When Poetry Ruled the Streets: The French May Events of 1968

Book Description

More than a history, this book is a passionate reliving of the French May Events of 1968. The authors, ardent participants in the movement in Paris, documented the unfolding events as they pelted the police and ran from the tear gas grenades. Their account is imbued with the impassioned efforts of the students to ignite political awareness throughout society. Feenberg and Freedman select documents, graffiti, brochures, and posters from the movement and use them as testaments to a very different and exciting time. Their commentary, informed by the subsequent development of French culture and politics, offers useful background information and historical context for what may be the last great revolutionary challenge to the capitalist system.

Customer Reviews:

Short but sweet.......2004-07-16

This book is divided into two parts. The first offers a day by day account of the May '68 revolt in Paris. The second is primary documents.

There is not that much written in English about the May '68 rebellion, and until Mark Kurlansky's book came out this was the best source. That said, it is not perfect. It is not written by historians, but by two American students who witnessed (and participated) in the events. They are now both professors, so they are obviously very intelligent, but their lack of historical training is very evident. This book offers no real historical analysis of the events. It should probably be considered more of a "collective memoir" than anything else.

That being said, it is an excellent source. The primary sources in the back can be a little thick sometimes, but this is obviously not the authors' fault.

Although it is not a perfect book, it offers a great starting point for discussion. It is worth reading if you are at all interested in the events of 1968.

Old World History and Geography Student Quiz and Activity Book 5th Grade (A Beka Book)
Average customer rating:
Old World History and Geography Student Quiz and Activity Book 5th Grade (A Beka Book)

Manufacturer: Beka Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GU8S2Q

Product Description

This book contains the following materials for the student: Weekly quizzes Activity sheets

Almost a Revolution: The Story of a Chinese Student's Journey from Boyhood to Leadership in Tiananmen Square (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)

Average customer rating:

An inside look at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests with a background of growing up in China during the 1970s and 80s
This is not Frontline
History from a personal POV
A students account of the events leading up to June 1989
Moving story of Chinese family life and the student movement

Almost a Revolution: The Story of a Chinese Student's Journey from Boyhood to Leadership in Tiananmen Square (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)
Tong Shen
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
The Tiananmen Papers
The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement
Thunder Out of China

ASIN: 0472085573

Book Description

In his groundbreaking memoir about China's democracy movement and the massacre at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, student leader Shen Tong offers us a rare look at a bold and daring new generation of Chinese citizens who tried to protest the restraints imposed by their country's government. An organizer of the "dialogue delegation," whose goal was to negotiate with the government, Shen provides an insider's record of the day-to-day decisions that led up to June 4th. Written with the help of journalist Marianne Yen, the result is both a powerful documentary and a sensitive account of growing up in contemporary China.

Now nearly ten years later as our fascination with post-Deng China continues to develop, Shen's story and the updated material he provides are weighted with increasing significance. Coupled with much of the recent analysis, Shen's firsthand account vividly contextualizes the Chinese government's opposition to democracy and offers meaningful insight into a country that promises to occupy an increasingly prominent position in the world.

"A cause for celebration . . . an important contribution to China's newly discovered historical memory." --New York Times Book Review

Shen Tong is a doctoral student in political sociology at Boston University and the founder of the Democracy for China Fund, which aims to support and publicize dissent networks in China. Marianne Yen is a former New York correspondent for the Washington Post.

Customer Reviews:

An inside look at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests with a background of growing up in China during the 1970s and 80s.......2007-04-03

This book presents a good inside look at the 1989 democracy movement from the viewpoint of a key student leader. The reader learns about some aspects of the movement that have not been widely publicized, including the trials and tribulations of one of the principal organizers of the movement.

Also, a good documentary film about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests is Carma Hinton's "The Gate of Heavenly Peace." A condensed version of this film was broadcast on PBS Frontline in 1996.

This is not Frontline.......2006-04-21

I just watched the recent Frontline about Tank Man, the man who bravely defied the line of tanks in Beijing, and went to Amazon to find books about the subject. Up came this book, among others, and I remember almost throwing it across the room over ten years ago when I read it. You have a guy who escaped, knew a few people involved, and whose only personal involvement is from the outside. He had no balls, and never dared risk himself. Sure, he knows the figureheads, the history, and can write about what happened as if was there. But he was hiding in his room, making himself out to be a hero. If you want to read a book with the only suspense being whether to finish it or not, then this is the one.

History from a personal POV.......1999-03-28

Too many history books deal in dry facts. This book tells the story of China and what led up to the Tiananmen Square massacre from the point of view of one young student who was pulled, sometimes against his will, into the thick of the political arena. I found it fascinating!

