History from Below the Decks, with Atlantic Historian Marcus Rediker

Billings Public Library proudly announces its hosting of Professor Marcus Rediker as a special guest speaker for this year’s Summer Reading program. Rediker will appear via Zoom and share his thoughts on the ocean as a medium for conducting “history from below,” the historical approach that centers the story on the experiences of the ordinary people as opposed to the elites'. The event is free and open to the public.

Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. His “histories from below” have won numerous awards, including the George Washington Book Prize, and have been translated into seventeen languages worldwide.  He is the author of several books, including The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf who became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist. and an adaptation, Prophet against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel, with David Lester and Paul Buhle.  He has produced a film, Ghosts of Amistad, with director Tony Buba.  He is currently working as guest curator in the JMW Turner Gallery at Tate Britain and writing a book about escaping slavery by sea in antebellum America.