Scan barcode
A review by heathward
The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties by Martin Klimke
4.0
Key Arguments:
1. In 1968 "Activists from different political and cultural frameworks tried to construct a collective identity that could lead to solidarity and cooperation, as well as a more global consciousness." (3) "Intercultural exchange created a common, though constructed, reality explains why the protesting students of the 1960s felt connected to each other, as if they were on an 'international crusade.' It turned the sixties into a shared experience across national boundaries" (7)
2. New system of international exchanges and networks forms "well before 1968" and provides "a favorable climate for the emergence of transnational subcultures and protest movements." (3)
3. Vietnam is the "issue that most deeply connected activists to each other" (5) across the world. Thus "many student protesters sought to overcome the bloc confrontation of the cold war between East and West in favor of a greater focus on the North-South divide, and reached out to their peers in other countries for this endeavor." (5)
4. The perception of West German students towards the US was not one of anti-American sentiment but rather was more nuanced: "Countercultural items and their import can hardly be labeled as anti-American, given their origins and strong roots in the United States. They instead formed a critique of the official U.S. government... these shared sentiments reflected an additional degree of American (counter-)cultural influence. In other words, the dissent was (if at all) an anti Americanism of 'With America against America.'" (7)
5. "Faced with growing internal unrest in the country of one of its closest allies during the cold war, the U.S. government not only stepped up its monitoring of student activities in West Germany but also decided to make the young generation the primary target group of its cultural and educational activities." (239)
1. In 1968 "Activists from different political and cultural frameworks tried to construct a collective identity that could lead to solidarity and cooperation, as well as a more global consciousness." (3) "Intercultural exchange created a common, though constructed, reality explains why the protesting students of the 1960s felt connected to each other, as if they were on an 'international crusade.' It turned the sixties into a shared experience across national boundaries" (7)
2. New system of international exchanges and networks forms "well before 1968" and provides "a favorable climate for the emergence of transnational subcultures and protest movements." (3)
3. Vietnam is the "issue that most deeply connected activists to each other" (5) across the world. Thus "many student protesters sought to overcome the bloc confrontation of the cold war between East and West in favor of a greater focus on the North-South divide, and reached out to their peers in other countries for this endeavor." (5)
4. The perception of West German students towards the US was not one of anti-American sentiment but rather was more nuanced: "Countercultural items and their import can hardly be labeled as anti-American, given their origins and strong roots in the United States. They instead formed a critique of the official U.S. government... these shared sentiments reflected an additional degree of American (counter-)cultural influence. In other words, the dissent was (if at all) an anti Americanism of 'With America against America.'" (7)
5. "Faced with growing internal unrest in the country of one of its closest allies during the cold war, the U.S. government not only stepped up its monitoring of student activities in West Germany but also decided to make the young generation the primary target group of its cultural and educational activities." (239)