Anyone know anything about this author?

[Rumba Rue]

The author is Marcus Rediker, has anyone heard of him?

He is a historical writer and has some books that seem interesting, but not sure. If you know of him, what do you think of his books?

He has written:

The Slave Ship

All Nations: Pirates in the Golden Age

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Man

[blackjohn]

Ha! In some circles that question would bring on a debate as fierce as the bucket boot debate can rage here, or the authenticity vs not debate.

Suffice to say, there are some who think he's a godless commie or the worst thing since the invention of rock and roll.

Then others think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It all depends on which side of the table you sit with regards to the "pirates and democracy" debate.

If you like that line of thought, you'll like Rediker. If you don't you'll scoff at the things he says.

[Graydog]

Here's his bio and activisim from his own website:

His Website

His Bio

I was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1951, to Buford and Faye Rediker, the first of their two sons. I come from a working‑class family, with roots in the mines and factories of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia; I grew up in Nashville and Richmond. I attended Vanderbilt University, dropped out of school and worked in a factory for three years, and graduated with a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976. I went to the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in history.

I taught at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1994, lived in Moscow for a year (1984-5), and am currently Professor and Chair in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh.

I have, over the years, been active in a variety of social justice and peace movements, most recently in the worldwide campaign to abolish the death penalty.

I am, by ancestry, Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, and Cherokee; I am, by upbringing, a Southerner; I am, by generation, of the New Left; I am, by choice, a citizen of the world.

I have written (or co-written) five books: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1987), Who Built America? (1989), volume one; The Many-Headed Hydra (2000), Villains of All Nations (2004) and The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007). It has been my good fortune to lecture throughout the United States and abroad, in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Moscow, Sydney, and Tokyo; to have my writings translated into French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish; and to hold fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment of the Humanities, and the Andrew P. Mellon Foundation. It has been my much greater good fortune to be married to Wendy Z. Goldman, a professor of Russian/Soviet history at Carnegie Mellon University. We have two children, Zeke and Eva, and a -bulldog, Jellybean.

His activisim (once again from his website)

The kind of history I study and write, which is variously called peoples' history, social history, or "history from below," shows that working people and their movements have, over time, been active, creative forces in the making of history. I believe that we can learn from this kind of history, that we can find inspiration in it, that we can use it as we work toward a more just and humane future. History from below helps us to see that peoples' struggles - over land, labor, rights, and power - are centuries old and largely continuous, down to the present. I have therefore tried to combine scholarship and activism, the study of movements from below with the making of movements from below. I have taken part in movements against the war in Vietnam, against the interventions of the U.S. government in Central America in the 1980s, against apartheid in South Africa, against environmental destruction, and against all forms of exploitation and oppression, based on race, class, and gender. In recent years I have worked to win a new trial for Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and to abolish capital punishment in the U.S. and throughout the world. To anyone interested in the struggle against the death penalty, I would recommend three websites: the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the Death Penalty Information Center, and the Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. I would also recommend two groups that are especially important to struggles for justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I live: The Thomas Merton Center and Just Harvest. Two other useful websites are Midnight Notes and Pessimism of the Mind (an anti-war site). I have always believed that the struggle for a better future must be a struggle to find new, more inclusive, more egalitarian ideas, in the past and in the present.

[Patrick Hand]

Knee-jerk reaction.... hey... you know where he is coming from now.... kinda like when your read Bruce Clatton.... he says that he is telling the Union side of the American Civil War.... and Shelby Foot (? I might have gotten his name wrong) tells the Southern side of it.... But you know thier bias.......

[Bilgemunky]

hey... you know where he is coming from now....

Excellent point! I'll take reading something by a self-admitted activist any day over someone pretending at strict impartiality. At least the activist ADMITS they have a bias, and we can account for it accordingly.

[Fox]

Speaking as a godless commie it's not Rediker's bias that offends me so much as his mis-use of sources to support that bias. His books are worth reading, but bear in mind that his partiality is often presented as fact.

[Dutchman]

wish i had known about some of his views before i made a profit for him.

Gives a good overall view and impression of the era but if you do your own research you can easily dispute some of his info.

[switters]

Lets face it, a lot of GAOP history comes from Dafoe, Captain Johnson if you like, and he had an agenda. Granted, his agenda was the same as the person paying his salary at the time, but he wasn't exactly an historian.

Having got that out of the way, read as much as you can and take what you like until you you find a better source.

[Longarm]

Can't say as I like all of his views and opions but, I do like reading some of his books. They make you think and question things that you thought you knew or hadn't thought about before. If a book can do that then to me it's a good thing. Even if you don't agree with the author the debate and search for the real facts can be rewarding in its own right.