Suchergebnisse

Zusammenfassung Recent historiography stresses the 'fundamentally transnational' character of '1968'. The revolt against traditional sexual mores in this vein appears to be one aspect of a transnational or even global 'youth revolt'. However, when looking beyond slogans such as 'Make love, not war' and the iconic images of Berlin's 'Kommune 1', we discover fundamental differences in the ways in which protest movements dealt with sexuality. While 'liberating' sexuality in the early 1960s became a core concern of the German New Left, the respective French and British movements paid the topic only scant attention. The article discusses causes and consequences of these divergent paths. It shows that in 1968, the prominence, strategic use and political concept of sexuality in the protests differed widely – a fact that should prompt us to reconsider accepted assumptions about the 'transnational' 1960s.

Over the last few years the 1970s have come into the focus of historians in Britain, France and Germany. The recent historiographical debates on the decade largely remain anchored in national contexts however. A comparative analysis of French and British narratives about the 1970s shows the degree to which historical interpretations of the decade remain shaped by contemporary perceptions, political strategies and historiographical traditions. This article argues that we need a real transnational historical dialogue in order to question and deconstruct the implicit assumptions which shape our interpretations of the decade.