Michael Munk was born in Prague in 1934. He graduated from Reed College and the University of Oregon, and received a Ph.D. in politics from New York University in 1974. Munk taught political science for twenty-five years at SUNY, Roosevelt, and Rutgers University. Since then, he has researched local political history and has been published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, and Science & Society. His column, "Our Radical Past," was a monthly feature in the Portland Alliance for several years. Most recently, his article "John Reed: Political Provocateur" appeared in Portland Monthly, and "McCarthyism Laid to Rest?" was published in Reed Magazine. He recently spoke at the Northwest Labor History Association Conference and presented "The Experience and Legacy of McCarthyism in Oregon" at McMenamins, Edgefield.
Praise for the first edition of The Portland Red Guide: Sites &
Stories of our Radical Past: "A roller-coaster ride through
Portland's radical past. Who knew that being on the losing side of
just about everything could be so much fun?" -- Phil Stanford,
Portland Tribune columnist, author of Portland Confidential"Michael
Munk did a terrific job of researching local leftist and labor
struggles usually ignored by conventional historians and the
commercial media." -- Gene Klare, columnist, Northwest Labor Press.
Former reporter, pre-strike The Oregonian and the Portland
Reporter"Whoop! Whoop! I'm impressed by how many names from
Portland's past have not made it into our official histories and
public memorials. Some were good friends of mine. Local history is
too often overlooked." -- Bud Clark, fomer Mayor of Portland,
1985-1992 "Michael Munk is the Lewis and Clark of Portland's
radical past, leading his readers on a voyage of discovery through
a long-lost and wonderfully evocative historical terrain. I only
wish the Red Guide had been around in the days when I was one of
those Portland radicals he writes about with such knowledge (and
affection)." -- Maurice Isserman, author of If I Had a Hammer: the
Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left "What fun to
learn all the ordinary places have a not-so-ordinary history. Some
will call The Portland Red Guide subversive, others will welcome it
as the sweet breeze of revelation, but all will have to admit it
adds a fascinating new layer to appreciating Portland. Even those
Portlanders who think they know their city's past will likely find
themselves shocked at the wealth of radical Portland history
related in this volume. One hopes it becomes as ubiquitous as cell
phones in Portland pedestrians' hands." -- Sandy Polishuk, author
of Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of
Julia Ruuttila "Going to these addresses can bring to mind what has
gone before and perhaps, encourage more resistance today. I had no
idea so much has happened in Portland. And reading the names of
people who struggled and whom I worked with brought up lots of
memories." -- Sandra Ford, former wife of Black Panther Party
leader Kent Ford
I love this book! It has maps! It has pictures! It talks about how
crazy and wonderful the history of Portland is. Whether it's Emma
Goldman, the pioneering feminist and anarchist, giving a lecture on
lesbianism in 1915 at the Portland auditorium, two blocks away from
my house, and getting arrested and hauled off to jail, to Woodie
Guthrie living on SE 92nd in the summer of 1941 and writing all the
songs for the Bonneville Power Administration, to the internment of
Japanese-Americans during the war. It also talks about writers like
John Reed, the Oregonian journalist who is buried in Red Square.
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