Marcus Rediker

@marcusrediker.bsky.social

11K followers 370 following 470 posts

Historian (from below), award-winning author, filmmaker, playwright, Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh
marcusrediker.com

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Marcus Buford Rediker is an American historian, writer, professor, and social activist. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in history. He taught at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1994 and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh. .. more

Political science 43%

Sociology 20%

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Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 1d

Me too, Franciska! Wishing you well.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe the best photograph I have ever taken. Honolulu, 2019.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 2d

I lost my English bulldog Jellybean, a 90-lb. brute, almost ten years ago, but I never cease to miss him, and rarely more than today. Here he is helping me to write *The Fearless Benjamin Lay* -- the best writing arrangement ever!

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 4d

I’ve finally decided that my next book will be “How to Write History from Below” – one part on the tradition of historical writing, one part memoir, one part how-to-do-it, and one part an intervention in the “history wars.” Thanks to all of you for your encouragement on this topic over the years.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 4d

Happy new year, everyone, from NYC!

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 5d

Here is an interview Peter Linebaugh and I did with Jakub Majmurek and @krytykapolityczna.bsky.social (Warsaw), for the publication of the Polish edition of *The Many-Headed Hydra*. Thanks to Jakub and everyone at KP for the interview and the translation.

krytykapolityczna.pl/historia/pir...

Piraci kontra kapitalizm. „Wielogłowa hydra” to historia od dołu • Krytyka Polityczna

Statek piracki był na przełomie XVII i XVIII wieku czymś rodzaju „ruchomego sowietu”, pływającej rady robotniczej. Piraci pokazywali, że można zupełnie inaczej zorganizować statek dalekomorski, przeds...

krytykapolityczna.pl

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 6d

Having written about religious radicalism, I was keen to see the film *The Testament of Ann Lee*, about the charismatic leader & the Shaker movement in the 18c. The film bends the history a bit but it evokes the subject and the times powerfully. Highly recommended.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zK_...

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE | Official Teaser | Searchlight Pictures

YouTube video by SearchlightPictures

www.youtube.com

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 8d

😂😂

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 8d

My review of Sven Beckert’s *Capitalism: A Global History* appears today on the front page of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. As you will see when you read the review, I highly recommend the book. Congratulations, Sven!

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b...

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 12d

Thank you, Ryan! All the best to you on your sabbatical!

Dr. Ryan Alan Sporer @ryansporer.bsky.social · 12d

First reading on my sabbatical.
@marcusrediker.bsky.social's Many Headed Hydra opened a world to me. Excited to escape terracentrism for a bit.

Reposted by Marcus Rediker

Dr. Ryan Alan Sporer @ryansporer.bsky.social · 12d

First reading on my sabbatical.
@marcusrediker.bsky.social's Many Headed Hydra opened a world to me. Excited to escape terracentrism for a bit.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 13d

Happy to learn that *Freedom Ship* has been selected one of the best books of 2025 by CounterPunch.org!

www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/23/b...

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 20d

Congratulations, Mari! Your work is inspiring!

Reposted by Sven T. Beckert

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 21d

Honored to learn that my book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea* has been selected as one of the best books of 2025 by #slaveryarchive.

www.slaveryarchive.com/10-best-book...

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 22d

Last night I saw the women’s volleyball team at the U. of Pittsburgh advance to the NCAA final four for the fifth consecutive year — sport excellence at the highest level! Here below, all-ACC setter Brooke Mosher hits a rocket jump serve to secure the win in set four against Purdue. Thrilling!

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 23d

No one captured the sadness of working-class life like John Prine. Here are lyrics from his song “Souvenirs.”

I hate graveyards and old pawn shops
For they always bring me tears
I can't forgive the way they robbed me
Of my childhood souvenirs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOTb...

