Empty Hands History is written by Spencer Beswick, who holds a PhD in History from Cornell University. Spencer is a historian of anarchism and the left in the Americas. He is currently revising his dissertation into a book titled American Anarchism After 1968. His writing draws from the Anarchist Oral History Project that he helps run. He is on Twitter @spencerbeswick, Bluesky @spencerbeswick.bsky.social, and Mastodon @spencerbeswick@kolektiva.social.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:
“Smashing Whiteness: Race, Class, Punk Culture, and Anarchist Anti-Fascism,” Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, 2024 no. 2 (2024): 87-117
“To Repulse the State from our Uteri: Anarcha-Feminism, Reproductive Freedom, and Dual Power,” Radical History Review, no. 148 (2024): 90-106
“Radical Americas: A Hemispheric History of the Left,” Left History: A Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate 25, no. 2 (2023): 27-48
“‘We’re Pro-Choice and We Riot!’: Anarcha-Feminism in Love and Rage (1989-98),” Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, 11 (2023): 148-171
“From the Ashes of the Old: Anarchism Reborn in a Counterrevolutionary Age (1970s-1990s),” Anarchist Studies 30(2) (2022): 31-54
Book Chapters:
“Smashing Whiteness: Race, Class, and Punk Culture in the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (North America, 1989-98),” in
DIY or Die!: Do-It-Yourself, Do-It Together and Punk Anarchism, edited by Jim Donaghey, Caroline Kaltefleiter, and Will Boisseau. Karlovac, Croatia: Active Distribution (2024): 393-418
Popular writing:
“‘We’re Here, We’re Queer, and We Hate the Government!’: Queer Anarchism Against All Domination,” It’s Going Down (January 27, 2024)
“Anarcha-Feminism, Abortion, and Liberation,” DOPE Magazine (Winter 2023)
“Anarchist Anti-Fascism” Anarchist Essays podcast (April 17, 2023)
“Defending Democracy Through Elections Won’t Be Enough to Stop Fascism” Truthout (February 17, 2023)
“The Jan. 6 coup blared an alarm about rising fascism. Will we hear it?” The Washington Post (January 6, 2023)
“The Quarantine Commune,” Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (September 11, 2022)
“Abortion Struggles Beyond Voting: Women’s Liberation, Reproductive Care, and Dual Power,” Hard Crackers: Chronicles of Everyday Life (August 30, 2022)
“Living Communism: Theory & Practice of Autonomy & Attack,” Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (July 29, 2022)
“Lessons From the Fight to Protect Abortion Clinics in the 1990s: A Discussion,” Interviewed for the It’s Going Down podcast (June 17, 2022)
“‘We’re Pro-Choice and We Riot!’: How Anarcha-Feminists Built Dual Power in Struggles for Reproductive Freedom,” It’s Going Down (May 19, 2022)
“The model for mobilizing to protect abortion rights beyond voting,” The Washington Post (May 17, 2022)
Spencer has taught multiple courses on anarchism, Marxism, labor history, and anti-colonialism at Cornell University.