Outlaws of the Atlantic

We have heard the narrative before: sailors, Africans, and the poor united in the Atlantic world to oppose the capitalist power that sought to exploit and dominate labor. Indeed, four of the chapters in Outlaws of the Atlantic have been published previously. The other three are papers presented over the course of a long career. Yet Marcus Rediker manages to make it all work. First, Rediker is a wonderful storyteller. When he traces the peregrinations of a physician captured in the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), we experience the doctor's virtual slavery in the West Indies, his escape and marooning on a tropical isle, and his return home. Second, Rediker demonstrates not only a command of the archives but also a creative reading of sources in his exploration of the history of storytelling and in his use of nineteenth-century pirate literature. Perhaps most important is the force of his interpretation: since 1981 Rediker has pursued his Marxist line unabated

Ancient history · Art · Atlantic World · Interpretation (philosophy · Literature · Maritime history · Marxist philosophy · Motley · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reading (process · Storytelling · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · History · Law · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Philosophy