Alternative History History Against the Grain

Statues are falling like bowling pins and the saucy boys are here to pick up the pieces. The past is a living breathing thing so why should we mark it with static icons of Confederates, slave dealers, and imperialists? Tear them all down we say. Continuing on, we ruminate on the recent emergence of the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle leading into a broader discussion of alternative social and political spaces in history. By telling stories of ancient communities in southern Mesopotamia, the Paris Commune, the maroon societies of the Americas, and the Pueblo People of the American southwest we suggest that the centering of these sorts of stories can lessen the hegemony of traditional histories, broaden our sense of the possible, and reveal a past that doesn't just honor the dead in monument form, but "serves the living."