Student Revolt in 1968
France, Italy and West Germany

This comparative analysis of student protests in France, Italy and West Germany in 1968 explores their origins, course and dissolution.

Ben Mercer (Author)

9781108735957, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 October 2021

311 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

'A thoughtful analysis of student protest around 1968 in three major Western European countries. Mercer's comparative study will be a welcome addition to many syllabi on the Global 1960s and essential reading for students and scholars of democratization after 1945.' Anna von der Goltz, Georgetown University

Student Revolt in 1968 examines the origins, course and dissolution of student protest at three universities in the 1960s - the Freie Universität Berlin in West Germany, the campus of Nanterre in France, and the Faculty of Sociology at Trento in Italy. It traces how student revolts over space, speech, sociology and cultural democratisation catalysed a dynamic protest movement within universities in the mid-1960s that expanded dramatically beyond the University in 1968. Differing visions of democratisation - mass access to education, the dissolution of high culture, the democratic control of the university - clashed and competed in a radical revaluation of the meaning of university education and democratic culture. The study also evaluates the most ambitious experiments in higher education in the 1960s - the 'Critical Universities' of West Berlin and Trento - which sought to establish democratic control of higher education before dissolving in the politics of social revolution, and offers a new and clear-sighted perspective on the 1960s

Introduction: history, myth and memory of 1968
Part I. Education and Culture: 1. The 'devouring monster': the university in the 1960s
2. 'New managerial class' or 'social doctor'? The ambiguities of sociology
3. 'Books for all': the democratisation of high culture
4. 'Knowledge is over': the intellectual politics of 1968
Part II. The Politics of Revolt: 5. 'The space of autonomy must be created': the politics of democracy
6. 'We represent nothing': the crisis of representation
7. 'We began to talk': the seizure of speech
Part III. Crisis of the University: 8. 'Question, doubt and criticise': free speech at the Free University
9. 'Student power': Vietnam at Trento
10. 'An asylum for delinquents': the space of revolt at Nanterre
11. 'A golden ghetto': the Critical University.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]