Syllabus – Empty Hands History

A few years ago, I taught my first class: a first-year writing seminar called “American Anarchism.” Here is the syllabus, which may be useful to folks looking for a grounding in the history of anarchism in the United States!

“Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…”

-Emma Goldman

“If it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands… You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

-Ursula K. Le Guin

Course description:

Anarchists are notorious for bomb-throwing “propaganda of the deed,” but they have historically been far more likely to reach for a pen than a stick of dynamite. What do anarchists have to offer us as writers? This course explores the history of American anarchism through historical analysis paired with literature and manifestos. We will study the rebellious writing of anarchists like Emma Goldman, David Graeber, and CrimethInc in order to refine our own techniques. Students will write historical essays, artistic and literary analysis, a persuasive political essay, and a manifesto. We will take inspiration from Ursula Le Guin’s affirmation that “writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight.”

Course Schedule

Unit 1: Introduction to American Anarchism

Week 1: A Beginning

Tue., Jan. 21: Introduction to Class
Thu., Jan. 23: “Are You An Anarchist?”

David Graeber, “Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!” (2000) (4 pages)
David Graeber, “What is Anarchism?” excerpt from Direct Action: An Ethnography (2008) (p. 211-216)

Week 2: Classical Anarchism
Tue., Jan. 28: Anarchist Communism

Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles” (1891)

Thu., Jan. 30: Anarchy in the US

Emma Goldman, “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For” (1911)
Paul and Karen Avrich, “Prologue,” to Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman (2012)
Andrew Cornell, excerpt from “Introduction” in Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the 20^th Century (2016) (page 1-13)

Week 3: Settler Colonialism, Slavery, and Resistance
Tue., Feb. 4: Settler Colonialism and Resistance

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, excerpts from An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014) (introduction and short section on indigenous governance, p 1-14 and 25-27)

Thu., Feb. 6: Slavery and Resistance

Russell Maroon Shoatz, excerpts from “Autonomous Resistance to Slavery and Colonization: Two Essays” (unknown date) (essay one “The Real Resistance to Slavery in North America” p 4-24, plus suggested conclusion and section on “Mosaic” in essay 2)

Unit 2: Classical American Anarchism (late 19^th/early 20^th century)

Week 4: Early American Anarchism
Tue., Feb. 11: Utopian Socialism and Individualist Mutualism

Eunice Minette Schuster, excerpts from Native American Anarchism: A Study of Left-Wing American Individualism (1932) (27 pages, skim the Thoreau section from page 46 to 51)
Robert Owen, excerpts from “A New View of Society” (1813) and “Manifesto” (1840) (6 pages total)
Benjamin Tucker, excerpt from “State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ” (1888) (4 pages)

Thu., Feb. 13: Immigrant Anarchism and Haymarket

Kenyon Zimmer, “Introduction” to Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America (2015) (page 1-13)
Peter Linebaugh, excerpt from “The Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of May Day” (2016)

Week 5: Anarchist Apogee and Decline

Tue., Feb. 18: Syndicalism and the Anarchist Apogee

Andrew Cornell, excerpt from “Anarchist Apogee, 1916” in Unruly Equality (2016)
IWW Manifesto and Preamble to the IWW Constitution
Lucy Parsons Speech to the IWW founding convention (1905)

Thurs., Feb. 20: Propaganda of the Deed and Insurrectionism

Lucy Parsons “A Word to Tramps”
Luigi Galleani, excerpt from “Propaganda of the Deed,” from The End of Anarchism? (1925)
Andrew Cornell, short excerpts from “The Red and Black Scare, 1917-1924” and “A Movement of Defense, of Emergency, 1920-1929,” in Unruly Equality (2016)

Week 6: From the Depression to the 1950s
Tue., Feb. 25: February Break, No Class

Thu., Feb. 27: Depression, Spanish Revolution, and WWII

Andrew Cornell, excerpts from “The Unpopular Front, 1930-1939” and “Anarchism and Revolutionary Nonviolence, 1940-1948” from Unruly Equality (2016)

Unit 3: Anarchism in the Long 1960s

Week 7: Long 1960s Part 1: From Civil Rights to the New Left
Tue., Mar. 3: The Avant-Garde and the Civil Rights Movement

Andrew Cornell, excerpts from “Anarchism and the Avant-Garde, 1942-1956” and “Anarchism and the Black Freedom Movement, 1955-1964,” from Unruly Equality

Thu., Mar. 5: Anarchism and the New Left

Andrew Cornell, excerpts from “The New Left and Countercultural Anarchism, 1960-1972,” from Unruly Equality (2016) (240-279)
Murray Bookchin, “Post-Scarcity Anarchism” (1967/68)

Week 8: Long 1960s Part 2: Counterculture and the Rebirth of Anarchism
Tue., Mar. 10: Counterculture

Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, “Flower Power Won’t Stop Fascist Power: The Story of a Small, Underground 1960s Revolutionary Group in New York City”

Thu., Mar. 12: Anarchism “Reborn”

Andrew Cornell, excerpt from “The New Left and Countercultural Anarchism, 1960-1972,” from Unruly Equality (2016) (269-279)
David Graeber, “The Rebirth of Anarchism in North America, 1957-2007” (2010)

Unit 4: New Anarchisms: Anarcha-Feminism, Black Anarchism, and Environmentalism

Week 9: Anarcha-Feminism and Black Feminism
Tue., Mar. 17: Anarcha-Feminism