During my brief correspondence with Michel Foucault between 1978-1980, we discussed piracy and life at sea. He wrote, “I intend to study the laws concerning the sea next year.” Had he done this, he would have returned to his earlier lecture, “Of Other Spaces.” It never happened; what a shame.

I joined my friend and former student Johnathan JeVon White on his nationally-syndicated podcast, “The History of Being Black” to discuss my book *Freedom Ship.* We had a lively discussion about resistance, especially in his home town of Norfolk, VA. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

@marcusrediker.bsky.social, would you be able to share the overall thread, to help get all this great work to your followers? Thanks! bsky.app/profile/amer...

On this day in 1759, 267 years ago, the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay passed away at age 77. A hundred years before William Lloyd Garrison, Lay called for the immediate and complete abolition of slavery worldwide, with no payments to enslavers. Let us remember him. Art by Marco Lorenzetti.

Happy to say, *The Many-Headed Hydra* (written with Peter Linebaugh, 2000), will appear soon in Greek, courtesy of Editions des Etrangers in Thessaloniki, “coming home” to the original source of the myth. David Brion Davis tried to murder the book but failed. This is its 12th language.

Our new graphic novel, *The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad*, will be published in June 2026 by @beaconpress.bsky.social. We hope you can help us by pre-ordering the book through any of the five different booksellers offered through this link. Thank you! www.beacon.org/The-Black-Sc...

Our 4th graphic novel, “The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad” will be published in June 2026 and is available now for pre-order from our publisher @beaconpress.bsky.social. My co-author, the ever-creative David Lester, has made a trailer. Check it out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMh3...

Publication day! "Brooke Newman has written a brave, brilliant, and essential book, telling truths that many will not want to hear. I hope [it inspires] investigations of other maritime monarchies as we reckon with the still-deadly legacies of human bondage." www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

To be explored in my new book “History From Below: The Making of a Radical Tradition”: Natalie Zemon Davis took the work in new directions by writing deep and intricate cultural histories from below about women. She also brought the genre to film with *The Return of Martin Guerre*.

Christopher Hill added a new dimension with his study of the radicals in the English Revolution, the Levellers, Diggers, Seekers, Ranters, and Quakers who wanted to “turn the world upside down.” Hill treated them as thinkers and wrote an intellectual history from below.

Happy to announce that my book *The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom* has been translated into Spanish and published by Traficantes de Sueños. This is the third of my books they have published, with *Freedom Ship* yet to come. traficantes.net/libros/la-re...

While E.P. Thompson was pioneering the concept “agency,” CLR James was doing something similar, exploring the concept “working-class self-activity.” Thompson and James converged to create an idea central to history from below: workers make history. A theme to be explored in my new book.

Yesterday I wrote about a formative moment in “history from below”: November 1963, when E.P. Thompson published *The Making of the English Working Class*. Its preface became a manifesto for a new way of doing history. My book “History from Below: The Making of a Radical Tradition” is now under way.

I’ve begun work on my new book project, now called “History from Below: The Making of a Radical Tradition.” Here is the preliminary working bookshelf on my desk. Notice how beaten up are my copies of the books by E.P. Thompson and Christopher Hill.

Bookishly Delightful kindly honors *Freedom Ship*: "I enjoyed rooting for their escape attempts to be successful. And I enjoyed rooting for the many compassionate people from all walks of life (sometimes very surprisingly so) who tried to help them." bookishlydelightful.substack.com/i/150792663/...

Coming soon! The new documentary I’ve made with director Tony Buba and a great creative team: “Becoming Benjamin Lay” asks, who was this radical abolitionist and why was he so long forgotten? How did his dwarfism impact his politics? What does he have to say to us today?

A joy of having written about the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay is to see how others are inspired by his story. Here is a song with lyrics by composer Lowell LaTerza Booth, “The Exhortation of Benjamin Lay.” She kindly gave me a copy when I met her at the Abington Quaker Meeting in November.

Maybe the best photograph I have ever taken. Honolulu, 2019.

I lost my English bulldog Jellybean, a 90-lb. brute, almost ten years ago, but I never cease to miss him, and rarely more than today. Here he is helping me to write *The Fearless Benjamin Lay* -- the best writing arrangement ever!

I’ve finally decided that my next book will be “How to Write History from Below” – one part on the tradition of historical writing, one part memoir, one part how-to-do-it, and one part an intervention in the “history wars.” Thanks to all of you for your encouragement on this topic over the years.

Happy new year, everyone, from NYC!

Here is an interview Peter Linebaugh and I did with Jakub Majmurek and @krytykapolityczna.bsky.social (Warsaw), for the publication of the Polish edition of *The Many-Headed Hydra*. Thanks to Jakub and everyone at KP for the interview and the translation. krytykapolityczna.pl/historia/pir...

Having written about religious radicalism, I was keen to see the film *The Testament of Ann Lee*, about the charismatic leader & the Shaker movement in the 18c. The film bends the history a bit but it evokes the subject and the times powerfully. Highly recommended. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zK_...

My review of Sven Beckert’s *Capitalism: A Global History* appears today on the front page of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. As you will see when you read the review, I highly recommend the book. Congratulations, Sven! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b...

Thank you, Ryan! All the best to you on your sabbatical!

Happy to learn that *Freedom Ship* has been selected one of the best books of 2025 by CounterPunch.org! www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/23/b...

