The Imaginary Revolution : : Parisian Students and Workers in 1968 / / Michael Seidman.

• VerfasserIn: Seidman, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: International Studies in Social History ; 5
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (324 p.)

The events of 1968 have been seen as a decisive turning point in the Western world. The author takes a critical look at "May 1968" and questions whether the events were in fact as "revolutionary" as French and foreign commentators have indicated. He concludes the student movement changed little that had not already been challenged and altered in the late fifties and early sixties. The workers' strikes led to fewer working hours and higher wages, but these reforms reflected the secular demands of the French labor movement. "May 1968" was remarkable not because of the actual transformations it wrought but rather by virtue of the revolutionary power that much of the media and most scholars have attributed to it and which turned it into a symbol of a youthful, renewed, and freer society in France and beyond.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION May 1968—a Rupture? -- Chapter One SEX, DRUGS, AND REVOLUTION -- Chapter Two MAKING DESIRES REALITY -- Chapter Three INCENDIARY OCCUPATIONS -- Chapter Four WORKERS RESPOND -- Chapter Five THE SPECTACLE OF ORDER -- CONCLUSION A Modest or Mythical May? -- CHRONOLOGY -- GLOSSARY -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX