WHEN MILTON FRIEDMAN LEFT WISCONSIN. From Economists at Wisconsin, p. 120, an excerpt of a letter from Milton Friedman to Robert J. Lampman, editor of the book.

I did not at the time regard anti-Semitism as the major factor involved in the affair and I do not now. Unquestionably, the major factor was the controversy between the School of Commerce and the economics department, and the desire by the School of Commerce to take over the economics department.

Also in the book is an excerpt from In and Out of the Ivory Tower by Harold M. Groves, who supported Friedman's appointment, suggesting intrigues.

I had invited Milton Friedman to Wisconsin as a top assistant in a WPA project that was tabulating and interpreting data from Wisconsin income tax returns. ... Friedman was conservative, extremely able, and a gentleman. I had backed him for a permanent appointment in our department and this had been championed by my erstwhile detractor Dean Sellery. The appointment was made (sic) without majority support in the department and later retracted under political pressure and intrigue by [Walter] Morton and Fay Elwell, Dean of the School of Commerce.

Walter Morton disagrees.

During the year Groves asked [Friedman] to make an analysis of our work in statistics. He made it and it was widely circulated. The essence of it was that no student could obtain satisfactory knowledge of statistics as it was now being taught. This meant that Professors [Philip G.] Fox [MA Wisconsin, ABD Columbia, retired 1970] and [Erwin A.] Gaumnitz [Ph.D. Minnesota, still dean of the College of Business in 1971] were doing a poor job. This analysis was highly impolitic because, under our procedures, we could not fire Fox and Gaumnitz from the course without giving them a full hearing. ...

You must remember that Harold Groves always thought he was a great politician. But politically he handled this in a miserable manner. He always regarded me as "bad citizen" because I was usually straightforward and did not take politics into account.

Immediately following the essay on the Milton Friedman Affair is an essay on the falling out between economics and Commerce, which is sobering reading.