Politics
The year 1968 was a concentration of all the political turbulences of the decade in one year. The civil rights movement saw its leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated and the Black Panther Party become a household name with Olympic athletes raising their fists in solidarity with the cause and its leaders embroiled in legal issues. The nascent National Organization of Women was giving steam to the women’s rights movement in protesting the Miss American pageant. The Vietnam War was running at full-pitch, with both the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre happening in 1968. At home, we witnessed one of the most turbulent presidential elections of the 20th century with the assassination of Democratic candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the protests at the Chicago Democratic National Convention. Internationally, 1968 was a year of political protests, notably in France, Germany, and Mexico. The year still captures the fascination of scholars and laymen history buffs alike.
In the Herman B Wells Library:
Branche, Taylor. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. E185.615.B67 2006
Caute, David. The Year of the Barricades: A Journey Through 1968. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. D848.C38 1988
Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. Toronto:Bantam Books, 1987. E841.G57 1987
Fraser, Ronald, et al. 1968: A Student Generation in Revolt. London: Chatto & Windus, 1988. LA186.A16 1988b
Hambourg, Serge. Protest in Paris 1968. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2006. TR647.H3465 H36 2006
Kurlansky, Mark. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World. New York: Ballantine, 2004. D848.K87 2004
Lytle, Mark Hamilton. America’s Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. E839 .L98 2006
Oliver, Kendrick. The My Lai Massacre in American History and Memory. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006. DS 557.8.M9 O45 2006
Palermo, Joseph A. Robert F. Kennedy and the Death of American Idealism. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. E840.8.K4 P265 2008
Passerini, Luisa. Autobiography of a Generation: Italy, 1968. Lisa Erdberg, trans. Joan Wallach Scott, intro. Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, 1996. DG577.5.P38513 1996
Singer, Daniel. Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002. DC412.S53 2002
Willbanks, James H. The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. DS557.8.T4 W54 2007
Witcover, Jules. The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America. New York: Warner Books, 1997. E846.W55 1997
In the HPER Library:
Bass, Amy. Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. GV722 1968 .B38 2002
Subject Headings
- Nineteen sixty-eight, A.D.
- History, Modern--1945-1989.
- Radicalism--History--20th century.
- Insurgency--History--20th century.
- United States--History--1961-1969.
- Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
- Social movements--United States--History--20th century.
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
- Presidents--United States--Election--1968.
- United States--Social conditions--1960-1980.
- United States--Politics and government--1963-1969.
- Tet Offensive, 1968.
- African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.
- General Strike, France, 1968.
- My Lai Massacre, Vietnam, 1968.
- Olympic Games (19th : 1968 : Mexico City, Mexico).
- Government, Resistance to--History--20th century.
- Student movements--History--20th century.
- College students--Political activity--History--20th century.
Documentaries in the Wells Library Media Center
- 1968: A Look for New Meaning
- Berkeley in the Sixties
- Chicago 1968
- Eyes on the Prize
- Two Days in October
- Citizen King
- American revolution 2
- RFK
- Viet Nam: A Television History
- The Cold War and Beyond
- What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party
