In connecting the critical texts we read this week, I would like to turn my attention to the notion of social memory and how it addresses the simultaneous, yet geographically distant, revolutions. Following this line of thought, 1968, in a way, provides a unified global front in that the societies were experiencing similar struggles, contesting their specific cultural or political concerns. Addressing the question of examining the benefits and limitations to focusing on one year in regard to transnationalism, Kurlansky points out the similarities and differences between the various rebellions: “What was unique about 1968 was that people were rebelling over disparate issues and had in common only that desire to rebel, ideas about how do it, a sense of alienation from the established order, and a profound distaste for authoritarianism in any form” (xvii). At a time when nations and cultures were still separate and very different – and in 1968 Poland, France, the United States, and Mexico were far more different from one another than they are today – there occurred a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirits around the world” (xvii). He introduces his text stating that “there has never been a year like 1968, and it is unlikely that there will ever be one again. Borrowing my title from Mark Kurlansky’s critically acclaimed historical text, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), underscores the global impact that this year has had.
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