Empty Hands History is written by Spencer Beswick, a historian of anarchism and the left in the Americas who holds a History PhD from Cornell University and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Union College. His book Smash the State: American Anarchism in the Late Twentieth Century is under advance contract with the University of Illinois Press. You can find him on Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:
“Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s,” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 20, no. 1 (2026, forthcoming): 29-52
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:
“‘To Repulse the State from our Uteri’: Anarcha-Feminism, Reproductive Freedom, and Dual Power,” in Anarchafeminist Horizons at the End of Gender: Praxis Across Movements, Solidarities Across Borders, edited by Nathan Poirier and Zane McNeill. New York: Bloomsbury (forthcoming, 2027)
“Anarchist Institutions,” in Anarchisms. London: Dog Section Press (forthcoming): 29-35
“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:
“Let Us Become Beautiful Ourselves”: Élisée Reclus on Vegetarianism, Anarchism, and Colonial Violence, Freedom (July 5, 2025)
“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)