In virtually all corners of the Western world, 1968 witnessed a
highly unusual sequence of popular rebellions. In Italy, France,
Spain, Vietnam, the United States, West Germany, Czechoslovakia,
Mexico, and elsewhere, millions of individuals took matters into
their own hands to counter imperialism, capitalism, autocracy,
bureaucracy, and all forms of hierarchical thinking. Recent
reinterpretations have sought to play down any real challenge to
the socio-political status quo in these events, but Gerd-Rainer
Horn's book offers a spirited counterblast. 1968, he argues, opened
up the possibility that economic and political elites on both sides
of the Iron Curtain could be toppled from their position of
unnatural superiority to make way for a new society where everyday
people could, for the first time, become masters of their own
destiny. Furthermore, Horn contends, the moment of crisis and
opportunity culminating in 1968 must be seen as part of a larger
period of experimentation and revolt. The ten years between 1956
and 1966, characterised above all by the flourishing of
iconoclastic cultural rebellions, can be regarded as a preparatory
period which set the stage for the non-conformist cum political
revolts of the subsequent "red" decade (1966-1976).
Horn's geographic centres of attention are Western Europe,
including the first full examination of Mediterranean revolts, and
North America. He placed particular emphasis on cultural
nonconformity, the student movement, working class rebellions, the
changing contours of the Left, and the meaning of participatory
democracy. His book will make fascinating reading for anyone
interested in this turbulent period and the fundamental changes
that were wrought upon societies either side of the Atlantic.
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