Marcus Buford Rediker (born October 14, 1951) is an American historian, writer, professor, and social activist. He graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
from
Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
for graduate study, earning a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
and
Ph.D. in history. He taught at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
from 1982 to 1994 and is currently a Distinguished Professor of
Atlantic History of the Department of History at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
.
[University of Pittsburgh profile](_blank)
Rediker is best known for his books on
piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
and the
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manu ...
that follow a
people's history narrative. On occasion, Rediker has collaborated with contemporaries such as
Peter Linebaugh and
Paul Buhle
Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is an American historian, who is (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes, including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of pop ...
. Rediker has also worked on the production of a
one-man show based on
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
Benjamin Lay with playwright
Naomi Wallace as well as a documentary on ''
La Amistad'' with filmmaker
Tony Buba.
Politically, Rediker has described himself as
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...
, but he does not align with any
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
.
Rediker is a staunch opponent of
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
and supports
reparations for slavery. He is a two-time winner of the
Merle Curti Award and won the
George Washington Book Prize in 2008. Rediker received fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
,
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
, and the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...
, and was recognized by the
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad incl ...
as a distinguished lecturer from 2002 to 2008.
Early life
Rediker was born in
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is a Home rule in the United States, home rule-class city in Daviess County, Kentucky, United States, of which it is also the county seat. It is the List of cities in Kentucky, fourth-most populous city in the state. Owensboro is loca ...
, on October 14, 1951, to Buford and Faye Rediker.
He is the first of two children, preceding his brother Shayne. Rediker's family came from a
working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
background, and they later moved to
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
and
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...
.
Rediker has credited his grandfather, a
coal miner, as one of his earliest influences.
In a 2018 interview, Rediker said that "It took me many years but I finally realized that the kinds of stories I like to tell, and the books I have written, have his
Appalachian storytelling tradition behind them."
A
first-generation college student, Rediker began attending
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...
in 1969 before dropping out in 1971.
Commenting on his time at Vanderbilt, Rediker recalled that he felt out of place due to the university's connections with the Southern elite.
Initially attending on a basketball
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...
, Rediker credited campus
protests against the Vietnam War, the
civil rights movement, and the
black power movement with influencing both his interest in history and his political beliefs.
In Richmond, Rediker worked in a
DuPont
Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to:
People
* Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
textile factory for three years making
cellophane
Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coate ...
.
The factory faced extreme
racial tension
An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...
, with Rediker describing supporters of
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
and a
Grand Wizard
The grand wizard (sometimes called the imperial wizard or national director) is the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad.
The title "Grand Wizard" was used by the first Klan which was fo ...
of the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
working alongside him.
Rediker's experiences with his co-workers fueled his passion for
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
.
Education
Rediker's job motivated him to read books and attend two
night school courses on the
American and
French Revolution.
After being
laid off from the factory, Rediker enrolled at
Virginia Commonwealth University.
In 1976, Rediker graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history. Rediker later attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
for his graduate studies, working under
Richard Slator Dunn.
Originally intending to study
Caribbean history, Rediker developed a deep fascination in Atlantic history while writing a research paper on sailors and pirates. Rediker published his
dissertation, ''Society and Culture Among Anglo-American Deep Sea Sailors, 1700-1750'', in 1982.
[ At the University of Pennsylvania, Rediker earned a ]Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
and Ph.D. in history.
Career
Rediker began teaching at Georgetown University in 1982 before leaving to work at the University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
in 1994, where he has primarily taught ever since. Rediker was the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair of Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...
during the 2019-2020 semester.
Throughout his career, Rediker has written several books on Atlantic social, labor, and maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human interaction with and activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant. As an academic subject, it ...
. For certain books, he collaborated with contemporaries such as Peter Linebaugh and Paul Buhle
Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is an American historian, who is (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes, including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of pop ...
. In 2023, Rediker and Buhle co-wrote two graphic novel
A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
s illustrated by David Lester. Rediker has written opinion pieces for the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', ''Boston Globe'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The Nation'', and ''The New York Times''.
Tate Britain
After serving five years as guest curator
A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
of the Tate Britain art museum in the J.M.W. Turner Gallery, Rediker resigned in June 2023 after his request to display a punishment box in front of Turner's 1835 painting, ''A Disaster at Sea,'' was denied by the museum. The painting, which was never finished, is theorized to have been based on the 1833 loss of ''Amphitrite'', a British merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...
and convict ship
A convict ship was any ship engaged on a voyage to carry convicted felons under sentence of penal transportation from their place of conviction to their place of exile.
