Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. 433pp. $30.00 cloth; $18.00 paper.

Extract

This fascinating and important book covers the revolutionary resistance to the rise of capitalism around the Atlantic basin, including North and Central America, Great Britain, Ireland, Western Europe and Western Africa in the years from the English Revolution (in the 1640s) to shortly after the French and Haitian Revolutions (in the early 1800s). It is based on extensive research in contemporary documents and publications, assisted by the use of modern studies of the events and struggles that form the content of the book. Sailors of various races and nationalities are an essential ingredient of this study, partly as an example of the brutal oppression of working seamen, but more importantly as an example of the continuing resistance to that oppression. Some Forms of that resistance included mutinies on both merchant and naval vessels and the development of a more democratic structure and culture in piracy. However, more than these direct struggles, there is the crucial part that seamen played in the spread of knowledge of revolutionary struggles, assuring that these struggles would become international. One example was noted by David Montgomery in an article published in the March 2001 Journal of American History. He cites the case of David Walker, a used clothing salesman frequented by sailors, who often sewed copies of his Appeal . . . to the Coloured Citizens of the World in the pockets or lining of jackets so that they were carried to ports around the world. Editor's note: Martin Glaberman, a contributor to ILWCH, passed away in December 2001. His career as a labor activist, educator, and author spanned more than sixty years and his love for storytelling and great sense of humor made him an invaluable transmitter of labor lore across generations. We will miss him and feel privileged to have had him as a collaborator. MPH