Month: August 2020

During the first week, while still in-person, we spoke as a class about what “American Exceptionalism” really is. Since then, I have continued to mull over that idea. As we talked about, most people believe that the USA has the best opportunities available, regardless of their political beliefs. It is not wrong to think that, it is just what we grew up with and likely what we learned in school in one way or another. It is who we are as Americans.

However, I think it also makes us numb to what happens around us. When I found this class, I was probably like most other students in being very surprised that connections could be found between the events in Ireland and the events in the US. Even more, I did not see how a whole class could rest on these connections. However, we learned from Geoff Brown and Sam Lord that much of their ideas and drive came from seeing the civil rights movement. Leaders of the movement in the US even traveled to England and Ireland to speak about their experiences. Yet, this makes me think of the likely many times that this has happened, where a foreign event has been shaped by an American event or vice versa. Do we as Americans spend too much time thinking about what has happened here and not enough time thinking about who we are affecting and who has affected us? The answer, likely to be influenced by subjectivity, is not easily answered definitively. I hope, in this class, that I might find my own answer, even if just on a small scale with respect to 1968. I also hope that I will be led to continue to broaden my horizons in my knowledge of the connectivity of worldly movements and events.

The use of posters to voice one’s opinion on a certain event has always been very fascinating to me. Instead of writing an article, a lot can be conveyed through a simple image and a few words printed onto a poster. I studied a lot, in my junior year of high school, how to analyze a political poster to understand the full story behind and meaning of a political poster. It is an art. After inspecting the posters regarding the Irish civil rights era from Geoff Brown, it is easy to understand what was going on politically when the posters were made, and the voices of civilians upon those matters. 

This poster, created after Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech of April 20, 1968, shows the anger people felt after that racist speech. This poster also touches on racism, targeting people for their skin color and race. After some research on this infamous ‘Rivers of Blood speech’, Powell essentially argued that Britain should not allow immigration to Britain from the country’s former colonies and to send home immigrants that have already moved to Britain, on the claims that there would be a violent clash between white and black communities. I think this poster is still very relevant today. With Donald Trump closing borders to countries he believes are dangerous, and the wall between the US and Mexico, anti-immigration is still prevalent. Almost four years after Trump pledged to divide Mexico and the US with a wall, it has not been completed for the reasons why this poster was created: immigrants are not the issue, racism is. With the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, there is still a fight to end racism, making yet another connection between 1968 and 2020.  

My earliest memories take place in airports; in these recollections, I blink sleep out of my eyes as the hypnotic conveyor belt spins round and round. It is hard to remember where I was in those jet-lagged moments. Possibly America (where I went to school), or maybe Italy and Greece (where I spent summers with my grandparents). There was a personal odyssey uncovered through balancing these three identities, cultures, and languages. Unfortunately, along with it came a source of self-doubt and shame (both are a result of the lack of my ability to communicate and the absence of any patriotic roots), something I struggled to shed throughout my childhood.

 I have never spent a full year in one continent, nor a full day in one language. Summers were spent in countries and immersed in cultures completely separate from my life at school– in American school, I was placed in a course that deemed English as my Second Language. While I eventually learned English, one subject that I am both literally and figuratively foreign to is US History. At home, my history lessons strictly revolved around Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. My restricted, public school education didn’t have much to offer either.  

 In fact, part of the reason I took this course was due to the large gaps in my knowledge regarding US History. Specifically, in relation to the year 1968, before I read the course description, I had no idea that this year carried the significance it does. As I was reading ‘1968’, I found myself routinely stopping after each paragraph to look up the different terms, events, and ideas I hadn’t heard of before. It became particularly tasking yet rewarding to connect them back to the ones mentioned previously in the text. Even though this demonstrates how heavily intimidating the source material is to me, I feel inspired by the wealth of knowledge I am going to gain by the end of this semester. 

I’ve always thought that the past is an important aspect of understanding the present. Furthermore, due to today’s political climate, my ignorance of past US events (and worldwide) has never been more apparent. When reading about the years leading up to 1968 and the events that were unfolding during it as well, I caught myself repeatedly drawing parallels to the experiences currently taking place in the United States today. Whether it be the protests for Black Lives Matter connecting to the Black Power movement; the strong disapproval of authority figures; the radical political views on both the right and left; the transnational exchange of ideas (as can be seen from Black Lives Matter protests happening abroad); or more, it would be an understatement to claim that history is beginning to repeat itself. 

