Ben Waber hat The many-headed hydra von Peter Linebaugh besprochen
A Wide-Ranging but Poorly Structured and Written History
3 Sterne
The core premise of this book is that when one charts the actions of colonial and imperial subjects on both sides of the Atlantic through the early 1800s, one sees that the common people regularly revolted against deplorable working conditions and extractive/genocidal orders. This is actually argued fairly convincingly, if in an extremely convoluted fashion. It's also muddled amidst a lot of analysis that is, to put it kindly, unsubstantiated theorization. It's also very philosophical - treating as logical what are fundamentally empirical questions. Finally, the writing is insufferable, with self-importance and overly flowery prose oozing out of every sentence. I also swear that the authors just did CTRL+F for "hydra" in any historical text from the era and then reprinted it here, which was maybe cute the first time but is otherwise just an excuse to get wasted in a drinking game. It's a shame because there is some …
The core premise of this book is that when one charts the actions of colonial and imperial subjects on both sides of the Atlantic through the early 1800s, one sees that the common people regularly revolted against deplorable working conditions and extractive/genocidal orders. This is actually argued fairly convincingly, if in an extremely convoluted fashion. It's also muddled amidst a lot of analysis that is, to put it kindly, unsubstantiated theorization. It's also very philosophical - treating as logical what are fundamentally empirical questions. Finally, the writing is insufferable, with self-importance and overly flowery prose oozing out of every sentence. I also swear that the authors just did CTRL+F for "hydra" in any historical text from the era and then reprinted it here, which was maybe cute the first time but is otherwise just an excuse to get wasted in a drinking game. It's a shame because there is some good work here assembling typically overlooked history, but unless you're really interested in this topic you're better off skipping it.