Honored to learn that my book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea* has been selected as one of the best books of 2025 by #slaveryarchive. www.slaveryarchive.com/10-best-book...

Last night I saw the women’s volleyball team at the U. of Pittsburgh advance to the NCAA final four for the fifth consecutive year — sport excellence at the highest level! Here below, all-ACC setter Brooke Mosher hits a rocket jump serve to secure the win in set four against Purdue. Thrilling!

No one captured the sadness of working-class life like John Prine. Here are lyrics from his song “Souvenirs.” I hate graveyards and old pawn shops For they always bring me tears I can't forgive the way they robbed me Of my childhood souvenirs www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOTb...

David Lester, Paul Buhle, and I have created 4 graphic novels, all histories from below, published in the US by @beaconpress.bsky.social. They've been translated into Basque, Catalán, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, and Thai. We are looking for new translations. Any editors/presses to suggest?

A happy blast from the past: Friday night, I saw my former student and Pitt basketball great Jaron Brown at the Pitt game. Jaron was a key part of the “golden age” of Pitt basketball in the early 2000s – and the only player in the country who could cover Carmelo Anthony!

Delighted to say that our play, *The Return of Benjamin Lay*, has received its first translation and republication, in Thai, thanks to Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Sam Yan Press. My co-author Naomi Wallace and I fondly hope the play will be performed in Bangkok someday.

Check out this timely book! “Three cheers for this joyful, highly original engagement with our dark times; for its poetic ability to see beauty amid the wreckage; and perhaps most of all for its intellectual daring, all in the service of precious, stubborn hope.” www.bloomsbury.com/us/hopeful-p...

Honored to learn that the esteemed *Library Journal* has named *Freedom Ship* one of the best books of 2025.

Here is a poster of the new Basque edition of our book, *Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel* (with David Lester and Paul Buhle), at the Basque Music and Book Fair in Durango. This is the seventh language in which the book has appeared.

Proud to say, my former PhD student Jack Bouchard, now at Rutgers University, has published an outstanding new work in Atlantic history: *Terra Nova: Food, Water, and Work in an Early Atlantic World*, with Yale University Press. Congratulations, Jack! yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

A review of my book *Freedom Ship*, by Dave Bell for *Hidden City* (Phila.'s history). He calls the book "a ground-breaking, deeply researched, fascinating look into the long-neglected role of the maritime trade in enabling countless runaways to achieve freedom." hiddencityphila.org/2025/11/sail...

Cinquième tirage en poche de Pirates de tous les pays, de Marcus Rediker. En vérifiant les tirages, on constate que la première édition, en grand format, a paru fin novembre 2008, il y a… dix-sept ans. On est encore là. Et ce livre, loué ou critiqué, est devenu un classique.

Here is a review I wrote of Sven Beckert’s impressive new book, *Capitalism: A Global History*, for the New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b...

Grateful to @leehall.bsky.social for this account of the launch of our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* (PM Press), at the Abington Quaker Meeting House Nov. 11. Lee writes with passion, grace, and power, explaining why children need to know Lay's story. www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/25/f...

Highest respect to the late Jimmy Cliff & the Jamaican Rebel Music he sang as reggae became the world's most radical music. I saw him in 1978 in a small club in Philadelphia. When he sang, “But I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave,” the house came down. RIP, Jimmy.

It was a great pleasure to work with Sarah Bachman (artist, at left) and Michelle Markel (co-author, center) on the launch of our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* (Lay) at the Abington Quaker Meeting House Tuesday evening. Special thanks to Loretta Maguire Fox and Lee Hall!

We will hold the launch of our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* (PM Press), this evening, Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 6:00 pm at the Abington Quaker Meeting House, where Benjamin Lay worshipped and where he is buried. See the flyer below for more info. Please join us!

Ron Schatz wrote an excellent piece about the exhibition "Labor and Art," made from art in the collection of dear friends, Joe and Delsa White. In the Bost Building, 623 East 8th Ave., Homestead, PA, until Dec. 23, MWF 10 am - 12 noon and by appointment. Check it out! lawcha.org/2025/11/04/l...

Artist Leah Gordon’s exhibition, “Monument to the Vanquished Peasant,” is now up and running at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry through Jan. 26, 2026. Leah designed a special wallpaper for the show, featuring the many-headed hydra. I love it! www.theherbert.org/news/333/a-n...

In Bologna tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 pm I will be in conversation with my dear friend Matilde Cazzola about “history from below” at the Libreria modo infoshop, via Mascarella, 24/b. Join us! www.facebook.com/events/79022...

Last week I saw another painting by Caravaggio in person: “Supper at Emmaus” (1606), at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. For his technical mastery, innovative methods, and psychological/emotional depth, I regard him as the world’s greatest painter. I wish I could write history the way he paints.

Next Thursday, October 30, in Milan, at 6:30 pm, I will speak, at the invitation of my friend and editor Raf Scelsi, on the theme “Piracy and the Maritime Origins of the Working Class.” Join us at the Shake Bookshop, Via Ingegnoli 13.

Next week in Milan, Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7:00 pm, I will meet with the excellent historian Carlo Greppi and members of the research group "Laboratorio Lapsus” to discuss “history from below.” The event is organized by my publisher, elèuthera editrice. , Register here: shorturl.at/kjq2A and join us!

The smile on my face as I lectured at the University of St. Thomas two weeks ago says it all. I had a great time on my visit, thanks to Kanishka Chowdhury, his colleagues, and his students.