The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All

by Peter Linebaugh

This remarkable book shines a fierce light on the current state of liberty and shows how longstanding restraints against tyranny—and the rights of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and due process of law, and the prohibition of torture—are being abridged. In providing a sweeping history of Magna Carta, the source of these protections since 1215, this powerful book demonstrates how these ancient rights are repeatedly laid aside when the greed of privatization, the lust for power, and the ambition of empire seize a state. Peter Linebaugh draws on primary sources to construct a wholly original history of the Great Charter and its scarcely-known companion, the Charter of the Forest, which was created at the same time to protect the subsistence rights of the poor.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Law, World History

376 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic.

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gah. Terrible book to start out my year with.

I tried really hard to like this book. I think the author is probably a great person, and he's obviously super smart and knows a ton and shares my values and has really good intentions.

But the writing in this was unbearable. I felt like I was reading a unedited high school student's research paper--so disjointed, incoherent, jumbled. He bounces around so much between multiple examples, eras, anecdotes and ideas in a single paragraph that the point of what he is saying is usually indiscernible. I feel like he is probably really excited about all the many really interesting historical factoids that are evidence of his claim, to the point that he forgets to actually state that claim, and thinks he can just lay out (in super disjointed fashion) all the historical factoids.

I don't know exactly what the point of this book is...... that the Magna Carta (which may or may not be less important than the Forest Charter?) should be an ensign for liberty? Or that it was in times past? Or that it's used as a symbol to defeat liberty? Or...... something?

I really don't know. Not recommended.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful piece of writing bringing out the history of Magna Carta as well as highlighting its connectivity to the contemporary world. Linebaugh makes a strong argument for the resumption of commoning--a network of personal relationships to the land and the act of communally sharing said land to benefit all rather than the few. The author does a really nice job of pointing out Magna Carta in peoples' struggles around the world--struggles that demand essentially the same things: political freedom and freedom from want and fear. Loved it. As i read, struggles happening in our own community became highlighted in my mind as they relate to Magna Carta. Wonderful book.

[Matthew Roche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voted Progressive book of the year, it is a well-researched argument on why we still need the commons 800 years after the Magna Carta. Very interesting historical tidbits.

But in the end it is a scattered book. Lots of facts that are not well-integrated into a story that makes sense.

And, the main argument, that the Forest Charter is as important as the Magna Carta (signed the same year), doesn't hold water.

[Kevin Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was fairly rambling and didn't seem to have much in the way of a coherent thesis, but still an engaging read with a lot of informative or entertaining anecdotes, historical digressions etc.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linebaugh is all over the territory w/ his history of social (in) justice and MC. If you like Chomsky, you likely will enjoy this book

Notes
Magna Carta (MC)
P
34 Norman Conquest changes Common Law re: forests & pastures.King took them as private property

Intro Interesting link of common rights to energy sources: wood (thousands of years), coal, oil, gas
2 documents: Charter of the Forest (not necessarily wooded!), & MC
35 Barons, pope, France plot agst King John & MC (1215)

