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The year 1968 was a global insurrection but the geography of its genesis and of its legacies remains poorly understood. In relation to the outpouring of work critical of the events of the sixties, and of 1968 in particular, by commentators on the political right and left, this essay attempts to rethink the nature of these global events and traces three paths from 1968, each of which represents a distinctive global–local articulation. It is argued that, while there are many different sorts of 1968s, what they each bequeathed was a rethinking of the politics of the possible, and they unleashed a long march through the institutions which have left an indelible mark on the politics of the contemporary era. The essay concludes with some reflections on the legacy of 1968 for the idea of radical democracy and of real Utopias.
Michael Watts (Fri,) studied this question.