On Freedom and Revolt


Book Description

This book is dedicated to all those heroes and heroines who have seen and will see life as a daring adventure to be given in the name of service to humanity, to justice and to freedom. We know a few of them, but many others are lost among the nameless crowd. Albert Camus and Martin Luther King Jr are two first class role models who lived out their passion for justice and freedom. Today, they are among the heroes who are well remember around the world. The following words seem appropriate to reflect what they stood for: "For all who have sought to make a difference in the lives of men by their service and life, and to lighten the dark places of the earth" (Source: inscription on the wall of the Civil Rights Museum, 16th street, Birmingham, Alabama, USA) (Author unknown).Camus and King were born, reared and lived as personal witnesses to the political, economic and social ravages of their time and place. Neither man was willing to stand in the presence of tyranny, oppression, racism, exploitation, murder, war and do nothing. Therefore their response, based on their calling, was a revolt for freedom.Camus was the moral conscience of thousands of people, young and old, in Europe, the United States, and other places. He was able to impart to generations past and present a vision of hope and courage that gave optimism to doubt and uncertainty.Likewise, Dr. King in his nonviolent American civil rights struggle has left a message for present and future times a philosophy of militant nonviolent revolt in the face of overwhelming nullification against himself and his followers that is infused with hope, justice and love.Comparing the writings of these two Nobel Laureates and international hero-scholars is put forth here as a contribution to the never-ending quest for a more just, humane and rational world where we coexist in a civilized society in pursuit of being "My brother's keeper."




For the Freedom of Zion


Book Description

A definitive account of the great revolt of Jews against Rome and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple “A lucid yet terrifying account of the 'Jewish War'—the uprising of the Jews in 66 CE, and the Roman empire’s savage response, in a story that stretches from Rome to Jerusalem.”—John Ma, Columbia University This deeply researched and insightful book examines the causes, course, and historical significance of the Jews’ failed revolt against Rome from 66 to 74 CE, including the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Based on a comprehensive study of all the evidence and new statistical data, Guy Rogers argues that the Jewish rebels fought for their religious and political freedom and lost due to military mistakes. Rogers contends that while the Romans won the war, they lost the peace. When the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, they thought that they had defeated the God of Israel and eliminated Jews as a strategic threat to their rule. Instead, they ensured the Jews’ ultimate victory. After their defeat Jews turned to the written words of their God, and following those words led the Jews to recover their freedom in the promised land. The war's tragic outcome still shapes the worldview of billions of people today.




Albert Camus


Book Description

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing philosophy, literature, politics and history, John Foley examines the full breadth of Camus' ideas to provide a comprehensive and rigorous study of his political and philosophical thought and a significant contribution to a range of debates current in Camus research. Foley argues that the coherence of Camus' thought can best be understood through a thorough understanding of the concepts of 'the absurd' and 'revolt' as well as the relation between them. This book includes a detailed discussion of Camus' writings for the newspaper "Combat", a systematic analysis of Camus' discussion of the moral legitimacy of political violence and terrorism, a reassessment of the prevailing postcolonial critique of Camus' humanism, and a sustained analysis of Camus' most important and frequently neglected work, "L'Homme revolte" (The Rebel).




Revolt in Paradise


Book Description




The Rebel


Book Description

By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution that resonates as an ardent, eloquent, and supremely rational voice of conscience for our tumultuous times. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human nature, manifested in man's timeless Promethean struggle against the conditions of his existence, as well as the popular uprisings against established orders throughout history. And yet, with an eye toward the French Revolution and its regicides and deicides, he shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny. Translated from the French by Anthony Bower.




The Amistad Rebellion


Book Description

"Vividly drawn . . . this stunning book honors the achievement of the captive Africans who fought for—and won—their freedom.”—The Philadelphia Tribune A unique account of the most successful slave rebellion in American history, now updated with a new epilogue—from the award-winning author of The Slave Ship In this powerful and highly original account, Marcus Rediker reclaims the Amistad rebellion for its true proponents: the enslaved Africans who risked death to stake a claim for freedom. Using newly discovered evidence and featuring vividly drawn portraits of the rebels, their captors, and their abolitionist allies, Rediker reframes the story to show how a small group of courageous men fought and won an epic battle against Spanish and American slaveholders and their governments. The successful Amistad rebellion changed the very nature of the struggle against slavery. As a handful of self-emancipated Africans steered their own course for freedom, they opened a way for millions to follow. This edition includes a new epilogue about the author's trip to Sierra Leona to search for Lomboko, the slave-trading factory where the Amistad Africans were incarcerated, and other relics and connections to the Amistad rebellion, especially living local memory of the uprising and the people who made it.




