The Imaginary Revolution ― Parisian Students and Workers in 1968

The Paris student and worker uprisings of 1968 have been seen by many since as a fundamental societal rupture that allowed widespread changes manifest in later years. Skeptical of such claims, Seidman (U. of North Carolina- Wilmington) instead suggests that the events of 1968 should be seen in the context of short and long term continuities. He describes cultural change and conflict among the university students throughout the 1960s and looks at how students came into greater conflict with police forces. He then examines workers strikes following student challenges to state power, arguing that they were more about expanding the value of labor and less connected to the concerns of the street protestors than many have suggested. Finally, he examines state responses to these challenges, contending that the state had been weakened only momentarily. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Seidman received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Workers against Work: Labor in Barcelona and Paris during the Popular Fronts, (1991) which has been translated into six languages, Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War, (2002) (Spanish translation, 2003) and The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War, (2011) (Spanish translation, 2012). His articles have appeared in British, American, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese journals. He has taught at Rutgers University and currently teaches at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington