Until a couple of months ago, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was - at least outside his home state - mostly an unknown quantity.

But when he came to Washington on Thursday to testify about cutting and spending at the House Oversight Committee in Washington, he was a star witness. Fellow Republicans hailed him as a courageous visionary, a steady hand making tough choices in the face of fiscal calamity.

The demonstrators who stalked his every move called him other things.

Two months ago, Governor Walker achieved poster boy status - as either demon or saviour - when he introduced a budget repair bill that would strip public sector workers of almost all their union rights. The governor knew he would have a fight on his hands. He was ready for it. And he was right about the fight.

The uproar was immediate, headline-making and massive. And nowhere more so than in Madison, which happens to be the place where producer Ira Basen studied American history a few decades ago.

In Wisconsin, history matters.

And in 2011, this fight in Wisconsin matters.

There is a lot at stake.

Ira Basen went back to his old stomping grounds to find out what and why. Here's his documentary, Battleground Wisconsin.