Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.
Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.
Linebaugh was born in 1942. [1] He was a student of British labor historian E. P. Thompson, and received his Ph.D. in British history from the University of Warwick in 1975. [2] He has taught at University of Rochester, New York University, University of Massachusetts–Boston, Franconia College, Harvard University, and Tufts University. Linebaugh retired from the University of Toledo in 2014. [3]
About the second edition of his book The London Hanged—and about Linebaugh's unique place in the pantheon of 21st-century historians more broadly—Nicholas Lezard wrote, "For a start, this is a work of proper history: with all due respect to Dava Sobel . . . and others who set out to make their histories entertaining and, crucially, popular by giving them a narrative, this is a work by a proper historian, whose only concession to the marketplace is the fact that he has made a connection that should command our attention." [4] Historian Robin Kelley praised Linebaugh's book The Magna Carta Manifesto (2008), arguing that there is "not a more important historian living today. Period." [5]
Linebaugh's writing has appeared in New Left Review , the New York University Law Review, Radical History Review , and Social History . He is also a frequent contributor to CounterPunch .
Linebaugh is married to Michaela Brennan. He has two daughters, Kate and Riley Linebaugh. [6]
Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta or sometimes Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons who demanded that the King confirm the Charter of Liberties, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood by their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War.
The Levellers were a political movement active during the English Civil War who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populism, as shown by its emphasis on equal natural rights, and their practice of reaching the public through pamphlets, petitions and vocal appeals to the crowd.
Due process of law is application by the state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to a case so all legal rights that are owed to a person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law.
David Robert Starkey is an English historian, radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kendal Grammar School before reading history at Cambridge on a scholarship. There he specialised in Tudor history, writing a thesis on King Henry VIII's household. From Cambridge, he moved to the London School of Economics, where he was a lecturer in history until 1998. He has written several books on the Tudors.
William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings KG was an English nobleman. A loyal follower of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, he became a close friend and one of the most important courtiers of King Edward IV, whom he served as Lord Chamberlain. At the time of Edward's death he was one of the most powerful and richest men in England. He was executed following accusations of treason by Edward's brother and ultimate successor, Richard III. The date of his death is disputed; early histories give 13 June, which is the traditional date.
John "Jack" Sheppard, or "Honest Jack", was a notorious English thief and prison escapee of early 18th-century London.
Constantia Jones was a prostitute in London, which was then part of the Kingdom of Great Britain, during the term of Prime Minister Robert Walpole. She was sentenced to hang for stealing 36 shillings and a half-guinea from one of her clients.
The inclosure acts created legal property rights to land previously held in common in England and Wales, particularly open fields and common land. Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 individual acts enclosing public land were passed, affecting 28,000 km2.
Victor Serge, born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich, was a Russian writer, poet, Marxist revolutionary, and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was critical of the Stalinist regime and remained a revolutionary Marxist until his death. He was a close supporter of the Left Opposition and associate of Leon Trotsky.
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, bordering Berkshire and just over 20 miles (32 km) west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with its adjoining hillside, the site of memorials. Runnymede Borough is named after the area, Runnymede being at its northernmost point.
Lincoln Castle is a major medieval castle constructed in Lincoln, England, during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is one of only two such castles in the country, the other being at Lewes in East Sussex. Lincoln Castle remained in use as a prison and court into modern times and is one of the better preserved castles in England; the Crown Courts continue to this day. It is open to the public most days of the week and possible to walk around the walls from which there are views of the castle complex, cathedral, the city, and surrounding countryside. Displayed within the castle is one of only four surviving exemplars of the Magna Carta of 1215. The castle is now owned by Lincolnshire County Council and is a scheduled monument.
Edward Marcus Despard, an Irish officer in the service of the British Crown, gained notoriety as a colonial administrator for refusing to recognise racial distinctions in law and, following his recall to London, as a republican conspirator. Despard's associations with the London Corresponding Society, the United Irishmen and United Britons led to his trial and execution in 1803 as the alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate the King.
David A. Carpenter is an English historian and writer, and Professor of Medieval History at King's College London where he has been working since 1988. Carpenter specialises in the life and reign of Henry III. Historian Dan Jones described him as "one of Britain's foremost medievalists".
Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 8th Baron Welles, was the son of Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, and Joan Willoughby, 7th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. He was the prime mover in an uprising against Edward IV in 1470, although his actions were possibly orchestrated by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
Sir James Clarke Holt, also known as J. C. Holt and Jim Holt, was an English medieval historian, known particularly for his work on Magna Carta. He was the third Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, serving between 1981 and 1988.
The Charter of the Forest of 1217 re-established rights of access for free men to the royal forest that had been eroded by King William the Conqueror and his heirs. Many of its provisions were in force for centuries afterwards. It was originally sealed in England by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
The title of The Woodcutter and the Trees covers a complex of fables that are of West Asian and Greek origins, the latter ascribed to Aesop. All of them concern the need to be wary of harming oneself through misplaced generosity.
Margot C. Finn, is a British historian and academic, who specialises in Britain and the British colonial world during the long nineteenth century. She has been Professor of Modern British History at the University College, London (UCL) since 2012. Finn was previously the President of the Royal Historical Society and a trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Stephen Church is a writer and professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia and is regarded as an expert on King John. In 2015 his book King John: England, Magna Carta, and the Making of a Tyrant was one of the Financial Times best books of the year.
Sally E. Hadden is an American legal historian and professor of history. She specializes in the histories of early America, slave law, and the American legal profession.
