And in 1968 there were some protests...and Amanda came...

The protests that dominated the 1968 were the product of social changes during the twenty years following the end of World War II. After the war most of the world experienced an unusual surge in births, creating a large age demographic. In the First World, these babies were born during a time of peace and prosperity for most countries. Permissive theories of childrearing, popular in the west, taught them that their happiness was important to others.[1] This was the first generation to grow up with television in their homes.[2] Television had a profound effect on this generation in two ways. First, it gave them a common perspective from which to view the world.[3] The children growing up in this era shared not only the news and programs that they watched on television, they also got glimpses of each other’s world. Secondly, television allowed them to experience major public events. Public education was becoming more widely attended and more standardized, creating another shared experience. Chain stores and franchised restaurants were bringing shared shopping and dining experiences to people in different parts of the world.[4] These factors all combined to create a generation that was more self-aware and more united as a group than the generations before it.

Waves of social movements throughout the 1960’s began to shape the values of the generation that were college students during 1968. In America, the Civil Rights Movement was at its most violent. Italy and France were in the midst of a socialist movement. The New Left political movement was causing political upheavals in many European and South American countries. The Israeli conflict had already started. Great Britain’s anti-war movement was very strong and African independence was a continuing struggle. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the cold war was another shared experience of this generation. The knowledge that a nuclear attack could end their life at any moment was reinforced with classroom bomb drills[5] creating an atmosphere of fear. As they became older teens the anti-war movement and the feminist movement were becoming a force in much of the world. The feminist movement made the generation question their belief that the family was more important than the individual. The peace movement made them question and distrust authority even more that then they had already.[6] By the time they started college many were part of the anti-establishment culture and became the impetus for a wave of rebellion that started on college campuses and swept the world.

The college students of 1968 embraced the New Left politics. Their socialist leanings and distrust of authority led to many of the 1968 conflicts. The dramatic events of the year showed both the popularity and limitations of New Left ideology, a radical leftist movement that was also deeply ambivalent about its relationship to communism during the middle and later years of the Cold War.