Voices of 1968: Documents from the Global North - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745338089 ISBN 13: 9780745338088

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2018

Synopsis

The year 1968 marked one of the great upheavals of twentieth-century politics and culture. Across the world, people rebelled against postwar conformity and patriarchy, against the authoritarian university and factory work, and against the Cold War and state power. The legacy of 1968 endures in many of today’s social movements and struggles, and yet it is often misunderstood, the realities of the time turned to caricature.

Voices of 1968 is a vivid collection of key texts from the movements and uprisings of “the long 1968.” Emphasizing the transnational linkages between these struggles, the primary documents of this collection delve into events that took place as far afield as Italy, France, West Germany, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Britain, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czechoslavakia, Yugoslavia, and Japan. This wealth of material is supported by framing essays helping readers to find their way around the era’s revolutionary ideas and to understand their legacy in politics, culture, and society today. Featuring many texts that have never been seen in English before, this remarkable collection is published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the events of 1968.
 

About this title

About the Author:

Laurence Cox is senior lecturer in sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and coauthor of We Make Our Own History: Marxism, Social Movements and the Twilight of Neoliberalism, also published by Pluto Press. Salar Mohandesi is a postdoctoral fellow in History at Bowdoin College and founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine. Bjarke Skaerlund Risager is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto.

Review:

“This extraordinary collection brings together the great manifestos, political programs, and other original writings that inspired—and were inspired by—the movements and uprisings of 1968. . . . Indispensable for anyone interested in the global upheavals of that annus mirabilis.”  (Jeff Goodwin, New York University)

“Read Voices of 1968 to understand how, why, and where deeply rooted activist currents coalesced into a global uprising that changed the world. Here are the transnational threads of hope and possibility desperately needed in an era of neoliberalism.” (Robyn C. Spencer, CUNY)

“The many revolts and uprisings of 1968 have frequently been told through narratives which have depoliticized them. This valuable collection of original documents and writings reasserts the diverse forms of radicalism and struggles for radical change in this pivotal year. It’s a significant resource for hope and struggle.”
  (David Featherstone, University of Glasgow)

“Here are voices from the marvelous year of 1968, as they spoke then. Some speak to projects we still struggle to realize half a century later. If a few are slightly mad, most are empowering; we know them as our own. We are their inheritor.”
  (Colin Barker, author of Festival of the Oppressed)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0745338089
• ISBN 13: 9780745338088
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Cox Laurence, Mohandesi Salar, Risager Bjarke Skaerlund