Peter Linebaugh
American historian
Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.
Early life
Linebaugh was born in 1942. He was a student of British labor historian E. P. Thompson, and received his Ph.D. in British history from the University of Warwick in 1975. He has taught at University of Rochester, New York University, University of Massachusetts–Boston, Franconia College, Harvard University, and Tufts University. Linebaugh retired from the University of Toledo in 2014.
Career
About the second edition of his book The London Hanged — and about Linebaugh's unique place in the pantheon of 21st-century historians more broadly — Nicholas Lezard wrote, "For a start, this is a work of proper history: with all due respect to Dava Sobel . . . and others who set out to make their histories entertaining and, crucially, popular by giving them a narrative, this is a work by a proper historian, whose only concession to the marketplace is the fact that he has made a connection that should command our attention." Historian Robin Kelley praised Linebaugh's book The Magna Carta Manifesto (2008), arguing that there is "not a more important historian living today. Period."
Linebaugh's writing has appeared in New Left Review, the New York University Law Review, Radical History Review, and Social History. He is also a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.
“Peter Linebaugh” enters the record as american historian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peter, Linebaugh and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Peter Linebaugh” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peter, Linebaugh and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7175473. VIAF identifies the subject as 39430325. The Library of Congress control number is n91124695. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1975, 2014 and 2008.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Peter Linebaugh”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Peter Linebaugh primary sources, Peter Linebaugh archive and Peter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peter Linebaugh”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Peter Linebaugh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.