Isolation and Rethinking

Rather than be corrected or seek penitence, Berkman used his prison time to write to his friends, comrades and family, and to rethink his political trajectory. Often in isolation, and moved around without notice, he tried to figure out how to do his time, make a life and escape the incompetence of prison health care. Sent to Connecticut to stand trial for the robbery, he was given a concomitant sentence along with his federal prison time, then was charged, along with several of his comrades, on a federal conspiracy case.

To Love Each Other like Warriors

Berkman’s commitment to global solidarity and equality drove his actions through alliances. His memorial service brought comrades and colleagues from around the globe to Columbia to share their sense of his importance in the global struggle against inequality and injustice.

Children of the Holocaust and Cold War

The prologue situates Alan Berkman as an unexpected American revolutionary. Raised in the 1950s and 1960s in small town upstate New York during the Cold War and as part of the first generation of post-Holocaust American Jews, Berkman was focused on doing his parents proud. The author grew up with him, went to his bar mitzvah, and joined him at Cornell for college. But then their paths diverged as Berkman was focused on medical school while the author saw her future in radical politics. The chapter summarizes the arguments of the book and lays out the path of Berkman’s increasingly revolutionary stances.

Political Medicine

Berkman’s high standing in medical school got in a prestigious internship at Columbia. But the extra care given to his white upper-class patients versus the poor he saw in the clinics tugged at his sense of justice as he saw the consequences of unequal treatment. After the state’s vicious retaking of the Attica Prison after a prisoner uprising, Berkman evaluated the medical conditions of the prisoners. He quit after the first year of internship and became instead a community doctor. With Barbara Zeller, he snuck medical supplies into the American Indian Movement stalwarts during the siege at Wounded Knee, escaping FBI surveillance. His intellectual commitment to politics now had a deeper emotional tone.

Resistance Is Not a Crime

Berkman and his five other “co-conspirators” were charged in a five-count indictment that they had tried “to influence, change and protest policies and practices of the United States government….through the use of violent and illegal means.” Brought to Washington, D.C. from prisons across the country, they now had to build a joint defence in what they labelled the Resistance Conspiracy Case. They were not, however, “innocent,” yet did not want to pled guilty. As they prepared for trial, Berkman’s Hodgkin’s Disease returned and their strategy had to be reset.

Born Strong without Fear

Berkman was raised within a family of tough Jews who knew how to work hard and fight. Raised in a small town within the religiosity and communal values of his Jewish family, Berkman found his place balancing his innate brilliance with sports and sexual adventures. He grew up fearing being seen as incompetent or likely to fail. He won a third of all prizes given out at high school graduation, enumerable other scholarships, and planned on his future as a physician.

The Left of the Left

Berkman and Zeller settled in New York in 1974, and he returned to community medicine. She worked in hospitals and began to learn acupuncture. They married and had their daughter Sarah in 1976. Berkman’s politics became increasingly anti-imperialist and anti-racist as he joined the primarily woman dominated May 19th Communist Organization. Much of their work was to counter the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and to do anti-racist work through his leadership in the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, that became a national organization. He agreed to treat Black and Latino radicals after they had been beaten by the police, and was suspected in helping bomber William Morales escape from his hospital prison. His politics were becoming dangerous.

Resurrection and Social Rage

Berkman was released from prison in July 1992. He returned to New York City, renewed his relationship to Dana Biberman, and tried to rebuild his life as a physician. He worked primarily with HIV/AIDS patients in the Bronx. He continued to support political prisoners, even on a TV debate with Peter Thiel and Ted Cruz, as his social rage at mistreatment in prisons continued. He and Barbara Zeller reconciled and rebuilt their family life together.

Dr. Salk or Dr. Lenin

Berkman entered Columbia University’s medical school expecting to have a successful and brilliant career as a physician. Early on he was drawn, however, to his classmates with more radical politics. The upheaval of the late 1960s caught up with him as he began to read Marx and became more and more willing to do small illegal actions. He also met and romanced his classmate Barbara Zeller as they both moved closer to people in political groups such as the Students for Democratic Society’s Weathermen.

Revolutionary Road

After a cross-country drive to visit friends, Berkman and Barbara Zeller settled in Boston to do politics and community medicine. Berkman worked with those creating a view of what was needed in radical politics called “Prairie Fire.” Hoping to work as a doctor for rebels in Mozambique, Berkman in the end was told not to come because they had won their revolution, and he ended up in Lowndes County, Alabama in a community clinic.