Professor
Mark Spencer’s scholarship centers on the history of ideas in the 18th-century British Atlantic world. Prominent among his current projects is co-editing an 8-volume, critical edition of David Hume’s (1711-76) History of England (for Oxford University Press) and a SSHRC-funded study of John Beale Bordley (1727-1804). An early part of Bordley’s story—Spencer’s recovery of the contexts of Bordley’s first pamphlet, Necessaries (1776)—has been published by the American Philosophical Society.
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSAScot), Spencer has held a Brock University Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence. Founding Trustee and Board Member for the Robert T. and Moira Sansom Ideas Foundation, he has also served on the Executive Committee of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society (including as President), and on the Boards of Hume Studies, Enlightenment & Dissent, and Adam Matthew Digital. Currently, he is co-editor (with Elizabeth S. Radcliffe) of Hume Studies.
Professor Spencer has authored, edited, or co-edited 20+ volumes. His first monograph, David Hume and Eighteenth-Century America(2005, reprinted 2010), was based on his award-winning PhD (2001) dissertation, which received a Governor General’s Gold Medal (The University of Western Ontario) and The John Bullen Prize of the Canadian Historical Association. Before publishing his second monograph, John Beale Bordley’s ‘Necessaries’: An American Enlightenment Pamphlet in its Historical Contexts (2020), Spencer was editor-in-chief for The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment (2 vols, 2015). That project, ten years in the making and with 370 contributors, has been released by Oxford University Press in its Online Reference Library.
His other edited and co-edited volumes include David Hume: Historical Thinker, Historical Writer (2013), Ulster Presbyterians in the Atlantic World: Religion, Politics and Identity [with David A. Wilson] (2006), Utilitarians and Their Critics in America, 1789-1914 [with James E. Crimmins] (4 vols, 2005), and a two-volume reader on Hume’s reception in early America (2002)—the latter, revised and expanded, was reissued as Hume’s Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition (2017).
For Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, he has introduced volumes of writings by Adam Smith (2012), Karl Marx (2013), John Locke (2014), John Stuart Mill (2016), and John Maynard Keynes (2017).
Several of those have also been released as audiobooks produced by Ukemi Productions for Audible. So too have original contributions, such as his Alexander Hamilton: America’s Founding Father of Finance (2020).
Some of Spencer’s 130+ articles and essays have been published by The William and Mary Quarterly (2002); The Scottish Historical Review (2019); Hume Studies (2018, 2017, 2016, 2003); Enlightenment & Dissent (2017); Eighteenth-Century Studies (2016); and Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History (2019). His recent book chapters include “David Hume’s History of England,” in Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method (London, 2023); “Scottish Press: News Transmission and Networks between Scotland and America in the Eighteenth Century,” in The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Vol. 1, Beginnings and Consolidation, 1640-1800 (Edinburgh UP, 2023); “Jonathan Edwards and the Historiography of the American Enlightenment,” in Jonathan Edwards within the Enlightenment: Controversy, Experience, and Thought (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020); “Hume, The Historian,” in The Humean Mind (Routledge, 2019); “Several Contexts of the Scottish Enlightenment,” [with Roger L. Emerson] in The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge UP, 2019); “The Composition, Reception, and Early Influence of Hume’s Essays and Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals,” in David Hume on Morals, Politics, and Society (Yale UP, 2018); “The Paradoxes of Edmund Burke’s Reception in America, 1757-1790,” in The Reception of Edmund Burke in Europe (Bloomsbury, 2017); and “Enlightenment in Scotland and America,” in The Enlightenment in Scotland: National and International Perspectives (Oxford UP, 2015). As well, he has published dozens of short pieces, many in reference books like the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Spencer quite enjoys reviewing books. His 300+ reviews have been published in academic journals in several disciplines. He is also a freelancer for The Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
External funding for Professor Spencer’s work has been provided by SSHRC (multiple awards); the Institute for the Study of Scottish Philosophy; International Christian University (Tokyo); McGill University Library; the University of Helsinki; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the Hume Society; Harvard University; the American Antiquarian Society; the Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies; and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, through a Robert T. Jones, Jr, Chevening Scholarship, among others.
