Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic.
Linebaugh was a student of noted British labor historian E.P. Thompson, and he received his Ph.D. in British history from the University of Warwick in 1975. He has taught at University of Rochester, New York University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Franconia College, Harvard University, and Tufts University. Linebaugh currently teaches at the University of Toledo, and joined the faculty of that institution in 1994.
Linebaugh's books have been generally well received within the discipline of history, and several of his books have demonstrated popularity among general readers. Historian Robin D.G. Kelley praised Linebaugh's most recent book, arguing in a review of The Magna Carta Manifesto (2008) that there is "not a more important historian living today. Period."
Linebaugh's articles have appeared in New Left Review, the New York University Law Review, Radical History Review, and Social History, and he is a frequent contributor to the online journal CounterPunch.
Linebaugh is the father of two daughters, Kate and Riley Linebaugh. He is married to Michaela Brennan.
Bibliography
Linebaugh, Peter, Hay, Doug, and Thompson, E.P. (eds.). Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England. Pantheon Press, 1975.
The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century. Allen Laine Press, 1991.
Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.
The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
Articles
“Karl Marx, the Theft of Wood and Working Class Composition: A Contribution to the Current Debate” from Crime and Social Justice 6 (Fall-Winter 1976): 5-16
Commonists of the World Unite!
The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, and the Atlantic Working Class in the Eighteenth Century by Peter Linebuagh & Marcus Rediker, 1990
From the Upper West Side to Wick Episcopi, New Left Review, 1993
Gruesome Gertie at the Buckle of the Bible Belt, New Left Review, 1995
Levelling and 9/11, Counterpunch, 2002
"An American Tribute to Christopher Hill" at the Counterpunch, May 17, 2003.
Who Are the Real Brownshirts in Toledo?, The Nation, 2005
Charters of Liberty in Black Face and White Face: Race, Slavery and the Commons by Peter Linebaugh, Mute Magazine, 2005
Once Looting was the Pay of Imperial Soldiers, CounterPunch, 2007
A People's Penny for the Magna Carta, CounterPunch, 2007
The Who and Whom of Liberty Taking, Mute Magazine, 2008
The Commons, the Castle, the Witch and the Lynx, Counterpunch, 2009
Introduction to Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Rights of Man & Agrarian Justice, 2009
“All For One and One For All!” Some Principles of the Commons, Counterpunch, 2010
May Day & SDS & SNCC Jubilee, Counterpunch, 2010
Books
Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001
Video
Video - Forever Blowing Bubbles: A Walking Tour with Peter Linebaugh and Fabian Tompsett (2008)
Video - Interview with Peter Linebaugh: The Magna Carta Manifesto (2009)
Audio
Audio from several talks by Peter Linebaugh given for Bristol Radical History Group (2006-2008)
