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mbennett51's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
2.5
anna_hepworth's review against another edition
Lots of interesting details, but I found that the writing just didn't hold together for me. My reading notes, barely edited:
Ch 1 - loving the anti 'great men' approach to history; that the workers did the building.
"We have attempted to recover some of the lost history of the multiethnic class that was essential to the rise of capitalism and the modern, global economy. The historic invisibility of many of the book's subjects owes much to the repression originally visited upon them..."
In chapter five, there is the usual frustration of a mix of nations vs collective terms: " most of the buccaneers were English or French, but Dutch, Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian, Native American, and African men also joined up..." - although I note that we have Scandinavian, so it isn't just the usual prejudice of including countries and then Africa; but having English, Irish and Scottish separate just indicates some interesting level of detail (is it from the original data?). Also, were there no women? Given the previous paragraph talks about prostitutes in the original set of people.
"In 1718, sixty out of Blackbeard's crew of one hundred were black..."
Chapter 6, which talks about a number of uprisings, in discussing an uprising in New York specifically talks about the where in Africa various groups had come from, in a level of detail i haven't previously been exposed to, which was v. Refreshing.
I felt that this book required a better knowledge of Christianity than I have, and possibly a bit more American history.
I felt that this book required a better knowledge of Christianity than I have, and possibly a bit more American history.
madison_o's review against another edition
4.0
The Many-Headed Hydra is a provocative history about the historiographically hidden figures of the revolutionary Atlantic. Through their cast of exemplary characters, Linebaugh and Rediker dive into the thoughts, actions, and motivations the "motley crew" that continually stood in opposition to the spread and development of global capitalism and Atlantic slavery.
marcantel's review
5.0
This is an excellent history of the rise of "global capitalism" and its opposition during the 17th and 18th Centuries, from a marxist historical perspective. Linebaugh and Rediker attempt to reconstruct a history "from below" by extracting from the history written by the winners (in this case, the Empire, the Trading Companies, and the bourgeoise). By expounding upon two reoccurring themes found throughout the dominant history -- Hercules' slaying of the hydra and Joshua's enslaving of the Gibeonites -- the authors develop a history of resistance which includes the enclosure of the Commons, the English Civil Wars, the mass expulsion of English, Irish and Africans into slavery in the Americas, and the expansion of European maritime trade. Each of these events generates a movement of resistance, and the authors plot points of connection between the Ranters & Levellers, the maroon uprisings, Pirate "hydrachy", and American colonists who chose to "go native."
While the authors stress the multicultural component of the resistance movements, one shortcoming I found with the book is that the focus was almost exclusively in relation to the English. I would have like to see how these movements manifested themselves in relation to the French and Spanish attempts at Empire building the New World.
To the reviewer who complained about the premise of this book because life before the 17th Century was allegedly just as terrible (as though that is sufficient to discount the fact that there was a real movement of resistance to the destruction of social life that these hewers of wood and drawers of water actually experienced, and directly connected to the trade practices of the middle-class), I would recommend E.P. Thompson's Customs In Common for an account of how the working-class experienced a loss of social life and culture.
While the authors stress the multicultural component of the resistance movements, one shortcoming I found with the book is that the focus was almost exclusively in relation to the English. I would have like to see how these movements manifested themselves in relation to the French and Spanish attempts at Empire building the New World.
To the reviewer who complained about the premise of this book because life before the 17th Century was allegedly just as terrible (as though that is sufficient to discount the fact that there was a real movement of resistance to the destruction of social life that these hewers of wood and drawers of water actually experienced, and directly connected to the trade practices of the middle-class), I would recommend E.P. Thompson's Customs In Common for an account of how the working-class experienced a loss of social life and culture.
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