A powerhouse portrait of an acclaimed writer who pummeled politicians, profiled Mafia kingpins, and gave voice to the poor and powerless.

Sometimes a towering figure from our past can help us understand our present.

Jimmy Breslin is that figure—a journalist who spent most of his prodigious energy rising to the defense of ordinary people fighting forces greater than themselves. In The People’s Voice, Mike Rezendes shows why Breslin dominated American journalism and the streets of New York like no other reporter before or since. For more than fifty years, until his death in 2017, he was the brash soul of the city, easily recognizable whether trolling for stories in his native Queens, climbing the stairways of battered tenements in the Bronx, or ducking into the watering holes of the rich and famous in Midtown. To the chagrin of those in power, he pummeled politicians, poked fun at Mafia chieftains, and most of all came to the defense of his blue-collar readers.

Breslin was also standing ringside, notebook in hand, at nearly every memorable moment in the closing decades of the American Century, from John F. Kennedy’s assassination, to the Son of Sam serial murders, to the World Trade Center bombing. The People’s Voice traces his remarkable career while providing never-before-revealed details of his tumultuous life and his imperfections: He was funny, but sometimes cruel. A good friend who could betray a good friend. A man to the rescue who was oblivious to the needs of his own children. A pioneer of modern journalism who also broke many of its rules. Above all, in this moment of high distrust of the press, Rezendes’s powerful portrait helps readers understand the importance of journalists clued in to the needs of the communities they cover.