In conjunction with this idea, it is said that insanity can be deemed as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. How can we learn from the past so that we do not make the same mistakes? We are living in a time that people feel comfortable, if not encouraged, to demand change. Shouldn’t we look back to the past to find the best answers to achieve that desired change? In this class, by learning more US History, not only do I hope to find the answers to these said questions, but I also wish to chip away at the residual shame that has accumulated from my childhood.

I am excited to learn about the confluence of Irish and African experiences in the tumultuous ’68. I do recognize that the groups are vastly different from one another but look forward to analyzing the parallels that can be drawn. Thus far, I have found Vinen’s novel to have done a good job in setting up the foundation to begin making these connections. The sheer amount of social and political upheaval of ’68 is fascinating. However, it seems that many of the parallels that we will lay out over the course of the semester will be between ’68 and the present day. I certainly sense that the current cultural attitude is similar to that of ’68. An utterly polarized political landscape along with several looming threats is an environment ripe for drastic, sweeping changes. While I am young, I believe it is telling that at no point in my life has society felt so unsettled by current events. The global pandemic is just the tip of the dumpster fire our generation has inherited; massively daunting challenges such as global warming, racial inequality, and potential economic collapse in the wake of the lockdown lie on the horizon. From reading Vinen, I felt that same sense of desperate fear for the future— young people such as the students in ’68 felt the need to voice out against the system for fear of their futures.

While reading this book by Mr. Vinen, I couldn’t help but be somewhat confused by the absence of structure – though I’ve come to realize that in reality, it is probably more conducive to our understanding of this time, than if this work was to be organized in a coherent fashion. The amount of subjects this book attempts to cover is as broad as the concept of “68” itself, and I feel it does do a surprisingly good job of detailing some of the more important issues that culminated in “68”

Something that caught my interest was the Black Panthers and their affection for firearms – as an avid enthusiast of the 2nd amendment, I am well versed in the legal history of gun control – particularly its racist origins – this example of California repealing its open carry laws after the Black Panther Party marched with rifles is simply another example of this tactic being used by the government to oppress certain groups within society. MLK and W.E.B. Dubois were well known proponents of gun ownership, and in a society where the powers that be could not be relied upon to protect ones property and family, the 2nd amendment was truly an African American’s greatest friend. The racist history of gun control dates back to the 1751 French “Black Codes” forbade any slave from possessing any form of weapon, including a cane – In the colony of Louisiana, free blacks were repeatedly barred from purchasing firearms under a myriad of gun control laws enacted by  suspicious administrations.

Overall, I found this passage to be one that not only affirms my belief in the 2nd Amendment, but reiterates its importance in todays political climate. With many left of center political activists characterizing the current commander in chief as “fascist” and the police both federal and local as his jackbooted thugs, it would seem evermore important for everyday Americans to exercise their first and second amendment rights to the utmost of their abilities. After all, if the police and Mr. Trump are truly fascist demagogues rife with intent to destroy our democracy, is it not each and every citizens responsibility to arm themselves in defence of our great republic? 

So far in the course it seems that there are many similarities with our situation in the world and America currently and with the long ’68. I am interested in viewing these similarities in closer detail and really seeing the parallels that can be drawn between these two eras in time. I am also curious to see if we can use the long ’68 to predict what may possibly happen in 2020 and beyond. It seems to have been noticed already that history does repeat itself, so how come we were unable to stop this long ’68 from occurring again? Were there indicators that told us this is where we were headed? Would we have been able to stop this from happening again? Obviously Coronavirus came seemingly out of nowhere for many of us, but would we maybe have been able to handle it differently and perhaps better had we changed history earlier on? Throughout the course of this class I really would like to see these parallels in closer detail, and maybe make it so when this inevitably happens again, we can be ready and possibly have the power to prevent it.

This class has already been so eye-opening to me. As a History Major, I have been so enthralled with the concept of history itself and how it encapsulates everything that we do as societies,. History molds us and our way of living. I have been so engrossed in military history throughout my life and time and time again I see the same themes shine through. For example that life and history repeat themselves, the same mistakes are made time and time again., this is seen in so many areas of military history like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 in which they (the Soviets) were soundly beaten by the Mujahideen, this was subsequently followed by the United States in 2001; and while the reasons for the two invasions were completely dissimilar the tactics and mistakes made in 2001 and beyond echoed those of the Soviets from 1979 to 1989. One thing that I wish to come away with from this class is a better understanding of why this happens, I have already been utterly intrigued by the readings that this class has offered me in these two short weeks, I have been amazed to uncover the ways in which 2020 has begun to echo 1968 and the social conflicts that characterized that year. While 2020 has not and I expect will not be characterized by enormous amounts of violence, the revolution that has occurred is the revolution of the 21st century and that is social change through mobile media platforms. I would love for this class to allow me to open my mind to new understandings, new history that I never understood before and how I can learn from 1968 to better understand this year and the years that are to come.

