History of the Equals
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- Published on Tuesday, 21 June 2016 21:45
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1273 .... June 22, 2016
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History of the Equals
Peter Linebaugh interviewed by Mahdi Ganjavi
Peter Linebaugh was in Toronto in May 13-16, 2016. An internationally known historian, Professor Linebaugh is considered one of the most important Marxist historians of our time. He is a historian of class struggles in Britain and the colonial Atlantic. A former student of E. P. Thompson, Linebaugh has taught in New York University, Harvard University and the University of Toledo.
Peter Linebaugh was invited by Professor Shahrzad Mojab as part of her on-going Marxist Reading Group where the works of Linebaugh were read in the last two years. Toronto was delighted to host a couple of lectures and series of conversations with him. During his stay, Professor Linebaugh presented at OISE/University of Toronto,... and also launched his latest book The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day (PM Press, 2016) at York University's Historical Materialism conference.
Mahdi Ganjavi interviewed Professor Linebaugh during his visit with a special focus on two of his major contributions to a Marxist study of "history from below": The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (2001), and The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (1991).
Mahdi Ganjavi (MG): Let me begin my questions with the one many others might have. In Wikipedia and many other places, you are introduced as a "Marxist" historian. Some would ask: "What about objectivity? Shouldn't a historian be objective?" How do you respond?
Peter Linebaugh (PL): I think I try to be objective in the history I write, in the sense of being careful with evidence. So, as a matter of the technique of investigation, one needs to be critical of the evidence that one uses, but also in undergoing objective investigation, one chooses and defines the subject of investigation, and that choice is a subjective choice. You mentioned Marxism, and for the Marxist, as a revolutionary, I think the choice of subject matter pertains to the class struggle.
Wikipedia defines me as a Marxist historian, and that is in the context of British social history and U.S. social history, where a Marxist historian is similar to a historian from below, or similar to labour history. But in addition, in my understanding as a Marxist, there is the notion of class struggle, so it is not just from below, but it is also how the ruling class responds to the movements from below. So there is a dialectic in history between the classes.
