.  Took it out on family and friends.  True of many people.

00:17:54	The debate on moving the anti-war movement into the community.  Failure to see community view of campus radicals.

00:18:44	Composition and radicalization of the Cardinal.  Stephen Reiner, editor-in-chief, 1968-69.  Staff voted him out and voted Rena Steinzor in.  Confrontation with Board of Control.  Confrontation was over gifts to Broom Street Theater and Black Panthers.

00:23:06	By 1969 everyone on Cardinal staff was in SDS or an SDS sympathizer, or at least anti-war.

00:24:00	Siff's influence.

00:24:43	Cardinal’s support for anti-war movement and Three Demands. Joel Brenner, editor in 1967-68.  Description of him and of contrast when staff began running Cardinal.

00:28:22	How JR did the research for his articles.

00:31:48	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

00:31:52	Further on research for AMRC articles.

00:32:38	Articles about spying on campus.

00:33:58	Discussion of accuracy of facts.

00:39:19	 End of interview.

END