Days of Dissent

Days of Dissent brims with defiance in recounting the rebellious history that has reshaped the United States and the world.

With poetic fervor, journalist Gabriel San Román delves into the strikes and forgotten martyrs of the labor movement to expose the fetid underbelly of exploitation. In a subverted “this day in history” format and rising from San Román’s Subversive Historian commentaries on Pacifica Radio, a story is told for every day of the year with poignant vignettes about protests—no matter how big or small.

Uprisings of enslaved Africans and abolitionists confronting the scourge of slavery, brave Black youth challenging Jim Crow segregation, Indigenous peoples resisting colonial America’s encroachments, Mexican women organizing labor strikes in the Southwest, antiwar protesters marching for peace, and much more.

Arriving at a time when history from below faces relentless attacks from above, these stories span centuries and recount the everyday bravery of people organizing for a world free of hate and exploitation. In these pages, history stands firmly where no markers remember massacres disguised as race riots, where the voiceless speak for themselves, and those at the margins of movements demand dignity within them.

For every reader who is a worker, student, activist, or is just frustrated by the status quo, Days of Dissent offers one simple suggestion: Read, remember, rebel!