Quote of the week!

The LA Times is out today with an interesting review of "The Slave Ship: a Human History" by Marcus Rediker. Rediker is a historian at the University of Pittsburgh who was influenced by the New Left movement in the 1960s and its emphasis on "people's history" -- seeing history through the eyes of ordinary folks. In a recently interview Rediker said,

"To retrieve the bottom-up perspective is, in my eye, itself an act of justice. It is an expression of solidarity with exploited and oppressed people past and present.... I also believe there is a poetics of peoples' history, and that if we can capture the poetry of struggle, the beauty and truth of what people have tried to do for themselves, often under the most difficult circumstances and at the cost of their lives, if we can bring them into the light of speech, we can take their example as inspiration and guidance.... This point is a star I steer by."

Sounds like a pretty great guy. And the book looks fascinating.