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Reviews
THE PORTLAND RED GUIDE: SITES & STORIES OF OUR RADICAL PAST
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by Michael Munk
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| Ooligan Press, Portland, Oregon, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, index. 253 pages. $16.95 paper. |
| There is an alternate version of American history, at least its beginnings, which apparently only those who went to Catholic schools or are scholars of Latin America know. In this version, the adventurers of Jamestown were not the first whites to settle in North America. Rather, the saga of the American nation starts with the Spanish explorers who came to the Southwest in the sixteenth century. If one reads a bit of that history, it becomes quickly apparent that there are dimensions of the American experience many, including some professional historians, have not assimilated. When you know of them, the nation's development looks very different than the conventional narrative suggests. |
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Similarly, there is an alternate version of local (as well as national) history of which many are unaware. Instead of a story of the unbroken march of consensual political and economic development that is the conventional fare of schoolbooks and mainstream histories, the alternate version emphasizes the dissenters from capitalism and liberal democracy of the kind practiced in the city throughout its history. In The Portland Red Guide, Michael Munk, a retired political science professor and lifelong radical, has put together a testament to the fact that the city has consistently had a current of radical thought and action running through its past like an underground river — swift, seldom seen, but occasionally bubbling to the surface to muddy its otherwise placid political and social life. Munk's book serves both as a primer of this history and a tourist guide to its material presence in the city. Sectioned off by physical and topical categories as well as by chronology — with chapters titled "The Nineteenth Century (Utopians &Marxists)" and "WWII–1960 (McCarthyism & Cold War)", for example — the guide is an easily followed key to the personalities, places, and events making up Portland's radical past. In it, readers find obvious figures, such as John Reed and the steps in Southwest Portland leading to his home, but also General Evans F. Carlson, who made popular the phrase "gung ho," supported the Chinese revolution, and, as a result, became a victim of McCarthyism. A few other randomly selected names from the book include: Marie Equi, Dirk DeJonge, Emma Goldman, and Rose Leopold. Each of the stories they represent reveal something interesting about Portland radicalism. Numerous well chosen photographs and maps enhance the stories and directions. |
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Portland's radical history is rich but patchy. Neither the city nor Oregon has been a hotbed of radical politics in quite the way that larger cities such as Seattle and San Francisco have been. As a result, Munk's enthusiasm for uncovering the city's radicals sometimes bests his better judgment. To take one prominent example, he includes DeNorval Unthank, Portland's first African American physician, in his pantheon of Portland radicals. While Unthank was a courageous figure well worth remembering, it is stretching a point to call him a radical, even if, as Munk points out, he was so labeled by an undercover agent. Unthank was basically a well-regarded doctor who tried to live a useful and peaceful life but was harassed mercilessly by bigots. His "radicalism" was largely owing to his refusal to give in to his racist tormentors. |
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Such choices give readers of The Red Guide, at different junctures in the book, the sense that the author is padding his text. Yet, in total, the work is a genuine contribution to the literature of the city and a lively addition to the depth and breadth of knowledge we have about what really happened here. |
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| Craig Wollner
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| Portland State University |
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