Informed by
Marxian economics, Rediker's works explore their respective subjects in systemic terms while emphasizing human
class-consciousness and agency.
Historical narratives that emphasize the plights of the poor and oppressed are known as a people's history or "history from below". Rediker has contended that few historians have used this narrative outside of
American history, and that the struggle of the oppressed has had a largely unspoken yet considerable impact on
world history. Viewing the pirates as a "motley crew", Rediker highlights the
multiculturalism and alliances between pirate crews. This approach puts perspective on the
egalitarianism of some pirate crews. In
Villains of All Nations, Rediker wrote that by mutinying or capturing a ship, pirates were seizing the
means of maritime production from merchant capitalists and declaring their ships to be under
common ownership.. Rediker often stresses the cramped and dirty conditions of the ships. According to Rediker, pirates were not just targeted by the authorities because of their illegal activities, but also for liberating and radicalizing laborers. In that same introduction, Rediker summarizes that the link between slave ships and social relations shaped the
modern world despite their obscure histories. In describing what he wanted to accomplish in his book,
The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom, Rediker commented that he wanted to call attention to how the slave trade contributed to the rise of
capitalism. Rediker mentioned that the role slave ships had in forming the concept of
race was critical to the book, going on to say that the concept of race was created aboard the slave ships when multi-ethnic Africans were labelled as
negroes and subjected to violence and terror. Many of the sources in Rediker's book on
La Amistad come from journalists and visitors who interviewed the defendants during their 27 months in
Connecticut. Rediker ends the introduction by expressing how the events surrounding
La Amistad can be seen through the lens of a people's history, arguing that it puts the rebels "back at the center of their own story and the larger history they helped to make." fighting the
Lernaean Hydra. Rediker has used this imagery as symbolism for class struggle.
Many-Headed Hydra The
Lernaean Hydra, a
serpentine water monster in
Greek mythology and
Roman mythology, is used as a
metaphor for commoners and persecuted groups throughout many of Rediker's works.
Hercules, the slayer of the
many-headed beast, represents the Atlantic capitalists. Hercules' battle against the Hydra is thus symbolic of "the difficulty of imposing order on increasingly global systems of labor." Rediker and Linebaugh label oppressed groups such as felons,
indentured servants, African slaves, pirates, and religious radicals as some of the many heads of the Hydra. Though this symbolism indicates cooperation between these various groups, Rediker has also made clear that it can depict the chaos of a disorganized and conflicted Atlantic
proletariat.
Terracentrism Rediker coined the term "terracentrism" to describe the tendency of historians to solely concentrate on history that occurs on dry land. Rediker has maintained that this view obfuscates how history can be made on slave and migrant ships, and that migrants and seafarers incited social, cultural, and political progress. == Political views and activism ==