On Freedom and Revolt


Book Description

This book is dedicated to all those heroes and heroines who have seen and will see life as a daring adventure to be given in the name of service to humanity, to justice and to freedom. We know a few of them, but many others are lost among the nameless crowd. Albert Camus and Martin Luther King Jr are two first class role models who lived out their passion for justice and freedom. Today, they are among the heroes who are well remember around the world. The following words seem appropriate to reflect what they stood for: "For all who have sought to make a difference in the lives of men by their service and life, and to lighten the dark places of the earth" (Source: inscription on the wall of the Civil Rights Museum, 16th street, Birmingham, Alabama, USA) (Author unknown).Camus and King were born, reared and lived as personal witnesses to the political, economic and social ravages of their time and place. Neither man was willing to stand in the presence of tyranny, oppression, racism, exploitation, murder, war and do nothing. Therefore their response, based on their calling, was a revolt for freedom.Camus was the moral conscience of thousands of people, young and old, in Europe, the United States, and other places. He was able to impart to generations past and present a vision of hope and courage that gave optimism to doubt and uncertainty.Likewise, Dr. King in his nonviolent American civil rights struggle has left a message for present and future times a philosophy of militant nonviolent revolt in the face of overwhelming nullification against himself and his followers that is infused with hope, justice and love.Comparing the writings of these two Nobel Laureates and international hero-scholars is put forth here as a contribution to the never-ending quest for a more just, humane and rational world where we coexist in a civilized society in pursuit of being "My brother's keeper."




Lust for Liberty


Book Description

Lust for Liberty challenges long-standing views of popular medieval revolts. Comparing rebellions in northern and southern Europe over two centuries, Samuel Cohn analyzes their causes and forms, their leadership, the role of women, and the suppression or success of these revolts. Popular revolts were remarkably common--not the last resort of desperate people. Leaders were largely workers, artisans, and peasants. Over 90 percent of the uprisings pitted ordinary people against the state and were fought over political rights--regarding citizenship, governmental offices, the barriers of ancient hierarchies--rather than rents, food prices, or working conditions. After the Black Death, the connection of the word liberty with revolts increased fivefold, and its meaning became more closely tied with notions of equality instead of privilege. The book offers a new interpretation of the Black Death and the increase of and change in popular revolt from the mid-1350s to the early fifteenth century. Instead of structural explanations based on economic, demographic, and political models, this book turns to the actors themselves--peasants, artisans, and bourgeois--finding that the plagues wrought a new urgency for social and political change and a new self- and class-confidence in the efficacy of collective action.




The Practice of Freedom


Book Description

The last two decades have seen a re-birth of practices and principles that connect with the ‘soul’ of left-libertarianism, although they may not explicitly engage with the anarchist tradition. From practices of mapping and land-use planning to local protests and transnational social movements, this book explores a variety of case studies that trace the influences of, and affinities between, anarchist and geographic practice. The chapters explore the vast possibilities of inventive, exploratory libertarian practices from contemporary and historic contexts around the globe. They examine the ways in which various spatial practices have been compatible with left-libertarian principles, and explore the extent to which anarchists, neo-anarchists and libertarian autonomists have animated these waves of protest and forms of resistance. In an age that is desperately in need of critical new directions, this volume shows that a serious (re)turn toward anarchist thought and practice can challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond their traditional frontiers of geographical praxis. .




The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825


Book Description

In June 1825 the Cuban countryside witnessed a large African-led slave rebellion -- a revolt that began a cycle of slave uprisings lasting until the mid-1840s. The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825 examines this movement and its participants for the first time, highlighting the significance of African warriors in New World plantation society. Unlike previous slave revolts -- led by alliances between free people of color and slaves, blacks and mulattoes, Africans and Creoles, and rural and urban populations -- only African-born men organized the uprising of 1825. From this year onwards, Barcia argues, slave uprisings in Cuba underwent a phase of Africanization that concluded only in the mid-1840s with the conspiracy of La Escalera, a large movement organized by free colored men with ample participation of the slave population. The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825 offers a detailed examination of the sociopolitical and economic background of the Matanzas rebellion, both locally and colonially. Based on extensive primary sources, particularly court records, the study provides a microhistorical analysis of the days that preceded this event, the uprising itself, and the days and months that followed. Barcia gives the Great African Revolt of 1825 its rightful place in the history of slavery in Cuba, the Caribbean, and the Americas.