Course Description

In recent years we have seen a dramatic increase in protest movements that have taken to the streets, from Black Lives Matter to the Women’s March, Climate Change, May Day, and G20 Summit protests, to name just a few. This course looks at some of the antecedents of these protest movements by exploring what has been referred to as the “Long Sixties” (as coined by Arthur Marwick) from a transnational perspective. During the course we will focus our attention away from the high politics of the Cold War to instead examine the rise of counterculture, peace movements, and militant opposition groups across national borders. We will begin by exploring the anti-war demonstrations that emerged in the United States in response to the Vietnam War. We will then trace the economic, social, and political unrest that occurred in the spring of 1968 on either side of the “Iron Curtain” as well as across the global South. We will end the course by discussing the lasting impact of the Sixties on the subsequent decades, assessing both continuities and ruptures with the earlier revolts. In doing so, we will gain insights into how the 1960s continue to impact the nature of the protests that we see in the streets today.