Books
Monographs:
John Beale Bordley’s ‘Necessaries’: An American Enlightenment Pamphlet in its Historical Contexts (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2020)
David Hume and Eighteenth-Century America (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press / Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2005; reprinted 2010)
Edited volumes:
Hume’s Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition (New York, 2017)
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, 2 vols (New York and London, 2015)
David Hume: Historical Thinker, Historical Writer (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013)
Ulster Presbyterians in the Atlantic World: Religion, Politics and Identity [with David A. Wilson] (Dublin, 2006)
Utilitarians and Their Critics in America, 1789-1914, 4 vols [with James E. Crimmins] (Bristol and London, 2005)
Hume’s Reception in Early America, 2 vols (Bristol, UK; originally distributed in North America by The University of Chicago Press, 2002)
Editions for Wordsworth Classics of World Literature (gen. ed. Tom Griffith):
John Maynard Keynes: ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money’ and ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (2017)
John Stuart Mill: ‘On Liberty,’ ‘Utilitarianism’ and Other Works (2016)
John Locke: ‘An Essay concerning Human Understanding’ with the ‘Second Treatise of Government’ (2014)
Karl Marx: ‘Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production’: Volumes 1 and 2 (2013)
Adam Smith: ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’ (2012)
Editions for Ukemi Audiobooks (produced by Nicolas Soames):
Alexander Hamilton: America’s Founding Father of Finance. His Original Reports on Public Credit, A National Bank, and Manufactures (2020)
William Godwin: An Enquiry concerning Political Justice (2020)
Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations (2020)
Proclus: The Elements of Theology (2018)
Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace (2018)
Keynes: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money(2018)
John Locke: Essay concerning Human Understanding (2018)
Selected Articles and Chapters:
“David Hume’s History of England,” in Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method, “Classic History in Context,” Eileen Ka-May Cheng, ed. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023):
http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350892880.204
“Scottish Press: News Transmission and Networks between Scotland and America in the Eighteenth Century,” Chap. 13 in Nicholas Brownlees, ed., The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Vol. 1, Beginnings and Consolidation, 1640-1800 (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), series editors Martin Conboy and David Finkelstein, pp. 313-36.
“The Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment,” Chap. 3 in World History: The Renaissance to Modern Day, 2 vols (Charlottesville, VA: Core Knowledge Foundation, 2022) in series “Core Knowledge History and Geography (Rosie McCormick, Editorial Director), Vol. 2, pp. 44-57.
“Hume’s Last Book Review? A New Attribution,” Hume Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1 (April 2018 [published in April 2021]), 52-64.
“Jonathan Edwards and the Historiography of the American Enlightenment,” in Daniel N. Gullotta and John T. Lowe, eds. Jonathan Edwards within the Enlightenment: Controversy, Experience, and Thought (The Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University / Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020), 21-40.
“Was David Hume, the Historian, a Plagiarist? A Submission from His History of England,” CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History, Vol. 47, Issue 1 (2019), 25-50.
“Hume, The Historian,” for Angela M. Coventry and Alexander Sager, eds. The Humean Mind, Routledge Philosophy Minds Series (New York: Routledge, 2019), 287-99.
“Several Contexts of the Scottish Enlightenment,” [co-authored with Roger L. Emerson], in Alexander Broadie and Craig Smith, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment, second edition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 9-32.
“David Hume’s ‘A Character of Sir Robert Walpole’: Humean Factional Fears, the ‘Rage against the Scots’, and Future Historians,” [co-authored with Marc Hanvelt], The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 98, Supplementary Issue (October 2019), 361-89.
“The Composition, Reception, and Early Influence of Hume’s Essays and Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals,” in Angela Coventry and Andrew Valls, eds. David Hume on Morals, Politics, and Society, Rethinking the Western Tradition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018), 241-64.
“Placing Hume in the Enlightenment: ‘Ambassador from the Dominions of Learning to those of Conversation’,” Enlightenment and Dissent 31 (2016 [published Spring 2017]), 82-101.
“ ‘Distant and Commonly Faint and Disfigured Originals’: Hume’s Magna Charta and Sabl’s Fundamental Constitutional Conventions,” Hume Studies 41, no. 1 (April 2015 [published 2017]), 73-80.
“The Paradoxes of Edmund Burke’s Reception in America, 1757-1790,” in Martin Fitzpatrick and Peter Jones, eds. The Reception of Edmund Burke in Europe, The Athlone Critical Traditions Series: The Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 39-54.
“CO 5 as lived experience: The Boston Tea Party and the everyday life of fear and uncertainty in the era of the American Revolution,” [co-authored with Adam Nadeau] Colonial America. 2017. (Adam Matthew Digital, Marlborough, UK) [An essay to accompany the release of “The American Revolution,” Module 3 of Colonial America, digital archive of documents from Colonial Office (CO 5), 1606-1822, The National Archives, UK] Accessed September 8, 2017. http://www.colonialamerica.amdigital.co.uk/Explore/Essays/Spencer
“ ‘Free Trade and Free Thought’: J.M. Keynes and the Safeguarding of Individualism,” in John Maynard Keynes: ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money’ and ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’, Wordsworth Classics of World Literature (Ware, Hertfordshire, 2017), vii-xxxviii.
“The Paradoxes of Edmund Burke’s Reception in America, 1757-1790,” in Martin Fitzpatrick and Peter Jones, eds. The Reception of Edmund Burke in Europe, The Athlone Critical Traditions Series: The Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 39-54.
“Revolutionary Friends, Fathers, and Feelings,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 49, no. 3 (2016), 415-20.
“A Bibliography for Hume’s History of England: A Preliminary View,” [co-authored with Roger L. Emerson] Hume Studies 40, no. 1 (Apr. 2014 [published Feb. 2016]), 53-71.
“John Stuart Mill, Enlightened Reformer: Selected Writings from the 1860s,” in John Stuart Mill: ‘On Liberty,’ ‘Utilitarianism’ and Other Works (Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2016), vii-xxxvi.
“Enlightenment in Scotland and America,” in Jean-François Dunyach and Ann Thomson, eds. The Enlightenment in Scotland: National and International Perspectives, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, Oxford University Press, 2015), 181-203.
“Benjamin Franklin, the Ends of Empire, and the American Revolution,” Enlightenment and Dissent 30 (2015), 99-109.
“Introduction,” in Spencer, ed. The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, 2 vols (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), 1:xxxi-xxxvi.
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), ed. Mark G. Spencer; 14 essays: “Aitken, Robert (1735-1802),” 1:33-4; “Benbridge, Henry (1743-1812) [co-authored with Angela D. Mack],” 1:133-5; “Bordley, John Beale (1727-1804),” 1:157-60; “Bowditch, Nathaniel (1773-1838),” 1:164-5; “Campbell, Robert (1769-1800),” 1:189; “Dallas, Alexander James (1759-1817),” 1:313-5; “Marshall, Humphry (1722-1801),” 2:689-91; “Physick, Philip Syng (1768-1837),” 2:810-11; “Silliman, Benjamin, Sr. (1779-1864),” 2:963-6; “Smith, William (1727-1803) [co-authored with M.A. Stewart],” 2:980-83; “Syng, Philip, Jr. (1703-1789),” 2:1013-4; “Vaughan, John (1756-1841) [co-authored with Roy E. Goodman],” 2:1070-71; “Waterhouse, Benjamin (1754-1846),” 2:1088-9; “Williamson, Hugh (1735-1819),” 2:1104-7.
“John Locke and His World,” in John Locke: ‘Essay concerning Human Understanding’ with the ‘Second Treatise of Government’ (Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2014), ix-xxvii.
The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783-1812: A Political, Social, and Military History, 3 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2014), ed. Spencer C. Tucker; 6 essays [5 reprinted]: “West, Benjamin (1738-1820),” 2:737-738; “Dickinson, John (1732-1808),” 1:171-2; “Smith, Adam (1723-90),” 2:620-621; “Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814),” 2:720-1 [all reprinted from Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History, see “2007” entry below]; “Stuart, Gilbert (1755-1828),” 2:641-2; “Webster, Noah (1758-1843),” 2:735-6. [reprinted from Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History]
“Hume as Historian,” in Spencer, ed. David Hume: Historical Thinker, Historical Writer (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013), 1-12.
“Hume and Madison on Faction,” in Knud Haakonssen and Richard Whatmore, eds. David Hume, International Library of Essays in the History of Social and Political Thought (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Group, 2013), 93-120 [reprint of “Hume and Madison on Faction,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 2002]
“Introduction,” in Karl Marx: ‘Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production’: Volumes 1 and 2 (Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2013), xi-xxxi.
American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection, 6 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2013), ed. Spencer C. Tucker; 2 essays: “Constitutional Union Party,” 1:425; “Gilmer, John Adams (1805-1869),” 2:777.
Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, 2nd edition (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference, 2013), ed. Patrick Mason; 1 essay: “Enlightenment,” 109-15.
“Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations,” in Adam Smith: ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’ (Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2012), xi-xxxiv.
Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2012), eds. Spencer C. Tucker, et al.; 2 essays: “Stuart, Gilbert (1755-1828),” 689-90; “Webster, Noah (1758-1843),” 758.
Encyclopedia of Water Politics and Policy in the United States (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011), eds. Steven L. Danver and John R. Burch, Jr.; 1 essay: “General Survey Act of 1824,” 281-2.
World History Encyclopedia, 21 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2011), gen. ed. Fred Nadis; 1 essay: “John Locke and Enlightenment Political Thought,” 12:433 [invited reprint (with revisions) of my essay on John Locke in the Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History, see “2007” entry below].
“Plus ça change? Education in the Enlightenment and Now,” Academic Matters: The Journal of Higher Education (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations), (posted on-line December 2010) http://www.academicmatters.ca/current_issue.article.gk?catalog_item_id=4521&category=/web_exclusive/review_essays/current/OCT2010
World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Solutions, 2010), website database; 1 essay: “Stuart, Gilbert (1755-1828)” [reissued from United States at War, see “2005” entry below].
American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History, 3 vols (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2009), ed. Gina Misiroglu; 2 essays: “Alison, Francis (1705-1779),” 1:23-24; “Backus, Isaac (1724-1806),” 1:54-55.
Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World, 3 vols (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2008), ed. Junius Rodrigues; 5 essays: “Beattie, James (1735-1803),” 1:62-3; “Blackstone, Sir William (1723-1780),” 1:76-7; “Fox, Charles James (1749-1806),” 1:214-5; “Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873),” 2:374-5; “Montesquieu, Charles-Louis Secondate, Baron de (1689-1755),” 2:378-9.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 9 vols (2nd edition, Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008), ed. William A. Darity, Jr.; 2 essays: “Madison, James (1751-1836),” 4:547-8; “Voltaire (1694-1778),” 8:634-6.
Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, History, 3 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2008), eds. James P. Byrne, Philip Coleman, and Jason King; 3 essays: “Brown, Alexander (1764-1834),” 1:127-8; “Henry, John (1746-1794),” 2:410-11; “McNutt, Alexander (1725-1811),” 2:583-4.
Research and Discovery: Landmarks and Pioneers in American Science, 3 vols (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2008), ed. Russell Lawson; 6 essays: “Almanacs,” 2:579; “Douglass, William (1681-1752),” 2:319-20; “Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790), 1:27-8; “Hamilton, Dr. Alexander (1712-1756), 2:331-2; “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” 2:608-10; “Rittenhouse, David (1732-1796),” 3:662-3.
“Hume’s Reception in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” in Emilio Mazza and Emanuele Ronchetti, eds. New Essays on David Hume (Milano, Italy: FrancoAngeli, 2007), 287-308.
“Daniel Defoe,” in Ellen J. Jenkins, ed. Eighteenth-Century British Historians, volume 336 in the Dictionary of Literary Biography (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007), 82-94.
Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760-1815, 2 vols (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), ed. Gregory Fremont-Barnes; 1 essay: “American Revolution (1775-1783),” 1:20-7.
Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 4 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2007), eds. Gregory Fremont-Barnes and Richard A. Ryerson; 15 essays: “Blackstone, Sir William (1723-1780),” 1:102; “Burke, Edmund (1729-1797),” 1:163-4; “Dickinson, John (1732-1808),” 1:345-7; “Hume, David (1711-1776),” 2:624; “Locke, John (1632-1704),” 2:726-8; “Macaulay (-Graham), Catherine Sawbridge (1731-1791),” 3:751; “McKinly, John (1721-1796),” 3:786-7; “Price, Dr. Richard (1723-1791),” 3:1011; “Priestly, Dr. Joseph (1733-1804),” 3:1012; “Ramsay, Allan (1713-1784),” 3:1055; “Rittenhouse, David (1732-1796),” 3:1082; “Secondat, Charles-Louis de, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755),” 4:1139-40; “Smith, Adam (1723-1790),” 4:1165-6; “Smith, William (1727-1803),” 4:1167-8; “Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814),” 4:1320-1.