Description
A convict ship, as used to convey convicts to the British colo ...
. On her final voyage, ''Amphitrite'' carried 108 female convicts and 12 children, all of whom perished. According to Rediker, the box was meant as a tribute to the ship's victims. Rediker alleged that the museum censored his proposal, though the museum claimed it was denied due to uncertainty surrounding the depicted ship's identity and the box's "domineering presence".
Other work
In May 2013, Rediker and filmmaker Tony Buba traveled to the home villages of slaves that revolted on the Spanish vessel '' La Amistad'' in July 1839. During their trip to southern Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
, Rediker and Buba conducted interviews with village elders and searched for the ruins of the Lomboko slave factory. A documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
chronicling the journey, ''Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of Rebels'' premiered in November 2014 at the Three Rivers Film Festival in Pittsburgh. The film has been screened at multiple film festival
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online.
Films may be of recent ...
s and universities across the world and aired on PBS since its release.
In 2017, Rediker and playwright Naomi Wallace started production on a play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
based on Benjamin Lay, a Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
abolitionist. The play originated from an idea Rediker and Wallace had for a joint lecture in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, where an actor dressed up as Lay would interrupt the presentation and monologue
In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...
. After conference organizers rejected their proposal, Rediker and Wallace withdrew in protest and began writing the play. ''The Return of Benjamin Lay'' debuted at the Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world p ...
in June 2023. A one-man show, the performance features Lay played by Mark Povinelli plead for his return to the Quaker community. The play received positive reviews from critics such as Michael Billington, who praised Povinelli's performance. The show played until July 8, 2023. In April 2023, Rediker announced he would again collaborate with Tony Buba on a film chronicling the making of the play.
Scholarship
Informed by Marxian economics
Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ...
, Rediker's works explore their respective subjects in systemic terms while emphasizing human class-consciousness and agency. Historical narratives that emphasize the plights of the poor and oppressed are known as a people's history or "history from below".
Rediker has contended that few historians have used this narrative outside of American history
The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...
, and that the struggle of the oppressed has had a largely unspoken yet considerable impact on world history
Human history or world history is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Early modern human, Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They Early expansions of hominin ...
. Though Rediker has admitted that finding primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...
s from his subjects can be difficult, he says that the "history from below" approach better humanizes his subjects and offers a more detailed point of view than other historical narratives. Rediker regards this approach as “the most democratic and inclusive kind of history".
Pirates and sailors
Rediker has written numerous works on pirates and sailors as pre-industrial
Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time befor ...
laborers and how piracy was a direct result of collectivism
In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struct ...
and solidarity between sailors. Viewing the pirates as a "motley crew", Rediker highlights the multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...
and alliances between pirate crews. This approach puts perspective on the egalitarianism
Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...
of some pirate crews. In ''Villains of All Nations'', Rediker wrote that by mutinying or capturing a ship, pirates were seizing the means of maritime production from merchant capitalists and declaring their ships to be under common ownership
Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise, or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every economi ...
.
According to Rediker, pirates were not just targeted by the authorities because of their illegal activities, but also for liberating and radicalizing laborers. Rediker argues that this form of imperial oppression is still present in the modern day, with Rediker using the United States' actions against revolutions in Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
, Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, and Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
as examples of such persecution.
Slaves
As a practitioner of people's history, Rediker underlines the ruthlessness of sea captain
A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the ship, inc ...
s and the squalor of slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...
s in his works on slavery. In the introduction to ''The Slave Ship: A Human History'', Rediker presents four dramas: the relations between slave ship captains and their crew, the relations between slave ship captains and their slaves, conflict among the enslaved, and the abolitionist image of the slave ships. In that same introduction, Rediker summarizes that the link between slave ships and social relations shaped the modern world
The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...
despite their obscure histories.
In describing what he wanted to accomplish in his book, ''The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom,'' Rediker commented that he wanted to call attention to how the slave trade contributed to the rise of capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
. Rediker mentioned that the role slave ships had in forming the concept of race was critical to the book, going on to say that the concept of race was created aboard the slave ships when multi-ethnic Africans were labelled as negro
In the English language, the term ''negro'' (or sometimes ''negress'' for a female) is a term historically used to refer to people of Black people, Black African heritage. The term ''negro'' means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from ...
es and subjected to violence and terror.
