Michael Munk -- Home

Biography

Michael Munk was born in Prague in 1934 and escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fleeing with his family to the U.S. in 1939. He received a PhD in politics from New York University after degrees in political science from the University of Oregon and Reed College. He taught political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Roosevelt University in Chicago, and Rutgers University in New Jersey for twenty-five years before retiring to Portland.

Since then, his interests and publications have focused on local radical history. In 2007, the Oregonian listed him among Portland's "local literary luminaries."

The Portland Red Guide

New this year from Portland State University's Ooligan Press, Michael's latest book connects readers with Portland's radical tradition not just through stories, names and dates, but with reference to specific places in Portland that you can visit today.

What people are saying about The Portland Red Guide:

"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

"The author's writing is often vivid. To a surprising and completely appropriate extent, he incorporates poetry, ranging from known Portland writers to the published verse of a six-year-old child supporting paperworkers on strike. The extensive photos and well chosen and integral to the book's mission of enabling us to see and think anew."-- Norm Diamond in the Portland Alliance

"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. Good work, Mike." Bud Clark, Saloon keeper, Goose Hollow Inn, and Mayor of Portland, 1985–1992

"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

"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

"Over the years, I've found your
e-missives most useful. I wouldn't want them to stop."

~ Tom Engelhardt (tomdispatch.com)

Munk tries to glean important but overlooked items from the world media on the issues of the day and posts them on an irregular schedule. Although items can overlap, he also maintains separate lists for activists in Portland, Oregon and the Northwest, and special lists for: Labor, Latin America, Israel, Torture Taxis, Korea, and the Czech Republic. Sign up here to try the general list or ask to be added to one or more of the special lists.