A provocative but desultory history, ultimately adding up to
little, in which Berman (ed., Blacks and Jews, 1994, etc.) compares
the radical political movements in 1968 with the liberal democratic
revolution of 1989 in Europe. Assassinations, riots, and the
Vietnam War marred American public life in 1968; it was also a year
of creative tension in public affairs, politics, and the arts, and
saw the rise of radical student movements from Paris to Berkeley,
aimed at transforming society. Berman traces several of the more
distinctive movements (Tom Hayden's Students for a Democratic
Society, the gay liberation movement, and the Paris Maoists) and
contrasts them with the peaceful anti-Communist "revolution" of
1989 that resulted in the collapse of pro-Soviet regimes throughout
Europe. While conceding the infinite variety of the radical
impulse, Berman categorizes the movements of 1968 into four groups:
(1) the "New Left" insurrections against institutionalized racism
and sexism, and against middle-class values, originating in
universities and driven by students and academics; (2) the
development of a new, liberated spiritual sensibility, composed of
insights derived from various Eastern religious traditions and
other sources; (3) revolutions against right-wing dictatorships
(e.g., Vietnam, Latin America); and (4) revolutions against
left-wing dictatorships (e.g., Czechoslovakia). The period's
upheavals had a lasting impact on Western societies, resulting in
greater freedom for women, minorities, and gays, and liberalizing
fashions and lifestyles. In the East (to which Berman devotes less
attention), the legacy of the suppressed Prague Spring and decades
of backwardness was a yearning for Western democracy and a market
economy. In tantalizing but tangential essays, Berman throws in the
Stonewall Riot, the 1990 visit of Frank Zappa to Czechoslovakia,
and Francis Fukuyama's musings on the "end of history," with
nebulous results. An intelligent and well-reasoned effort, but
Berman tries to cover too much ground; there are enough ideas here
for five books and too little development for one. (Kirkus Reviews)
"A deeply moving and delightfully readable account of the political journey [Berman's] generation has taken."—Isaac Kramnick, New York Observer
The ideological passions that, along with critical acclaim, greeted the publication of Paul Berman's A Tale of Two Utopias showed how persistent are some of the battle lines drawn in the tumultuous years around 1968.
A Tale of Two Utopias recounts "in clean, clear, often funny style" (Washington Post) four episodes in the history of a generation: the worldwide student radicalism of the years around 1968; the birth of gay liberation and modern identity politics; the anti-Communist trajectory of the '68ers in the Eastern bloc; and the ideals and self-criticism of thinkers in America and in France who lived through these events and debated their meaning.
Praised for both "sheer intellectual high-spiritedness" (Houston Chronicle) and "the same sensitivity to the moral needs of the participants, and the same lucid evaluative balance, as Edmund Wilson's accounts of earlier periods" (philosopher Richard Rorty), A Tale of Two Utopias firmly establishes Berman as "one of America's leading social critics" (New Leader) and "one of our most gifted essayists" (Boston Globe).
"Paul Berman is a wonderfully lucid presenter and analyzer of recent intellectual history."—Nathan Glazer, New York Times Book Review
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