The Earth for Their Possession
Book Cover
I was in Hawaii to discuss ‘history from below’ together with that powerful practitioner of said history, scholarly abolitionist, writer, and colleague, Marcus Rediker. How is ‘history from below’ to be distinguished from similar forms of history writing, such as people’s history, radical history, labor history, social history, not to mention African American history, or women’s history? One distinction is that since ‘below’ implies ‘above,’ this practice of history always carries with it a notion of relationship as in, for example, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” Our conversation on history from below only began on the last day of my visit, Saturday, 20 April, a week after arriving in Honolulu, a week to learn about ‘above’ and ‘below’ in Hawai’i and what lay hidden by them, the commons.
Rediker and I meantime participated in several events concerning the launch of my new book, Red Round Globe Hot Burning: A Tale at the Crossroads of Commons & Closure, of Love & Terror, of Race & Class, and of Kate and Ned Despard. These events culminated with such challenging questions from his hard-working and brilliant students as: Why is the commons friendlier to women? How does the commons practically link the idealism of romanticism and radicalism? Can an historian trained with “privileges” write history from below?
The launch began with a gathering at the University of Hawaii organized by Nandita Sharma. Before the event Nandita, a proponent with her comrade and partner, Gaye Chan, of Eating in Public (also he name of their pamphlet). They brought along a portable kitchen to feed us and teach us how to cook a delicious meal from local “weeds.” They commoned for us and then passed along their recipe for Amaranth Goma-ae. At the University a circle of fifty people came to hear about Red Round Globe Hot Burning whose title comes from William Blake. I recited,
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
