radical history

Michael Honey: Eig's MLK Bio Needed to Engage King's Belief in Labor Solidarity

A historian and editor of MLK's speeches praises Jonathan Eig's new biography, but says that the importance King placed on labor solidarity as a foundation of social justice is a part of the story that needs to be understood today. 

Can the Left Take Back Identity Politics?

by Umut Özkırımlı

Recovering the liberatory potential of identity politics means going back to the term's source—the Combahee River Collective—and recognizing its radical roots and embrace of coalition-building and politics.

New Hampshire Honored its Native "Rebel Girl"—Until Locals Realized She was a Red

Two weeks after the state installed a commemorative marker near Concord, New Hampshire, the state legislature removed the monument, with Republican members calling the honoring of the labor organizer "a slap in the face" because of her association with the Communist party. 

MLK: Christian, Radical

by Jonathan Eig

Veneration has hollowed out Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy, and obscured the way that his political leadership always aimed at radical transformation of American society, argues the author of an acclaimed new biography. 

Chad Williams on W.E.B. DuBois and the First World War

Michelle Moyd and David W. Blight comment on Chad Williams's discussion of DuBois's unfinished manuscript about the deep questions of race, democracy, and world affairs raised by the first World War. 

Contemporary Pundits Need a Refresher on Populism's History

by Steve Babson

"Elites who tar their critics in the U.S. with the sly pejorative of 'populist' count on our collective amnesia. They’d rather the real Populists remained forgotten, along with the potential they represented."

A Conversation with the Editors of a Collection of DuBois's Internationalist Thought

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts strive to demonstrate that DuBois's influential writings on African American life and American racism are inseparable from his global critiques of racism and imperialism, and his insistence on connecting racism with labor exploitation. 

Review: The Paradoxes of CLR James

by Gerald Horne

A new biography by John L. Williams examines the connections that the pathbreaking radical intellectual CLR James drew between the Haitian revolution and global struggles for emancipation in the 20th century. 

"Class War" is Back in the Headlines. But What is it, Really?

by Mark Steven

"The proclamation of class war is what linguists might describe as a speech act: a performative utterance that, when said, is also a kind of action," invoked in the hope of moving from class struggle to open conflict. 

The Incarcerated are Producing a "Shadow Canon" of Writing on Prisons and Society

Scholars like Doran Larson and Vesla Mae Weaver are working to bring the writings of incarcerated men and women to light as valuable sources of insight not only on prison life but fundamental questions of freedom. 

Martin Sostre's Vision of Collective Liberation

by Garrett Felber

Martin Sostre's refusal to allow the New York prison system to subject him to invasive and violating searches showed how he placed bodily autonomy at the center of a radical critique of racial oppression. At what would be his 100th birthday, his legacy is considered. 

When World War II Pacifists "Conquered the Future"

by Eric Laursen

Daniel Akst profiles the pacifists who opposed American involvement in the Second World War and their influence on the civil rights and peace movements that followed. 

Black Power is a Love Story

by Dan Berger

While the movement is popularly associated with anger, love was the emotional force that enabled activists to struggle for justice against powerful opposition. 

How We Brought the Radical History of Pirates to Life

by David Lester

Visual artist David Lester discusses the creative process of developing a graphic version of the radical history of piracy, a collaboration with historians Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle. 

Why We Need Pirates

by Paul Buhle, Marcus Rediker and David Lester

Though vilified in popular culture, the history of piracy shows that many crews were egalitarian bands of maritime workers escaping their exploitation at the hands of merchant companies and navies. A new graphic adaptation of a recent history of piracy tells the story. 

William Longbeard, the Unjustly Forgotten Radical of 12th Century London

by Dominic Alexander

The rebellion sparked by William Fitz Osbert, the bearded holy man of London, presaged the growing assertiveness of the rural and urban poor in English politics. 

Revisiting Kropotkin 180 Years After His Birth

by Sam Ben-Meir

The rise of automation and the concurrent squeeze of workers in the name of profit offer an opportunity to revisit the ideas of Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin as a forward-looking critique of power. 

No Socialism in America?

by Michael Kazin

Utopian socialist Robert Owen's heralded visit to Congress in 1825 shows that doubts about the relationship of liberty and economic inequality, and the proposal of socialism as an alternative, have been part of the American political scene from the beginning. 

Americans Have Always Imagined and Demanded Better Alternatives; Those Alternatives Have Been Hidden

by Jamelle Bouie

Thomas Skidmore's critique of inequality held that the inequality of private property consigned the majority of humanity to toil for the enjoyment of a minority, a situation irreconcilable with democracy. 

Stephen Shames's Photos Document the Lives and Activism of Black Panther Party Women

As a college student, Shames built trust with the members of the BPP and documented their activism. Now, working with former member Ericka Huggins, a book of those photos preserves the history.