Wisconsin-based journalist, book seller, social and political activist and blogger.

Allen Ruff grew up in New Haven, CT and received a B.A. in American Studies from the American University in Washington D.C. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin to attend University of Wisconsin, where he received a M.A. and Ph.D. in History. His dissertation "'We Called Each Other Comrade' : Charles Kerr and the Charles H. Kerr and Company Publishers, 1886-1928" was developed into the book 'We Called Each Other Comrade': Charles H. Kerr and Company, Radical Publishers, published by University of Illinois Press in 1997, and updated and reissued in 2011 by PM Press.

Early in his career, Ruff published and presented several papers about the Charles H. Kerr publishing company, including "Repression of the Press in the World War I Era: The Case of Charles H. Kerr and Company" (1988) which he presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians and "Socialist Publishing in Illinois: Charles H. Kerr and Company of Chicago" (Illinois Historical Journal, Illinois State Historical Society) for which he was given the Harry E. Pratt Award. Ruff's essay "Path Not Taken: the Proletarian Party and Early History of Communism in the United States" was published in the collection Culture, Gender, Race, and U.S. Labor History (Contributions in Labor Studies), by Greenwood Press (1993). In 2007 Ruff published a novel, Save Me, Julie Kogon.

Ruff is the Thursday host of "A Public Affair" on community radio station WORT/89.9 FM (Madison, Wisconsin). He currently lives in Madison.

For information about Charles H. Kerr Co. publishing, see the Newberry’s inventory of the company records, Midwest MS Kerr.