As Grayson Kirk, the president of Columbia University, fearfully noted, “Our young people, in disturbing numbers, appear to reject all forms of authority… I know of no time in our history when the gap between generations has been wider or more potentially dangerous.” In addition he provides extensive footnotes, a thorough index and a useful bibliography for those interested in further research.įor Kurlansky four factors combined to produce the year’s “spontaneous combustion” of rebellions: the example of the civil rights movement a generation that rejected all forms of authority the universally unpopular Vietnam war and the coming of age of television. Kurlansky, 20 years old in 1968 and heavily involved in the anti-Vietnam war protests in the US, uses an impressive range of primary and secondary sources, including interviews with key participants and illuminating posters and photographs from the period.
Published four years ago, Mark Kurlansky’s 1968: the year that rocked the world is an engrossing and stimulating general history of a time “when significant segments of population all over the globe refused to be silent about the many things that were wrong with the world.”
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