Magden credited his early interest in history and social movements to his mother, who he described as a "very forceful union person and [...] very opposed to racial discrimination of any kind.
"[1] Magden was in high school in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US entered World War II and observed the anti-Japanese sentiment in Boise and the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during that time.
Magden was hired to finish the project, and in 1982 he published The Working Waterfront: Tacoma's Ships and Men with Art Martinson.
At the urging of Tacoma longshoreman and labor leader Phil Lelli, Magden continued writing articles about waterfront history for the Port of Tacoma's Pacific Gateway magazine and served on the ILWU Education Committee to help educate newer union members about the union's history.
[10] Though best known for his contributions to the field of labor history, Magden also published two books about Japanese Americans in the Puget Sound region.