The Long '68: Radical Protest and Its Enemies

(Paperback)

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A very enjoyable and astringent account of the events that made 1968 and its aftermath so important The 'long 68' saw an extraordinary range of protests across much of the western world. Some of these were genuinely revolutionary - around 10 million French workers struck and the whole state teetered on the brink of collapse. Others were more easily contained, but had profound longer term implications - terrorist groups, feminist collectives, gay rights activists could all trace important roots to 1968. Bill Clinton and even Tony Blair are, in many ways, the product of 68. THE LONG '68 is a striking and original attempt, half a century on, to show how these events, which in some ways still seem so current, stemmed from histories and societies which are in practice now extraordinarily remote from our own time.

Reviews

Deeply researched, richly detailed and thoroughly absorbing -- John Gray * New Statesman *
Fresh, compelling ... an important book, revealing that 50 years on, 1968 is still unfinished business -- Andrew Hussey * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Richard Vinen is Professor of History at King's College, London and the author of a number of major books. He won the Wolfson Prize for History for National Service (2014).