Since 1968, each anniversary produced – often valuable – insights into what has frequently been defined as a “magical year”. In fact, over the following decades, 1968 took on a life of its own, adapting the narratives to the specific concerns of different historical moments.
Rather than re-assessing the effects of 1968, this volume aims at investigating the presence of 1968 in the 2010s, starting from the assumption that today, in 2018, the memory of those events might seem nearer to us than on previous anniversaries. For sure, even if led by a perceived urgency of change, 1968 was located in a different historical context than today’s movements: at the peak of a period of economic growth and increased welfare.
Rather than commemorating the events, what the different contributions collected in this volume do, is reflecting upon how in fact the legacy of 1968 affects (oppositional) politics nowadays.
In this second part of the “Annale” we have included some documents of the protest movement of the international 1968, from the Usa, Italy, France, West Germany, Japan, China, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The present collection of documents of collective movements includes a variety of prospects for 1968, on 1968, in 1968, to give back the warmth of the requests and the languages of a season that represented a crucial junction of the Twentieth century. We are convinced that the direct relationship with the sources represents an essential element to access a temper that too often was crushed by the weight of divisive memoirs or simplifications. It will be up to the reader to be amazed or surprised by the fragments of history and to evaluate, eventually, which perspectives can still be open to research.
