Last year, student and teacher published what was described as the first sweeping history of America in the 20th century to take into account Sept. 11, 2001 and its aftermath.

The student -- or, rather, former student -- is Dave Luhrssen and the teacher is UW-Milwaukee history professor Glen Jeansonne, a past Pulitzer Prize nominee. Their book, published by Rowman & Littlefield, is called "A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890."

The book was published in hardcover in March 2006 and is now out in two paperback volumes (1890-1945 was published in October and 1945-present has just arrived) via Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Both paperbacks include new material.

"Glen was on my thesis committee when I was in graduate school and we stayed in touch," says Luhrssen of how the partnership developed. "When he conceived 'Time of Paradox,' he wanted it to reflect the full spectrum of American life in the 20th century -- not just politics and economics, as in many old-fashioned histories, but cultural life as well."

And that's what the book does. In their focus on the people and events that shaped America and the American psyche in the 1900s, Jeansonne and Luhrssen have left no stone unturned, including everyone from General Electric co-founder Samuel Insull to pop stars like Madonna.

And the pair have ensured that the book is up to date, including information not only on 9-11, but also the 2004 elections, the War on Terror and the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

"I think the partnership worked because, despite our very different backgrounds, Glen and I both appreciate the human factor of history," Luhrssen says.

"The world we live in was not simply shaped by impersonal forces, as many communists and capitalists believe, but by actual people who made decisions and choices based on the options and information they had at the time. I'd like to think that 'A Time of Paradox' will bring the recent past alive for readers, and give them an idea of how the world we live in came to be what it is today."

This shared approach to the spirit and the method of history is what led to the collaboration, says Luhrssen, who started the Express as a punk fanzine in 1970s Milwaukee and has been a music and film writer here ever since. He is perhaps the writer who has most documented local music over the past 30 years.

"He initially commissioned me to write the chapters on American culture post-1945, including quick looks at all developments in music, movies, literature and theater," Luhrssen recalls. "The challenge of course was what to leave out.

"I only had so many pages to describe the birth and development of rock 'n' roll, for instance. As the project evolved I ended up writing some small sections of the earlier part of the book. I copy edited the whole thing, chose photos, wrote captions and chapter titles and left at least traces of my fingerprints throughout. Likewise, he edited and condensed the chapters I wrote. It was never a matter of sitting down together at the kitchen table and collaborating face-to-face."