One of the things that popped into my mind on the first day of class when we were discussing the overview of the class was, strangely enough, a Don Henley lyric. It came from “The Boys of Summer,” which is his famous post-Eagles song that has been overplayed so much to the point where it is, quite frankly, exceedingly irritating. However, I still recalled the phrase, “out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.” As we further discussed the class and started moving into the material, this lyric still stood out to me because it matches a really interesting theme that seems to apply to so many “68ers.” Henley himself was a young person during the “long 68” and experienced, “The Thing,” as Enoch Powell called it. “The Thing” can be interpreted in many different ways, but it seems to fundamentally mean the movement across the world, especially in the western world during that time. This ranged anywhere from civil rights, political movements, violence, and counter-culture that help define the dynamic nature of ’68. Of course, Henley is referring more to the counter-culture aspect of “The Thing” by mentioning “Deadheads,” a term used by some lovingly and by others with disdain to describe the followers of the Grateful Dead.

When you think of the the late 60s, Deadheads are kind of the epitome of counter-culture, with many of them emphasizing lifestyles of anti-materialism, free love, and (not always, but often) drugs. Henley points out a glaring contradiction he observed in the 80s. The very ideals of being a Deadhead just don’t seem to be compatible with owning a Cadillac. Henley points out that the 68ers have grown up, and in the end they wind up living the life they tried so hard to avoid in their youth. However, they still carry on the memory of ’68 and the impact on their lives. This seemed especially profound considering Vinen’s discussion of how impacts of ’68 extend decades later, with people like George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose lives were shaped by ’68, even though they seem to be living a contradiction. While so many people seemed to live on past the “long ’68,” its impact is still clearly relevant and present decades later.

I’ve always been a strong believer that history repeats itself. Hitler’s failed invasion of Russia in 1941 mirrors Napoleon’s blunder in 1812. Massive amounts of consumer debt helped lead to the Great Depression, and within 80 years the Great Recession followed a similar path. Sure, there are coincidences, but I believe the underlying cause of why we see so many “déjà vu” events is because humans at their core share values and tendencies that don’t change with the times. One of which is the desire to see change, and revolt, when they believe something is fundamentally wrong with society. To understand trends like these is why I believe studying history has so much value. I’d love to leave this class with a better grasp of the mindsets of different groups during the ’68 period, in particular the marginalized of the era. In achieving this, I hope to gain clarity about our current time, and begin see society from the eyes of those who continue to be marginalized. So far we’ve talked about 2020 being another 1968. Whether or not this year is looked back upon, and studied, along the same vein as ’68, I have no doubt that the political and social upheaval of 1968 will be repeated at some point in the near future. If this class helps me broaden my viewpoint, so that I can understand violence, demonstration, strike and movement from more than just my current vantage point, I would consider the journey of this class a success.

Personally, I have really found the idea of political polarization in the 1960s to be something that today’s climate is nearing (although I would argue that the American Right has become much more radicalized than the left). It feels like my entire life I’ve been listening to my parents and those of their generation describe the present as times of unrest, of uncertainty, and of political divide; after hearing all those things said so many times, I’ve come to think of them as just something that people say all the time. However, after reading in Vinen and discussing in class how the gap between left and right slowly widened towards the extremes, I’ve come to question if, as has been discussed in class numerous times, we’re living today in a modern 68. While tensions are certainly not to that height yet, I think it’s fair to say we’re living in a time ripe with opportunity for change, and I think the growing political divide of the past years that I’ve heard so much about has likely been a necessary precursor. Without the early 1960s you never could’ve had the protests and the impact of 1968, and perhaps I should view the past 5-10 years of my life in a similar light and understand that there could be something special about this “political polarization” I’ve heard mentioned countless times.

By drawing this comparison, it also helps me to use my personal experience as a political moderate to better understand the thought processes of the people of the late 1960s. I personally grew up in a very conservative household, so it is no surprise that I would’ve considered myself a conservative (although not as conservative as my parents) as late as my high school years. However, as I’ve watched the Republican party move farther and farther right, I’ve felt alienated and have swung the other way, aligning much more with the American left than the right. Applying my experience in the reverse, I can understand how more moderate leftists in 1968 ended up swinging to the right as they sought alignment with a more moderate party that they felt represented them.