Revolutionary War: A Student Encyclopedia, 5 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2007), eds. Gregory Fremont-Barnes and Richard A. Ryerson; 8 essays reprinted from the volume listed directly above: “Burke, Edmund (1729-1797),” 1:226-8; “Dickinson, John (1732-1808),” 1:508-11; “Hume, David (1711-1776),” 2:921; “Locke, John (1632-1704),” 2:1060-1; “Priestly, Dr. Joseph (1733-1804),” 3:1483; Secondat, Charles-Louis de, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755),” 3:1678; “Smith, Adam (1723-1790),” 4:1722; “Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814),” 4:1959-60.
“ ‘Stupid Irish teagues’ and the Encouragement of Enlightenment: Ulster Presbyterian Students of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow,” in Wilson and Spencer, eds. Ulster Presbyterians in the Atlantic World: Religion, Politics and Identity (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006), 50-61.
The Encyclopedia of African American History: From the Colonial Period through the Age of Frederick Douglass, 1619-1895, 3 vols (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), ed. Paul Finkelman; 1 essay: “American Revolution, Memory of,” 1:66-7.
Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, 3 vols (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006), ed. Thomas Benjamin; 1 essay: “Enlightenment Thought,” 1:447-52.
Encyclopedia of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2006), ed. Gregory Fremont-Barnes; 6 essays: “Bentham, Jeremy, (1748-1832),” 1:132-3; “Cornwallis, William (1744-1819),” 1:269; “Fox, Charles James (1749-1806),” 1:360; “Graham, Thomas (1748-1843),” 2:420-1; “Malta, Operations on (1798-1800),” 2:602-3; “Melville, Henry Dundas, First Viscount (1742-1811),” 2:628-9.
The Encyclopedia of New York State (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005), ed. Peter Eisenstadt; 14 essays: “Abercromby, James (1706-1781),” 1-2; “Amherst, Jeffrey (1717-1797),” 78; “Armstrong, John Jr. (1758-1843),” 119; “Boston Post Road,” 198; “Bradford, William (1663-1742),” 203; “Burgoyne, John (1723-1792),” 241-242; “DeLancey, James (1701-1760),” 445; “DeLancey, Oliver (1718-1785),” 445; “Democratic-Republican Societies,” 445; “Duer, William (1743-1799),” 474; “Gates, Horatio (1727-1806),” 624; “Livingston, Philip (1716-1778),” 912; “Montgomery, Richard (1738-1775),” 1003; “Smith, William Jr. (1728-1793),” 1427.
The Encyclopedia of Politics: The Left and the Right, 2 vols (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005), ed. Rodney P. Carlisle; 1 essay: “Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679),” 1:217-8.
United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2005), website database; 1 essay: “Stuart, Gilbert (1755-1828).”
Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia, 2 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2004), eds. Jack Blocker, David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrell; 1 essay: “The Whiskey Rebellion,” 2:648-50.
Biographical Dictionary of British Economists, 2 vols (Bristol, UK: Thoemmes Press, 2004), ed. Morgen Witzel; 1 essay: “Dugald Stewart (1753-1828),” 2:1165-6.
Dictionary of Irish Philosophers (Bristol, UK: Thoemmes Press, 2004), ed. Thomas Duddy; 2 essays: “Haliday, Samuel (1685-1739),” 146-7; “Kirkpatrick, James (c.1676-1743),” 179-80.
Conspiracy Theories in American History, 2 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2004), ed. Peter Knight; 2 essays: “Democratic-Republican Societies,” 1:220-2; “Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804),” 1:296-7.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press in association with The British Academy, 2004), eds. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison; 1 essay: “Povey, Charles (1652-1743),” 45:65-7.
“Another ‘Curious Legend’ about Hume’s An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature,” Hume Studies 29 (April 2003), 89-98.
“Did Shays’ Rebellion influence the adoption of the Constitution?” in Keith Krawczynski, ed. History in Dispute: Volume 12, The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (New York: St. James Press, 2003), 285-92.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, 4 vols (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), ed. Alan Charles Kors; 1 essay: “Almanacs and Yearbooks,” 1:40-1.
Reader’s Guide to British History, 2 vols (London and Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2003), ed. David Loades; 5 essays: “Butler, Joseph (1692-1752),” 1:206-7; “Malthus, Robert (1766-1834),” 2:846-7; “Publishing: Periodical Press and Critical Reviews (18th and 19th centuries),” 2:1030-2; “Stillingfleet, Edward (1635-1699),” 2:1237-8; “Telford, Thomas (1757-1834),” 2:1260-1.
