Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This study is available via the UK Data Service Qualibank, an online tool for browsing, searching and citing the content of selected qualitative data collections held at the UK Data Service. This material formed part of a larger project which explored the memories, motivations and experiences of those involved in the politically radical, student movements of the late 1960s, in six of the West’s industrialised countries. Interviews with leaders of the British and Northern Irish student movements cover in some detail the early marches; student strikes at various universities such as the London School of Economics; the founding of various new left journals; and the rise of the feminist movement in Britain. This includes conversations with Tariq Ali, Martin Jacques, Hilary Wainwright and Fred Halliday. Interviews with Irish student leaders document the early civil rights movement among Roman Catholic students in Londonderry and other venues, and the increasing violence engendered in Northern Ireland. This examination of an important year in Western history is published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 1968. 1968, like 1948, was a year in which the Western world seemed to hover on the brink of revolution, and much of the impetus for change came from the student movement. In Paris, rioting students threatened to bring down the authoritarian government of General de Gaulle; in London the anti-Vietnamese War rally was followed by the occupation of the LSE; in Germany and Italy universities were occupied and massive demonstrations mounted; in the United States anti-war fervour and a decade of civil rights culminated in the bloody scenes at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. Hostility to the materialism of the postwar consensus made household names of Rudi Dutschke, Danny Cohn Bendit, Tariq Ali and Bernadette Devlin. Public attention was drawn to feminism, the pop and alternative cultures and the sexual revolution. The author is a leading oral historian, and has worked as a journalist with "History Workshop" since 1980. He has written three oral histories of Spain, his most recent book being "In Search of a Past" (1984).
Main Topics:
Education; school life; family life; political development; nuclear disarmament; cultural life; youth culture; music; sexual behaviour; parents; student politics; universities; student organisations; demonstrations; anti-war movements; USA; socialism; political science; labour movement; Marxism; anarchism; women’s liberation movement; revolution; revolutionary movements; subversive activities; political activities; political factions.
Purposive selection/case studies
Face-to-face interview
