tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43057980243213067322011-04-21T23:59:15.289-04:00Liberties and Commons for AllPeter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-88648543676148824592008-06-29T13:59:00.003-04:002008-06-29T14:07:38.185-04:00<div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Boyd Tonkin: A Week in Books</span></span><br /><br /></div><div>Friday, 20 June 2008<br /><br />Strange times make strange bedfellows. When he resigned to trigger a by-election and campaign for lost liberties, David Davis doffed an obligatory cap to Magna Carta – sealed at Runnymede 793 years and five days ago. I have some good news for the maverick Tory, and some not so good. On the positive side, a recent book could help him in his long march back to freedom. It traces a proud lineage of battles against the over-mighty state with the "Great Charter" to hand. And it does so with a passion, eloquence and lyrical reverence for the hard-won freedoms of Old England that take the breath away. On the other hand, its author could be called the finest socialist historian in the US. Except that, I suspect, he might even prefer "communist".<br /><br />Peter Linebaugh was a student of the great EP Thompson who, with him, co-authored a classic study of the hang-'em-and-transport-'em class-based "justice" of the 18th century, Albion's Fatal Tree. Later, The London Hanged offered a masterly – and moving – local variation on that theme. With Marcus Rediker, The Many-headed Hydra presented the unruly Atlantic milieu of pirates, sailors and runaway slaves as a crucible of underclass revolt. It made those wild buccaneers into the seaborne forebears of Che Guevara. Indeed, Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow (in Pirates of the Caribbean) captured the Linebaugh-Rediker thesis rather well.<br /><br />Linebaugh can often sound like the most romantic of radical historians. In The Magna Carta Manifesto: liberties and commons for all (University of California Press, £14.95), he soars higher than ever with an almost rhapsodic account of the way that the rights wrested from King John on the "lovely field" of Runnymede have stiffened the spines of many later freedom-fighters. To him, the heirs of 1215 range from the Levellers in the English Revolution to America's Founding Fathers; from anti-slavery militants to civil-rights agitators. Mired in the "war on terror", he argues, we need its shield more than ever. "Magna Carta is required to open the secret state. Magna Carta is needed for the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay. Magna Carta is needed for the prisoners who have been rendered to torture chambers in other countries... Magna Carta is needed to condemn torture altogether."<br /><br />Linebaugh's rhetorical flights do come down to earth. He shows how Magna Carta was (in his analyisis) misread and distorted to buttress a ruling-class doctrine of "private property, laissez-faire and English civilisation". He mocks its elevation into a misunderstood "sacred cow", and quotes the peerless parody in 1066 and All That: "That everyone should be free (except the common people)... That the Barons should not be tried except by a jury of other Barons who would understand."<br /><br />Crucially, Linebaugh maintains that the "common people" do count. If we pay proper attention to the "Charter of the Forest" that joined Magna Carta in 1217 (with both ratified by Edward I in 1297), then ancient economic rights to "commons" – to subsistence and livelihood – will loom as large as protection from bad laws and unjust rulers.<br /><br />William Morris would love this book; and so, I think, would William Blake. For me, it threw into glaring relief the curious paradox of modern British politics. So-called "conservatives" and New Labour clones seem to believe in obliterating every stubborn memory of the past to maximise the profits of corporate business or to gratify the security state's voracious appetite for power. For a genuine devotion to history and heritage, look to the tradition-conscious Left, aided by those High Tory relics with whom they share so much. So, if David Davis is truly sincere in his ecumenical mission, he should give Peter Linebaugh a call.<br /><br />http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-a-week-in-books-850689.html<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-8864854367614882459?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-37734878650678549112008-06-29T13:55:00.001-04:002008-06-29T13:59:17.231-04:00<div>May 27th interview on The World in Time with Lewis Lapham </div><div><br /></div>www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/podcast/lewis_lapham.html<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-3773487865067854911?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-88026091461109132442008-06-29T13:52:00.002-04:002008-06-29T13:55:28.627-04:00Here's  video from the New York launch by Dee Dee Halleck<div><br /></div><div>http://deedeehalleck.blogspot.com/search?q=magna+carta</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-8802609146110913244?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-49624227001955607802008-04-15T11:19:00.001-04:002008-06-29T14:07:06.838-04:00<div>25 April 2008<br /></div><div>lecture and book signing</div><div>Historical Materialism </div><div>First North American conference</div><div>Toronto, Canada</div><div><br /></div><div>May Day 2008</div><div>"The Commons and Magna Carta" </div><div>Bristol Radical History Association</div><div>Bristol, U.K. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-4962422700195560780?