Lesley J. Wood

Chapter in Edited Book, 2020

Wood, L., J. (2020). Anarchist gatherings, 1986–1998. In E. Hobson & D. Berger (Eds.), Remaking radicalism: A grassroots documentary reader of the United States, 1973-2001 (pp. 405–413). University of Georgia Press.  

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This book brings together documents from multiple radical movements in the recent United States from 1973 through 2001. These years are typically viewed as an era of neoliberalism, dominated by conservative retrenchment, the intensified programs of privatization and incarceration, dramatic cuts to social welfare, and the undermining of labor, antiracist, and feminist advances. Yet activists from the period proved tenacious in the face of upheaval, resourceful in creating new tactics, and dedicated to learning from one another. Persistent and resolute, activists did more than just keep radical legacies alive. They remade radicalism-bridging differences of identity and ideology often assumed to cleave movements, grappling with the eradication of liberal promises, and turning to movement cultures as the source of a just future. Remaking Radicalism is the first anthology of U.S. radicalisms that reveals the depth, diversity, and staying power of social movements after the close of the long 1960s. Editors Dan Berger and Emily Hobson track the history of popular struggles during a time that spans the presidencies of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush and bring to readers the political upheavals that shaped the end of the century and that continue to define the present. The book includes 164 written documents, 20 images, and 32 short essays that reflect a wide mix of organizations, campaigns, tactics, and visions. Grouped into thematic sections that reflect multiple approaches to different sites of struggle and to struggle on different scales, the book’s sources reflect the modes of thinking and organizing among left-wing US social movements from 1973 to 2001.