''La Amistad''
When researching ''La Amistad'', Rediker sought to explore the cultural backgrounds of those aboard and the Poro society of Sierra Leone to provide perspective behind the planning of the slave revolt. According to Rediker in the introduction to ''The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom'', '' United States v. The Amistad'' and the subsequent courtroom drama had overshadowed the history of the initial rebellion on the ship. Many of the sources in Rediker's book on ''La Amistad'' come from journalists and visitors who interviewed the defendants during their 27 months in Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. Rediker ends the introduction by expressing how the events surrounding ''La Amistad'' can be seen through the lens of a people's history, arguing that it puts the rebels "back at the center of their own story and the larger history they helped to make."
Many-Headed Hydra
The Lernaean Hydra
The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna (), more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine lake monster in Greek mythology and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which was also the site of the myth of the Dan ...
, a serpentine water monster in Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
and Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...
, is used as a metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
for commoners and persecuted groups throughout many of Rediker's works. Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, the slayer of the many-headed beast, represents the Atlantic capitalists. This metaphor is most prominent in ''The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic'' co-written with Peter Linebaugh.
Rediker and Linebaugh argue that the classically educated rulers and businessmen of the era compared themselves to Hercules, with his twelve labors being likened to the efforts of organizing and structuring the transatlantic economy. Hercules' battle against the Hydra is thus symbolic of "the difficulty of imposing order on increasingly global systems of labor." Rediker and Linebaugh label oppressed groups such as felons, indentured servants
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or ser ...
, African slaves, pirates, and religious radicals as some of the many heads of the Hydra. Though this symbolism indicates cooperation between these various groups, Rediker has also made clear that it can depict the chaos of a disorganized and conflicted Atlantic proletariat
The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...
.
Terracentrism
Rediker coined the term "terracentrism" to describe the tendency of historians to solely concentrate on history that occurs on dry land. Rediker has maintained that this view obfuscates how history can be made on slave and migrant ships, and that migrants and seafarers incited social, cultural, and political progress.
Political views and activism
During a 2017 interview with French daily newspaper ''Libération
(), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'', Rediker defined himself as far-left
Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...
. He stated that while he was well-read on communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
and anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
, he did not identify with any political party in particular.Rediker is a human rights activist, and has criticized governments that issue the death penalty. In a 2013 interview with French magazine ''La Vie des Idées,'' Rediker said he was inspired to write a book on ''La Amistad'' after a 1998 meeting with Mumia Abu-Jamal at SCI-Green's death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...
. Abu-Jamal, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, had been incarcerated since 1982. Rediker recounted that "he described to me the moment when he first got an active death warrant, meaning, he was given a slip of paper with his date to die on it. That was a moment of connection between race and terror." Rediker saw that he could explore this relationship between race and terror on slave ships. Abu-Jamal's death conviction was overruled in federal court in 2001, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...
without parole in 2011.
Rediker supports reparations for slavery, and has praised authors such as Ana Lucia Araujo who have chronicled the history of the reparations movement. In an interview published in Israeli newspaper ''Haaretz
''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
'', Rediker described slavery as an " African holocaust" and likened slave ships to concentration camps
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
. During that interview, Rediker described the impact of slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865 ...
and its ramifications:
Personal life
Rediker is married to Wendy Z. Goldman, a professor of Soviet history at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
. He has two children.
From 1984 to 1985, Rediker resided in Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. Rediker is a connoisseur of Haitian art and owns a private collection. Brandin Knight, the associate head coach for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and a University of Pittsburgh alumnus, has cited Rediker as an influence in obtaining his degree in history.
Awards
Rediker has earned a number of awards for his works. He was given the Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad incl ...
' Merle Curti Award in 1988 and 2008. In 2008, Rediker was awarded the George Washington Book Prize, one of the largest book awards in the United States. In 1988, Rediker received the John Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, the American Studies ...
Publication Prize from the American Studies Association. In 2001, Rediker was presented with the International Labor History Book Prize from the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. In 2015, ''Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of Rebels'' won the John E. O'Connor Film Prize for Best Historical Documentary.
Rediker has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...
. The Organization of American Historians designated Rediker as a distinguished lecturer from 2002 to 2008.
Works
Books
Film
Theatre
References
External links
Marcus Rediker's website
Marcus Rediker on C-SPAN
Audio lecture "Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age" by Marcus Rediker
The Sea is Red: An Interview with Marcus Rediker Mute Magazine
Marcus Rediker's Haitian art collection
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20101125180508/http://marcusrediker.com/CV/Rediker-CV.pdf Marcus Rediker Credentials
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rediker, Marcus
Living people
1951 births
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
University of Pittsburgh faculty
American male non-fiction writers
American human rights activists
People from Owensboro, Kentucky
Haitian art