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-58189976818176621312008-04-15T11:17:00.001-04:002008-04-18T12:39:01.064-04:0027 March 2008<div>Book Signing</div><div>The Seminary Co-op Bookstores</div><div>1301 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637</div><div>semcoop.booksense.com</div><div><br /></div><div>26 March 2008</div><div>Lecture, History &amp; Sociology</div><div>Loyola University</div><div>Chicago, Illinois</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-5818997681817662131?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-19842009889729683042008-04-15T11:07:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:27:32.838-04:0012 March 2008<div>"The Journey Home Show" </div><div>radio interview with Diego Mulligan</div><div>KSFR, Santa Fe, New Mexico</div><div>www.ksfr.org</div><div><br /></div><div>11 March 2008</div><div>"The Peter Werbe Show" </div><div>WRIF, WCSX, WMGC</div><div>Detroit, MI</div><div><br /></div><div>3 March 2008</div><div>radio interview with Krys Boyd, "Think" </div><div>KERA, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas</div><div>www.kera.org</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-1984200988972968304?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-58500315578795967442008-04-15T11:06:00.002-04:002008-04-15T11:07:37.743-04:0028 February 2008<div>XVth E.P. Thompson Lecture</div><div>University of Pittsburgh</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-5850031557879596744?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-16798087630475416972008-04-15T11:06:00.001-04:002008-04-15T11:06:54.817-04:0020 February 2008<div>Reading, Discussion, Signing</div><div>Law School, University of Toledo</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-1679808763047541697?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-72479967895564158332008-04-15T11:05:00.001-04:002008-04-15T11:06:00.452-04:007 February 2008<div>Reading and Signing </div><div>Shaman Drum Book Store</div><div>Ann Arbor, MI</div><div><br /></div><div>www.shamandrum.com/bookshop/</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-7247996789556415833?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-50728471302853786152008-04-15T10:54:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:26:47.897-04:00<div>2 February 2008</div><div>Reading and Signing</div><div>Bluestockings Book Store, Manhattan, New York</div><div>www.bluestockings.com</div><div><br /></div>1 February 2008<div>Michael Ratner &amp; Peter Linebaugh at the New York Launch</div><div>Dee Dee Halleck, "Magna Carta," Hand Held Visions</div><div>deedeehallack.blogspot.com</div><div><br /></div><div>31 January 2008</div><div>Lecture on The Magna Carta Manifesto</div><div>Atlantic Studies Program</div><div>New York University</div><div><br /></div><div>31 January 2008</div><div>Radio interview with Doug Henwood</div><div>"Behind the News," Pacifica Foundation, WBAI, New York</div><div><br /></div><div>31 January 2008</div><div>Radio interview with Michael Smith</div><div>The Lawyers' Guild, KPFK, Los Angeles</div><div><br /></div><div>29 January 2008</div><div>Radio interview with Michael Ratner</div><div>"Law &amp; Disorder," Pacifica Foundation, WBAI, New York</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-5072847130285378615?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305798024321306732.post-20710117843634747422008-04-15T10:25:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:22:26.596-04:00The Magna Carta Manifesto was published on February 10, 2008. The author began speaking on the Magna Carta and the Commons first in India in January 2005, then in Bristol in Novemberr 2006 and again in April 2007 at Berkeley City College in California. <div><br /></div><div>What follows is a list of the publicity prior to publication. </div><div><br /></div><div>26 December 2007 </div><div>Seminar with Gustavo Esteva, Universidad de la Tierra</div><div>Oaxaca, Mexico</div><div><br /></div><div>15/16 December 2007</div><div>"A People's Penny for the Magna Carta"</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Counterpunch </span></div><div>www.counterpunch.org/linebaugh12152007.html</div><div><br /></div><div>7 December 2007</div><div>Lecture, "The Commons and Magna Carta"</div><div>Conference, "From Magna Carta to the Sky Trust: Historical Arc of the Commons"</div><div>Center for 21st Century Studies, </div><div>University of Milwaukee Wisconsin</div><div><br /></div><div>10 November 2007</div><div>Presentation, "1968 Confidential!" Movement for a Democratic Society,</div><div>Loyola University, Chicago, Illionois</div><div><br /></div><div>27 October, 2007</div><div>Keynote Address, "The Commons and Magna Carta"</div><div>Hudson Bay Company, Canvassers' Conference</div><div>Paducah, Kentucky</div><div><br /></div><div>27 April 2007</div><div>Keynote, "The Commons: From Magna Carta to May Day"</div><div>Crisis of the California Commons, California Studies Association</div><div>Berkeley City College, Berkeley California</div><div><br /></div><div>27 November 2006</div><div>Interview with Michael Portillo, "Things I Forgot to Remember"</div><div>chosen as "the Pick of the Week" </div><div>BBC Radio Four &amp; the Open University</div><div>www.open2.net/historyand the arts/history/magnacarta.html</div><div><br /></div><div>3 November 2006 </div><div>Keynote, "The Commons and Magna Carta" </div><div>Bristol Radical History Association</div><div><br /></div><div>3 May 2005 <br /></div><div>"Magna Carta and May Day" </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Counterpunch</span></div><div>www.counterpunch.org/linebaugh05032005.html</div><div><br /></div><div>7 January 2005 </div><div>Keynote Address, "The Commons and Magna Carta" </div><div>Delhi, India</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4305798024321306732-2071011784363474742?l=magnacartamanifesto.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Peter Linebaughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02721764543466909109noreply@blogger.com