Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T08:47:03.334Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - 1968 in Three Europes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2020

Timothy Scott Brown
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the key political events of 1960s Europe, focusing on how different local conditions shaped the possibilities of activism. Beginning with a consideration of student radicalisms in Poland and West Germany, it moves on to events in France and Czechoslovakia. Whereas the French May saw a temporary but powerful alliance between students and workers, the Prague Spring was crushed by a Soviet invasion. Yugoslavia, too, saw attempts to regenerate socialism along the lines of workers’ democracy, but in a context where “self-management” was official (but unrealized) state doctrine. Hungary continued to suffer under the effects of its own aborted attempt to steer toward industrial democracy. In Italy, student and industrial militancy reached a pitch equaled nowhere else in Europe. Right-wing dictatorships in Spain, Greece, and Portugal repressed but failed to fully subjugate emancipatory movements of students and workers. Portugal saw a massive and sustained antiauthoritarian explosion that placed it at the forefront of European revolutionary movements. Activists pursued a “politics of truth” that challenged official lies and put forward emancipatory counternarratives.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sixties Europe , pp. 102 - 188
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×