West Germany and the Global Sixties
The Anti-Authoritarian Revolt, 1962–1978

This book examines the synthesis of globalizing influences that precipitated the anti-authoritarian revolts in West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.

Timothy Scott Brown (Author)

9781107519251, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 May 2015

408 pages, 42 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

'In West Germany and the Global Sixties: The Anti-Authoritarian Revolt, 1962–1978, Timothy Scott Brown has given scholars studying the period a great gift: a masterful synthesis of swirling currents of rebellion placed in a groundbreaking conceptual frame. Exhaustively researched and elegantly argued, the book functions both as a comprehensive account of a major swath of postwar history and a provocative rethinking of the terms in which scholars have represented it.' Jeremy Varon, The American Historical Review

The anti-authoritarian revolt of the 1960s and 1970s was a watershed in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The rebellion of the so-called '68ers' - against cultural conformity and the ideological imperatives of the Cold War, against the American war in Vietnam, and in favor of a more open accounting for the crimes of the Nazi era - helped to inspire a dialogue on democratization with profound effects on German society. Timothy Scott Brown examines the unique synthesis of globalizing influences on West Germany to reveal how the presence of Third World students, imported pop culture from America and England, and the influence of new political doctrines worldwide all helped to precipitate the revolt. The book explains how the events in West Germany grew out of a new interplay of radical politics and popular culture, even as they drew on principles of direct-democracy, self-organization and self-determination, all still highly relevant in the present day.

Introduction
1. Space
2. Time
3. Word
4. Sound
5. Vision
6. Power
7. Sex
8. Death
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], European history [HBJD]