1968: The World Transformed presents a global perspective on the tumultuous events of the most crucial year in the era of the Cold War. By interpreting 1968 as a transnational phenomenon, authors from Europe and the United States explain why the crises of 1968 erupted almost simultaneously throughout the world. Together, the eighteen chapters provide an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the rise and fall of protest movements worldwide. The book represents an effort to integrate international relations, the role of media, and the cross-cultural exchange of people and ideas into the history of that year. 1968 emerges as a global phenomenon because of the linkages between domestic and international affairs, the powerful influence of the media, the networks of communication among activists, and the shared opposition to the domestic and international status quo in the name of freedom and self-determination.
Introduction Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert and Detlef Junker; Part I. Tet and Prague: The Bipolar System in Crisis: 1. Tet and the Crisis of Hegemony George C. Herring; 2. Tet on TV: American nightly news reporting Chester J. Pach Jr; 3; The American economic consequences of 1968 Diane B. Kunz; 4.The Czechoslovak crisis and the Brezhnev doctrine Mark Kramer; 5. Ostpolitik: the role of the Federal Republic of Germany in the process of Détente Gottfried Niehart; 6. China under siege: escaping the dangers of 1968 Nancy B. Tucker; Part II. From Chicago to Beijing: Challenges to the Domestic Order: 7. 1968 and the unraveling of liberal America Alan Brinkley; 8. March 1968 in Poland Jerzy Eisler; 9. May 1968 in France: the rise and fall of a new social movement Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey; 10. A laboratory of post-industrial society: reassessing the 1960s in Germany Claus Leggewie; 11. The Third World Arif Dirlik; Part III. Ask the Impossible!: Protest Movements of 1968: 12. The revolt against the establishment: students versus the press in West Germany and Italy Stuart J. Hilwig; 13. The changing nature of the European working class: the rise and fall of the 'new middle classes' (France, Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia) Gerd Rainer Horn; 14. The women's movement in East and West Germany Eva Maleck-Lewy and Bernhard Maleck; 15. 1968: a turning point in American Race Relations? Manfred Berg; 16. The revival of Holocaust awareness in West Germany, Israel, and the United States Harold Marcuse; 17. The nuclear threat ignored: how and why the campaign against the bomb disintegrated in the late 1960s Lawrence Wittner; Part IV. Epilogue: 18. 1968 and 1989: caesuras, comparisons, and connections Konrad H. Jarausch.