glossary: disaforrestation: remove from royal jurisdiction, ie, give to the commoners
42 list of rights to forests for food, fuel, building materials
26 assarts: araable clearings by grubbing up trees
45 law of the 'land'. MC was a treaty to end a civil war. MC does not list rights. It grants perpetuities
49 Hen8 takes church land and doles out as rewards to supporters - it makes English Land a commodity; Enclosures
54 Summer fests outdoor camps w/ thousands of commoners protesting enclosures and poverty
55 peasant revolt, 1526 Germany
59 the commoner is losing access to the 'commons'
60 'moral econ' - none should profit until all have been fed
65 women lost much w/ lost of commons, and commodification
76-7 women, 1600's, commoners persecuted for defending forest common rights
Fields and forests are being enclosed
78 Edward Coke writing book on MC. Charles I prohibits it
83 women demonstrate for rights
94 slavery & enclosures ushered in industrial capitalism
96 blackfacing, a form of protest, became a crime. MC prohibited slavery
97 W. Blackstone law scholar chronicles MC and its many versions
98 South Sea Bubble, 1720, speculation and corruption
99 capital and trace feed global war for colonies & markets
101 blacking again a protest form
102 1700's still half villagers in Eng. Had common grazing rights
124 Decl of Indep. uses MC but fundamentally different. T. Paine & Common Sense -> privitization. Women blacks, indians not granted rights, TP rhetoric on women not withstanding
132 theories of econ development - commons (barbaric) -> capitalism
136 Thomas Spense jailed for his views about public commons. He went farther than TP re equality of resources
140 K. Marx: MC, 10 hr workday; forest customs in Rhineland
141 Goody Blake and Harry Gill; Robin Hood tales; forest rights
144 law/fight for common goes to India
147 Famine, revolt in India, 1876-8
153 Brits use Norman Conquest as example of Indian Control
156 Therstein Veblen reviewed study of India tribal, common land rights [and said??]
161 Kipling, India, Mowgli, Boy Scouts
164 Gandhi studied law 1891. Not clear if he believed in common access
170-1, Quick recap of MC; privitization, commodities, slaves, the loss of the forest charter
187 MC used to defend slave masters and later robber barons
191 2 gaps in the US supreme ct MC refs: Great Depression (communism, etc), lst decades of US as slavery expanded
192 MC orig meaning is inverted and used by ruling class
193 Cleveland MC mural
196 Cleve. labor union movement
200 contrast MC mural in Madison
202 St Paul, International MC Day Assoc. headquarters
203 Cass Gilbert, Supr. Ct Building Arch. -'pretentious building'. Gilbert friend of Mussolini
208 state, us arch, murals, etc have an imperial, western/anglo version of justice
229 Ital. anarchists are sometimes the sculptures of the imperial buildings
233 Basque have heritage of commons
234 Marc Bloc dies in Nazii camp
238 anti-semitism @ MC tmie
239 H. Miller quote:
241 Woody Guthrie
243 Madison US constit. founded for the propertied
248 Native american land in common
257 Mural, Terre Haute Jr High: boy scout troup leveling rifles @ fat diamond wearing capitalists
258 SS became sub for the lost commons
259 1927, more than half of US women not allowed to be jurists
265 Mexico commons repealed as part of NAFTA
273 social history opened light on history of women, common, natives
281 MC appx
296 Great Charter of the Forest

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows up on some of the arguments made in Caliban and the Witch, while tying ancient English rights and customs to the commons. It is a sweeping look at anti-capitalistic thought in England and retells much of the history of the time period from the laborer’s perspective, which we don’t often get. I also appreciate the argument that, tho Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest are English, the ancient rights and customs are not peculiarly English and describe a common way of living across borders, cultures, and oceans.

However, there are some factual errors - I only noticed 2, which were incorrect dates. These could be typos, and I didn’t fact check everything, but it’s enough for me to have high;ignited a bunch of the references for stuff I found important so I could look up the primary sources. Another review calls the writing disjointed. This isn’t incorrect, but it’s definitely a stylistic thing the author is doing on purpose. It’ll work for some and not work for others; I was somewhere in the middle, where it didn’t make the book unreadable but sometimes the point being made was lost because the attempt at poetic prose overshadowed what it was trying to say.

All in all, this is an important book for anybody who is interested in the history of anti-capitalism and is seeking to ground theory into historicism .

[Martin Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Linebaugh's sweeping history of Magna Carta, one of the founding documents of law couldn't come at a better time. This ancient text, with its limits on tyranny, its prohibition of torture, its securing of the right to trial by jury and of course, habeas corpus, has never been needed so much. Under the guise of the war on terror, many governments have sought to undermine these ancient rights and in the first instance Linebaugh's book is a rallying cry to defend them. It is with a only a limited irony that the author can quote a legal expert recently saying "If anyone had told me 20 years ago that fighting for the rights in Magna Carta or the rule of law would be seen as revolutionary behaviour, I would have laughed."

Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...

