The East Side Freedom Library invites you to our December Labor History Reading Group, a conversation with historian Marcus Rediker (University of Pittsburgh): “The Poetics of History From Below.”

Tuesday, December 15th, 2020 at 7PM

You must register here to receive the Zoom invitation.

Marcus Rediker has been a significant voice in labor history for four decades. He has written and edited ten books, including The Many-Headed Hydra (2000, with Peter Linebaugh); two books about mutinies and pirates, Villains of All Nations (2004) and Outlaws of the Atlantic (2014); and two books about the transatlantic slave trade and resistance within it, The Slave Ship (2007) and The Amistad Rebellion (2012), which prompted the film ESFL is screening on December 11. His most recent book, The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist (2017), reconstructs the life story of one man as a way to interrogate political traditions and movements. Marcus’ pathbreaking writings have won numerous awards and have been published in fourteen languages. The ESFL community is fortunate to work with him twice this month. On December 11, he introduces his film, The Ghosts of Amistad, which traces his journey to Sierra Leone seeking historical memory about the enslaved men who fought for their freedom in 1839 and won their return to their homes. And tonight, we will be discussing his essay, “The Poetics of History From Below.” Here is a link to the essay.

“History from below” is central to our work at the East Side Freedom Library. It is a practice of social history that explores the experiences and history-making power of working people who had long been left out of elite, “top-down” historical narratives. It is an approach “that concentrates not on the traditional subjects of history, not the kings and the presidents and the philosophers, but on ordinary working people, not simply for what they experienced in the past but for their ability to shape the way history happens.” This approach to history is not just about telling stories which have been left out, but about using these stories to explore power.

Join us —and special guest Marcus Rediker—for a journey into history from below.

Free and open to all

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