Jacobin Radio The Dig: Breaking the Machine w/ Peter Linebaugh
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Mar 3, 2026 Peter Linebaugh, historian of commons and enclosure, discusses Luddite machine-breaking and its defense as political action. He traces enclosure, capital punishment, and imprisonment in forging capitalist rule. Connections are drawn to slavery, industrial discipline, and modern gig-tech control.
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Hanging Secured Private Property During Enclosures
- Capital punishment intensified with state formation and capitalist expropriation to terrorize and criminalize subsistence acts.
- Linebaugh cites Henry VIII's reign (≈75,000 hangings) and new theft/larceny laws protecting private property during enclosure.
Thanatocracy Links State Violence To Capital
- Linebaugh frames a 'thanatocracy' where state violence, work deaths, ecological disasters, and capital punishment form a death-oriented governance tied to capital.
- He links Marx's chapter on the working day and sweatshop deaths to this broader death-dealing structure.
A Scholar's Journey From Hanged To Commons
- Linebaugh's research path began with studying those who were hanged, then criminal records, then enclosure and the commons.
- He recounts leaving Columbia in 1965–66 to study English criminal archives alongside colleagues in the Crime Collective.
