Journal for the Study of Radicalism

Editorial Introduction

2026-02-12T14:38:58-05:00

Introduces JSR 20(2026)1.

“Foggy Dreams of Infidel German Metaphysicians”:

2025-12-12T15:32:07-05:00

By drawing upon nineteenth-century nativist publications, this article will examine three key aspects of emerging American anti-socialism: first, the ways in which these nativist voices presented immigrants and “foreigners” more broadly as a pipeline for radical thought; second, the economic threat they saw in socialistic ideas; and finally, their specific conception of German immigrants as inherently radical atheists who were thus fundamentally incompatible with the nativist vision of a conservative, capitalistic America. This America was not merely one to be ruled by the native-born, but one where racial and religious identities and practices determined the right to self-governance within a supposedly democratic republic. It was also one in which economic individualism and a capitalistic ethos ensured that wealth would remain a forceful means of determining who could access power and who was merely subject to it.

Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s

2026-01-14T15:03:13-05:00

In the midst of the Reagan Revolution and the decline of the Soviet Union, North American anarchists organized a series of continental convergences from 1986-1989 that connected and revitalized the anarchist movement. This article explores how these gatherings in Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto, and San Francisco provided crucial spaces for anarchists from diverse backgrounds to encounter each other, engage in political debates, test their mettle in the streets, and organize networks of committed activists. It also weaves in a review of several key radical groups that became connected through the gatherings and together transformed anarchist theory and practice during the neoliberal era. These collectives formed a pole around which the diffuse anarchist milieu began to cohere into a movement capable of coordinating strategic action across the continent. Drawing on accounts from anarchist newspapers and zines, the article argues that these anarchist collectives and convergences revitalized the North American anarchist movement and laid the foundation for the explosive growth of anti-authoritarian activism in the 1990s that culminated in the turn-of-the-century anti-globalization movement.

Solidarity Means Attack:

2025-12-19T10:38:01-05:00

This study examines a corpus of communiqués, published between 2020-2024, which claim responsibility for covert acts of property destruction taken throughout the United States by anti-authoritarian, leftist sub-state, social movement actors (e.g., anarchists, insurrectionists, anti-assimilationist Queers, militant ecodefense)—motivated by a socio-political agenda. Utilizing a Content Analysis driven by thematic and rhetorical coding markers, this study examines nearly 500 communiqués reported across 15 publicly accessible websites, which form a key node in the so-called ‘counter-info’ ecosystem—a network of sites utilized to document, contextual use, and claim responsibility for clandestine acts of property destruction and other symbolic actions. Through our analysis of the smashed windows, graffitied buildings, burnt bulldozers, and the like, we aim to understand the trends in leftist clandestine actions in an ever-changing socio-political climate, with particular attention given to geographic, tactical, and targeting patterns, as well as the campaigns and causes that motivated these acts.

Red Emma and the Box office Anarchist

2026-01-25T06:25:38-05:00

Abstract: This essay explores the close relationship between Emma Goldman, internationally recognized anarchist, thinker, and heroine of the radical left, and Ethel Mannin, then a bestselling British writer and libertarian, during the Spanish Civil War. Their copious and often passionately expressed correspondence illustrates many ideological and tactical dilemmas experienced by the radical left in this period. The epistolary approach sheds some light on Goldman's last years and experiences as a promoter of anarchist and libertarian values and Mannin, who, suggests Meltzer, is largely unaccredited as a leading British feminist and libertarian of the period, a "forgotten radical." Their association as it progressed, also illuminates the salience of friendship, personal and societal change in relation to Goldman’s anarchism and the war itself.[i]

[i]

The Malaise of Mediocrity

2026-01-27T09:28:50-05:00

Twenty-first-Century Radicals, located on the right of the political spectrum, have renewed calls for human greatness, and brought attention to the leveling effects of liberal democracy. Early observers of liberalism like Tocqueville, Mill, and Nietzsche questioned the possibility of human excellence, or genius, in liberal orders dominated by a love of equality. If liberalism cannot produce genius, it also cannot promise the development of most of its citizens. This paper juxtaposes analyses of genius by Mill and Nietzsche to illuminate this problem. They present different conceptions of genius, but each pondered whether the social, cultural, and political conditions of liberalism could foster it. Surprisingly, we find in the later works of the liberal Mill a conception much closer to that of the anti-liberal Nietzsche. After describing “Millian” and “Nietzschean” genius, I suggest a combined conception that is suitable for liberalism. I finish by highlighting the most pertinent lessons for our political situation today, where right-wing radicals have expressed extreme bitterness and opposition to the dominance of the value of equality in Western liberal societies.

Radicalization and the promise of remasculinization – theorizing the role of masculinity in radicalization processes through the case of Jihadism

2026-01-06T10:29:37-05:00

Scholarship on extremism and radicalization has largely ignored the fact that the vast majority of perpetrators of political violence are men. In response to this observation, this article theorizes radicalization as linked to remasculinization. The theorization of remasculinization is carried out through a dialog with existing research on Jihadism. The men attracted to Jihadism are often men of ethnic minority, Muslim background from lower social strata. This calls for an intersectional understanding of the attraction of remasculinization that takes the social circumstances of specific groups of men into account. It also calls for a grasp of the hierarchy of masculinities achieved through combining intersectionality with hegemonic masculinity theory. This theorization thus resonates with existing research about men drawn to Jihadism, which indicates that Jihadism promises Muslim men in the West a heroic masculinity, and that this promise may render violent extremism attractive to men who experience that their masculinity is threatened

Trotskyism, Trade Unionism, and Entryism

2026-01-24T15:14:14-05:00