John Prine steve goodman Souvenirs

YouTube video by translateslowly

www.youtube.com

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 24d

David Lester, Paul Buhle, and I have created 4 graphic novels, all histories from below, published in the US by @beaconpress.bsky.social. They've been translated into Basque, Catalán, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, and Thai. We are looking for new translations. Any editors/presses to suggest?

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 27d

A happy blast from the past: Friday night, I saw my former student and Pitt basketball great Jaron Brown at the Pitt game. Jaron was a key part of the “golden age” of Pitt basketball in the early 2000s – and the only player in the country who could cover Carmelo Anthony!

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 28d

Delighted to say that our play, *The Return of Benjamin Lay*, has received its first translation and republication, in Thai, thanks to Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Sam Yan Press. My co-author Naomi Wallace and I fondly hope the play will be performed in Bangkok someday.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 29d

Check out this timely book! “Three cheers for this joyful, highly original engagement with our dark times; for its poetic ability to see beauty amid the wreckage; and perhaps most of all for its intellectual daring, all in the service of precious, stubborn hope.”

www.bloomsbury.com/us/hopeful-p...

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Dec 6

Honored to learn that the esteemed *Library Journal* has named *Freedom Ship* one of the best books of 2025.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Dec 3

Here is a poster of the new Basque edition of our book, *Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel* (with David Lester and Paul Buhle), at the Basque Music and Book Fair in Durango. This is the seventh language in which the book has appeared.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Dec 2

Proud to say, my former PhD student Jack Bouchard, now at Rutgers University, has published an outstanding new work in Atlantic history: *Terra Nova: Food, Water, and Work in an Early Atlantic World*, with Yale University Press. Congratulations, Jack!

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Dec 1

A review of my book *Freedom Ship*, by Dave Bell for *Hidden City* (Phila.'s history). He calls the book "a ground-breaking, deeply researched, fascinating look into the long-neglected role of the maritime trade in enabling countless runaways to achieve freedom."

hiddencityphila.org/2025/11/sail...

Sailing to Freedom with the Runaway Navy

A new book documents how most escaped slaves arriving in Philadelphia during the mid-1800s came by steamboat, schooner, or skiff

hiddencityphila.org

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Nov 26

Thanks to my friends @libertalialivre.bsky.social. It has been a pleasure working with you over the years!

Reposted by Sven T. Beckert

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Nov 26

Here is a review I wrote of Sven Beckert’s impressive new book, *Capitalism: A Global History*, for the New York Times.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b...

How Capitalism Took Over the World

www.nytimes.com

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Nov 26

Grateful to @leehall.bsky.social for this account of the launch of our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* (PM Press), at the Abington Quaker Meeting House Nov. 11. Lee writes with passion, grace, and power, explaining why children need to know Lay's story.

www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/25/f...

Fearless Benjamin: A History Lesson From Grownups of Integrity

Ask the children. Chances are, I reckon, they’ll say Washington and Jefferson ought to have known better than to enslave people. And chances are, an adult

www.counterpunch.org

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Nov 25

Highest respect to the late Jimmy Cliff & the Jamaican Rebel Music he sang as reggae became the world's most radical music. I saw him in 1978 in a small club in Philadelphia. When he sang, “But I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave,” the house came down. RIP, Jimmy.

Reposted by Marcus Rediker

Éditions Libertalia @libertalialivre.bsky.social · Nov 25

Cinquième tirage en poche de Pirates de tous les pays, de Marcus Rediker.

En vérifiant les tirages, on constate que la première édition, en grand format, a paru fin novembre 2008, il y a… dix-sept ans.

On est encore là.

Et ce livre, loué ou critiqué, est devenu un classique.

5e tirage en poche, 8e tirage au total, pour ce classique de la piraterie sociale.

Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · Nov 13

It was a great pleasure to work with Sarah Bachman (artist, at left) and Michelle Markel (co-author, center) on the launch of our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* (Lay) at the Abington Quaker Meeting House Tuesday evening. Special thanks to Loretta Maguire Fox and Lee Hall!

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