A students account of the events leading up to June 1989.......1998-12-29

I found this book very informative about the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square occupation by the students and workers in June of 1989. Since traveling for one month in China this past year, I have been reading alot of personal accounts on China by people who have escaped or left the country. This was a nice change; a book speaking of the efforts by the citizens to change the way things are there and by peaceful means. This book really makes one appreciate the freedoms and democracy that we take for granted in this country.

Moving story of Chinese family life and the student movement.......1998-04-27

There are two wonderful things about this book: first, Shen Tong's charming account of life growing up in Beijing in an exceptional Chinese family; and then the deeply moving story of the growth of the student movement and its tragic surpression. The courage of the students, and later people from all walks of life, in their struggle for a more open society is very impressive. This book should not be out of print.

When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941

Average customer rating:

When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941
Robert Cohen
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Activism | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

New Voices: Student Activism in the '80s and '90s
The Movement and The Sixties
Many Are the Crimes

ASIN: 0195111362

Book Description

The Depression era saw the first mass student movement in American history. The crusade, led in large part by young Communists, was both an anti-war campaign and a movement championing a broader and more egalitarian vision of the welfare state than that of the New Dealers. The movement arose from a massive political awakening on campus, caused by the economic crisis of the 1930s, the escalating international tensions, and threat of world war wrought by fascism. At its peak, in the late 1930s, the movement mobilized at least a half million collegians in annual strikes against war. Never before, and not again until the 1960s, were so many undergraduates mobilized for political protest in the United States. The movement lost nearly all its momentum in 1939, when the signing of the Hitler-Stalin pact served to discredit the student Communist leaders. Adding to the emerging portrait of political life in the 1930s, this book is the result of an extraordinary amount of research, has fascinating individual stories to tell, and offers the first comprehensive history of this student insurgency.

Average customer rating:

World History: Student Activities

Manufacturer: Bob Jones Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Children's Books | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Teens | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

World History for Christian Schools
Writing & Grammar 10 for Christian Schools
Student activities in world history for Christian schools
Geography for Christian Schools: Student Activities
Geography: For Christian Schools

ASIN: 089084853X

Average customer rating:

World Studies: Student Activities

Manufacturer: Bob Jones Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

World Studies: for Christian School0
Writing & Grammar 7 for Christian Schools
World Studies for Christian Schools
World Studies For Christian Schools: Books 1&2 (Teacher's Edition)
Explorations in Literature for Christian Schools

ASIN: 1579243029

Journeys That Opened Up World: Women, Student Christian Movements, and Social Justice, 1955-1975

Average customer rating:

Meetings with Remarkable Women..

Journeys That Opened Up World: Women, Student Christian Movements, and Social Justice, 1955-1975

Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Activism | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Religion & Spirituality | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Same Fate As the Poor
Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century (American Society of Missiology Series, No. 32)
Born for Liberty

ASIN: 0813533147

Book Description

This volume contains inspiring memoirs from sixteen women active in the civil rights movement, anti-war campaigns, and the rise of feminism in the Cold War era. It places religious activism at the center of social movements previously thought of as largely secular.

For thousands of young women in the 1950s and 1960s, involvement with the student Christian movement (SCM) changed their worldviews. Religious organizations fostered women's leadership at a time when secular groups like Students for a Democratic Society, and the Left in general, relegated most female participants to stereotypical roles.

The SCM introduced young women to activism in other parts of the country and around the world. As leaders, thinkers, and organizers, they encountered the social realities of poverty and racial prejudice and worked to combat them. The SCM took women to Selma and Montgomery, to Africa and Latin America, and to a lifelong commitment to work for social justice.

Customer Reviews:

Meetings with Remarkable Women.........2003-10-23

At the outset let me say that I am a nephew of one of the remarkable women of this book, Ruth Harris. And honestly, were that not the case I probably would have had no motivation to read this book. But if I had not read this wonderful book, I would have missed the telling of these captivating, interconnected stories that demonstrate how human history is created and changed for the betterment of all - people who develop and follow their convictions with faith and courage, and hard effort. This is a "peoples" history showing us all that we can affect change to right the wrongs of culture and institutions. With love and compassion borne of family, friends, education, introspection and above all, Spirit, these women changed our world - and are still at work in this effort. Motivated to live their lives to end suffering as they found and experienced it, we have benefited from their loving and compassionate works. I thank them for this, as you will after you read this inspired and inspirational book.

The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968 (International Studies in Social History)

Average customer rating:

The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968 (International Studies in Social History)
Michael Seidman
Manufacturer: Berghahn Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Revolutionary | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

May '68 and Its Afterlives
Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (Radical 60s, 9)
When Poetry Ruled the Streets: The French May Events of 1968
1968: The World Transformed (Publications of the German Historical Institute)
France and the Great War (New Approaches to European History)

ASIN: 1571816852

IF I HAD A HAMMER: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left

Average customer rating:

Provocative And Diverting History Of American Socialism!

