A Tale of Two Utopias: The Political Journey of the Generation of 1968
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.91 (919 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0393316750 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-01-28 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The student movement of the 1960s was rooted in peace and other left-leaning ideals; the overthrow of Communism sprung from a desire of free-market economics. Berman doesn't always make these connections obvious; rather he presents well-analyzed, intellectual writings that allow the reader to chart a course through modern history. A Tale of Two Utopias is actually four separate lengthy essays by Paul Berman on the worldwide student rebellion of 1968, the gay liberation movement in the United States, Vaclav Havel and the overthrow of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and the response of French intellectual community to the "end of history" theory. What ties these subjects is a strange contrast.
The legacy of 68 This is probably the most optimistic of the Berman books I have read thus far for in it he imparts to the reader (by the wonderful flow of his writing as much as in the stories he tells) something of the spirit of 1968. "A utopian exhilaration swept across the student universe," he writes. "Almost everyone in my own circle of friends and . Seeing through the haze of propaganda I value this book for two principal reasons: (1) Berman clarified many events that occured during this period but that I did not directly observe. Because , at that time, my informatioln was so well controlled by the corporate/ government press I was simply unaware that anything of much substance was going on. Protests were simply present. engaging essays!!! Peter Pan I had to read this for my modern American grad history course. Not knowing who Paul Berman was, I picked up the book expecting very little. Naturally, Berman's perspective revolutionized my intellectual outlook.Hard to classify, Berman believes that the ultimate legacy of '68 is not radical Leftist polemics (which ultimately descended int
Praised for both "sheer intellectual high-spiritedness" (Houston Chronicle) and "the same sensitivity to the moral needs of the participants, and the same lucid evaluative balance, as Edmund Wilson's accounts of earlier periods" (philosopher Richard Rorty), A Tale of Two Utopias firmly establishes Berman as "one of America's leading social critics" (New Leader) and "one of our most gifted essayists" (Boston Globe).. "A deeply moving and delightfully readable account of the political journey Berman's generation has taken."Isaac Kramnick, New York Observer The ideological passions that, along with critical acclaim, greeted the publication of Paul Berman's A Tale of Two Utopias showed how persistent are some of the battle lines drawn in the tumultuous years around 1968.A Tale of Two Utopias recounts "in clean, clear, often funny style" (Washington Post) four episodes in the history of a generation: the worldwide student radicalism of the years around 1968; the birth of gay liberation and modern identity politics; the anti-Communist trajectory of the '68ers in the Eastern bloc; and the ideals and self-criticism of thinkers in America and in France who lived through these events and debated their meaning