“Hume and Madison on Faction,” The William and Mary Quarterly, ser. 3, 59 (October 2002), 869-96.
“Pursuing Pamela, 1740-1750,” Eighteenth-Century Life 26 (Spring 2002), 96-100.
“Locke and Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy: Recent Tools and Resources,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 34 (Summer 2001), 642-5.
“Benjamin Franklin and David Hume: Compliments of ‘Gold and Wisdom’,” The Franklin Gazette 11 (Spring 2001), 4-6.
“The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: Hume’s Response to the Dogmatic and Intolerant,” The Western Journal of Graduate Research 9 (2000), 1-19.
Book Reviews in:
1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era
American Historical Review
American History Magazine
Australian
Books in Canada
Bowling Green Daily News
British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Canadian Journal of History
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
Cercles: Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone
ECCB: The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography
Eighteenth-Century Book Reviews On-line
Eighteenth-Century Scotland
Enlightenment and Dissent
Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Historical Journal of Massachusetts
Historical Novels Review
History of European Ideas
History of Intellectual Culture
HistoryNet.com
Hume Studies
International Journal for the Study of Skepticism
Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society
Journal of American History
Journal of the American Revolution
Journal of British Studies
Journal of the Early Republic
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Journal of Historical Biography
Journal of the History of Philosophy
Journal of Scottish Philosophy
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
Journal of Southern History
Laredo Morning Times
Libraries & Culture
Library Journal
Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society
Literary Review
LSE Review of Books
Maine Sunday Telegram
Material Culture
Notes & Queries
Portland Press Herald
Publishers Weekly
Review of Politics
Scottish Historical Review
Scottish Literary Review
Scottish Studies Review
Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats
Seventeenth-Century News
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Studies in Religion and the Enlightenment
Swiss American Historical Society Review
Tamkang Review
Times Literary Supplement
University of Toronto Quarterly
Wall Street Journal
Washington Independent Review of Books
Washington Post
Washington Post Magazine
Scholarly lectures, conference papers, and seminar presentations:
Professor Spencer has presented his work to various scholarly communities in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States.
His venues have included Wadham College, Oxford University (2024); Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton (2024, 2007); Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo (2023); International Christian University, Mitaka City (2023); Carleton University, Ottawa (2022); Charles University, Prague (2022); Portland State University (2022, 2014); University of Nevada, Reno (2019); Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2019); University of Glasgow (2018); Brown University, Providence (2017); Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis (2017); Brock University, St. Catharines (2017, 2014, 2004, 2002); Omni William Penn, Pittsburgh (2016); Stockholm University (2015); Hotel Delta, Montreal (2014); Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (2013); University of South Carolina, Columbia (2012); The Old College, Edinburgh University (2011); Université Paris Sorbonne [Paris IV] (2010); Institute Charles V, Université Paris Diderot [Paris VII] (2010); University of Antwerp (2010); University of King’s College, Halifax (2009); University of Malta Center, Xewkija, Gozo (2009); Athens Institute for Education and Research, Greece (2008); Hólar University College, Iceland (2008); Dalhousie University, Halifax (2008); Crowne Plaza Hotel, San Francisco (2007); Dartmouth College, Hanover (2007); Hotel Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, Montreal (2006); Harvard University (2005 and 2000); Sheraton Hotel, Boston (2004); Trinity College Dublin (2004); The University of Western Ontario, London (2004, 1997); University of Guelph (2003); University of Toronto (2002); Michigan State University, East Lansing (2000); Huron University College, London (1998); Edinburgh University (1998); University of Stirling (1998); Newnham College, Cambridge University (1998); University of Utrecht (1998); Vanderbilt University, Nashville (1997); The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1996); The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg (1995).
Recent Undergraduate Courses:
HIST 2P15: Glory and Despair: The United States, 1607-1865
HIST 2Q98: Everyday Life in Early America
HIST 3P15: The American Enlightenment
HIST 3P16: The American Revolution
HIST 4P36: American Political Ideas, 1760-1805
Recent Graduate Seminar:
HIST 5V20: The American Enlightenment
Professor Spencer is available to supervise graduate students in his areas of interest.