[Öznur · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must-read to understand the insistence of the so-called 'pre-history' of the capitalist mode of production in contemporary social movements revolving around the rights over commons; to see what lies at the 'beginning' of law and what kind of 'omission' coinciding with the period of primitive accumulation serves the rise of bourgeois law based on abstract, universal human rights.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Magna Carta provides for habeas corpus, trial by jury and prohibition of torture. It was confirmed on September 11, 1217. Someone is fucking with us.

[Scot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and found it both interesting and thought-provoking. I would not have thought to pick up a book about ancient British law, until a dear friend told me about the often lost compendum to the Magna Carta, the Great Charter of the Forest.

Linebaugh does excellent research and analysis on how both the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest have been used and abused through the years in the UK and the greater British Empire. The sections on the U.S. and India were particularly of interest to me. The central idea behind the Charter was to preserve the Commons for all people, which clearly goes against the interest of Kings and the Elite and of course corporations. In the U.S. the ideas of both great documents were flipped on their heads to justify corporate personhood, slavery, denying women rights, and stealing land from the indigenous.

This book excited me to envision what a return to the Commons could be here in the U.S. and around the world, and reminded me what exactly the Zapatistas and other indigenous leaders have been fighting for in the face of globalization.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Commons, central democratic documents and ideals, a different world, or great writing and political commentary.

[Miranda Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is most compelling not as a legal history but as a political reminder that freedom has always depended on access to land, resources, and shared means of life.
At times it romanticises the commons and centres human subsistence over ecological agency but this was really the point- to make rights feel once again rooted in everyday practices and the material world.

[Evanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language was definitely confusing to read… but surprisingly I managed to get the major points in the end and I actually quite like it! Maybe if I’d been a history nerd I would’ve loved it because this is a history book after all

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great source of information on a vital lineage of political struggle but ultimately too scattered to be as powerful as it deserves to be. Four rather than three stars due to the wealth of citations that can be drawn on for further study.

[Aonarán · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am baffled by Linebaugh's intentions for this book. I once saw him talk, and he seemed so sincere and genuine, and I think because of that I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

It's confusing to me if Linebaugh thinks things like Magna Carta are things we should be striving for, or if the struggle that goes into them is what he wants, or if he simply found many interesting connections between different documents, dates, tendencies, etc. (the september 11th coincidences are one example.)

But I wouldn't ever want to live in the world that produced Magna Carta - kings, merchants, gender divisions, religious tyrants, etc. At times Linebaugh seems to suggest people who don't care about documents and use their own sense of the world to make decisions and defend their actions, but ultimately seems to settle on constitutions to justify thoughts and actions. :(

I will say, though, that when I read when of Linebaugh's books (and I particularly felt it about this one) I get the feeling that he's writing it because he wants to, not because he has to publish or is trying to advance his celebrity, and that means a lot to me as a reader.

Written while reading:
So far very well written and flowing. I worry though that Linebaugh thinks documents/constitutions like magna carta are liberatory, when to me they're interesting as a reflection of the social tensions of their time.

Sometimes Linebaugh gets bogged down in the details, but so far I'm loving them all.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating historical book showing how the enclosure movement has transformed our society from one where a person could live off of the commons to one where that is essentially impossible as everything is private property.

[Gary Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book. This books shows how the lessons of life can be so short lived. It is amazing how soon it seems we as a society have forgotten or given up on some basic rights we should still fight for and demand.

[Jeannette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just 24 pages into it- so far, a fresh perspective on how human rights and core values have de-evolved. Not preachy or dry.

[Leendert · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible, fascinating eye opener - nothing like an intelligent author with a sense of humor and wide curiosity, not to mention a desire for truth

[Fence! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of the Commons-as-physical and -mental.

Lacked a little, though.

[Craig Bolton]

The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All by Peter Linebaugh (2008)

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been a great book had it been penned by a more skilled author. But the subject was interesting so I made it through.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times, a fairly frantic review of the continuing relevance of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forests. Not as fluent as The London Hanged and is, I feel, often overburdened with references.