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SoSe 17: The Radical Sixties. Global History in the Making

Christoph Kalter

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The ‘long 1960s’ have a well-earned reputation for being an epoch of revolt and revolution across the globe. Between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, a plethora of actors, ranging from youth, students, artists, intellectuals and diverse minorities to workers, political activists, parties, anticolonial liberation movements, and new international coalitions challenged long-standing systems of power in international politics, work relations, higher education, race relations, sexuality and gender roles, and cultural production. This effusive desire to question—or to straightforwardly tear down—many of the boundaries that dominated a world marked by the Cold War, consumer capitalism, and decolonization was radical, indeed. To what extent these actors and their desire for revolution unleashed a transformative power that was able to match their radical aspirations, is far more uncertain, however. The world changed, but hardly ever in the ways those who demanded change had anticipated.
This seminar will address select aspects of the Radical Sixties by engaging with recent scholarly interpretations that either tackle the coherence of the epoch as a whole (or its lack thereof) or that speak to specific case studies. With regard to the latter, the seminar will geographically focus on Western Europe, North America, and Latin America (but may include also one or two sessions on Africa, although this is not definitive yet). While attentive to the local dynamics of the case studies at hand, we will also explicitly reflect on the Radical Sixties as global history in the making, and this in three ways: Firstly, protest actors in different locations addressed similar problems in similar ways from Paris to Berkeley to Mexico City; secondly, they were acutely aware of parallels and transnational entanglements in what they perceived as their connected struggles; and thirdly, scholarship on the Radical Sixties has in the last decade taken a global history turn that allows to see these connections more clearly than ever before.
Finally, I admit that the time slot chosen for this class may be considered as somewhat radical, too, albeit in ways quite different from those we associate with the Sixties. Although 8:30-10am is admittedly unusual, I invite you to consider how beautiful the world can look if you start your week in the crisp freshness of a nascent Berlin summer day. Also, the early hour will likely make for a smaller number of participants, which in turn will enhance the quality of our in-class discussions. So be radical: get up early and bring your coffee. I am looking forward to working with you.
Participatory requirements: Regular and active participation, willingness to take on small tasks during the semester, seminar paper if required by the module.
Introductory literature: Chaplin Tamara/Mooney, Jadwiga E. Pieper, eds., The Global 1960s. Convention, contest and counterculture, London et. al. 2017; Klimke, Martin/Pekelder, Jacco/Scharloth, Joachim (eds.), Between Prague Spring and French May. Opposition and Revolt in Europe, 1960-1980, New York et al. 2011; Christiansen, Samantha/Scarlett, Zachary A. (eds.), The Third World in the Global 1960s, Oxford et al. 2013. close