IF I HAD A HAMMER: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left
Maurice Isserman
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

WHICH SIDE WERE YOU ON?: The American Communist Party during the Second World War
Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago, With a New Preface by the Author
Many Are the Crimes
The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America
A Brief History of Neoliberalism

ASIN: 0252063384

Customer Reviews:

Provocative And Diverting History Of American Socialism!.......2004-02-14

In this wonderful history of how the ghost of the old American Communist movement informed and influenced the birthing and early history of the so-called New Left of the late 1960s and beyond, scholar Maurice Isserman shows how the contradictions and themes motivating the socialist of the late 1940s and 1950s profoundly affected the birth and growth of the new cultural critique emanating from the several leftist movements of the turbulent 1960s. Is so tracing the social history of the leftist movements within the domestic political scene. Isserman helps to make greater sense of many of the predominating themes of later domestic radicalism, as with the notorious rise of the Students For A Democratic Society (or SDS) movement, one that transpired largely on large, metropolitan college campuses.

Indeed, several of the founders of the SDS organization such as sociologist Todd Gitlin and California politician/social activist Tom Hayden were sons of socialist radicals themselves, raised in middle class households in which spirited intellectual discussions centering round the plight of the ordinary working man and his or her exploitation at the hand of capitalism was `de rigueur' for dinnertime conversation. We are treated to an inside look at how the wartime pacifism of Gandhi-like non-violent opposition played out over several decades to become the largely non-violent protests of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements of the sixties. Isserman has also authored other interesting tomes about the times, including both "Which Side Were You On", a study of the American Communist Party, and the provocative "America Divided", a study of the rise of the American Counterculture of the later sixties.

Here Isserman shows how the personalities of several key participants in the avant-garde urban socialist scene such as Michael Harrington (noted author of "The Other America"), Max Shachtman, and Irving Howe (author of several noted tomes on the rise of an urban and mainly Jewish intellectual class in America such as "World Of Our Fathers") and how they transformed the collapse of the American Communist Party in the 1950s into a nascent socialist movement that was more consonant with the needs and characteristics of the contemporary American social scene. Isserman is most interesting when tracing how individual beliefs become transformed into social policy, and he does this here with these several personalities quite well. For me, this was a memorable journey back into the intellectual and social heritage and the political genesis of the 1960s protest movements, and a reading experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject
Average customer rating:

Student Resistence--Overview Extraordinary

Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject
Mark Edel Boren
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | College & University | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History | Education Theory | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Philosophy & Social Aspects | Education Theory | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Activism | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

American Higher Education: A History, Second Edition

Freedom's Web: Student Activism in an Age of Cultural Diversity

Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education

ASIN: 0415926246

Book Description

Historically, students have been a riotous bunch. Long before wild spring breaks, medieval students waged battles with bows and arrows at the earliest universities, while Russian students made assassination attempts against the tsars. The legacy of campus unrest continues at the cusp of the 21st century with a new wave of student rebellion at home and abroad.
Student Resistance is an international history of student activism. Chronicling 500 years of strife between activists and the academy, Mark Edelman Boren unearths the defiant roots of the ivory tower. Whether through nonviolent protest or bloody insurrection, students have catalyzed educational reform, transformed national politics, and, in more than a few instances, spurred coup d'états. These acts of rebellion are inherent features in the advancement of knowledge, Boren argues, and there is much to learn from students fighting for reform. Drawing on major incidents of student activism, including Civil Rights protests in the US,the 1968 student riots in Paris, and Tiananmen Square, Boren shows that student resistance is a continually occurring and vital social phenomenon, world-wide. For those concerned with the increasingly public and complex role that universities play in society, Student Resistance is essential reading.

Customer Reviews:

Student Resistence--Overview Extraordinary.......2001-09-20

This is a very readable overview of the subject...one that many of the early boomers ought to read to understand where we were coming from and where we ended up (so far)...it is complete, interesting and a fascinating analysis...well worth a few hours of your time. It will give you guidelines for further research. I recommend it highly.

Rsvp25 the Directory of Illustration and Design
Average customer rating:
Rsvp25 the Directory of Illustration and Design

Manufacturer: Richard Lebenson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HEOD6Q

Rsvp25: The Directory of Illustration and Design (Rsvp: the Directory of Illustration and Design)
Average customer rating:
Rsvp25: The Directory of Illustration and Design (Rsvp: the Directory of Illustration and Design)

Manufacturer: Richard Lebenson and Kathleen Creighton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Commercial | Graphic Design | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1878118099

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books