His biography of the American labor leader and socialist Eugene Victor Debs is widely considered definitive, and his account of the Scopes trial has also received high praise.
Ginger was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the fourth son and next-to-last child of an affluent Southern family that moved to Indiana (Debs' home state) while he was very young.
After four years "squatting" in a series of unoccupied houses in Greencastle while their eldest son attended DePauw college, the Ginger family settled in Indianapolis, still in extremely difficult circumstances.
These experiences deeply influenced Ray Ginger's political convictions and much of his historical work: in later life he frequently recounted his childhood humiliation when sent to collect the bag of flour that was the only form of public welfare available, and also the intense personal rage that dominated his youth.
As the United States entered World War II, most of the reporters became foreign correspondents, and Ginger was promoted to a writing job in the city room.
When it seemed probable that both Ginger and his wife might be subpoenaed by the Massachusetts equivalent of the U.S. House Committee on Unamerican Activities, on June 16, 1954, Harvard University officials threatened him with immediate dismissal despite his three-year contract if he did not sign an oath declaring that he was not a member of the Communist Party.
When Ginger instead chose to resign, Harvard insisted that he leave the state immediately as a condition of receiving the two weeks salary remaining on his existing contract.
He stayed there for six years, becoming a tenured full professor, chairing the Committee on American Civilization, writing several more books, coaching the tennis team, and evolving rare pedagogical gifts.
This remarkable talent received tangible acknowledgment many years after his death, when a former student (William Friedman, Brandeis '65), raised $2.5 million to endow the Ray Ginger Professorship of History at the university.
Board of Overseers President Sharon Gagnon wrote: "I would not presume to ... second-guess the motives or judgments of individuals in that difficult time.