Re-thinking Student Radicalism: the case of a Provincial British University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14516/ete.274Palabras clave:
Provincial, universities, radicalism, conservatism, sixties, testimonies, SwanseaResumen
This paper explores the 1968 moment in the British University of Swansea. It discusses four main flashpoints of protest and unrest that occurred there from 1968 to the early 1970s. Much of the evidence is drawn from local and student newspapers, which chronicled these events by watching them very closely and reporting not just on what happened but also on what students and members of the surrounding community thought about them. This is cross-referenced with small examples of the author’s oral history collection that he has compiled as part of his research. By using these sources and by taking evidence to form a broad picture, the paper suggests that, in the late 1960s, whilst the events taking place in Swansea were dramatic, they did not represent a majority of what the student body at the time thought, or how they behaved. This was partly a result of Swansea’s provincial character and its inherent social conservatism. A more crucial period, when the tone regarding student unrest really started to shift, was the early 1970s. Therefore, it is important to continue thinking of these events in terms of a «long 1968».
Referencias
Anderson, R. (2006). British Universities: Past and Present. Hambledon: Continuum.
Brewis, G. (2014). A Social History of Student Volunteering: Britain and Beyond, 1880-1980. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Christian, M. (2002). Documenting Student Life: The Use of Oral Histories in University Archives, Archival Issues, 27(2), 111-124.
DeGroot, G. (2009). The Sixties Unplugged: a Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade. Macmillan: London.
Donnelly, M. (2005). Sixties Britain: Culture, Society and Politics. Harlow: Pearson.
Ellis, S. (1998). A Demonstration of British Good Sense?: British Student Protests during the Vietnam War. In DeGroot, G.J., (Ed.), Student Protest: The Sixties and After (pp. 54-69). Harlow: Longman.
Fink, C., Gassert, P., & Junker, D. (1998). 1968: The World Transformed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harrison, B. (2009). Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom, 1951-1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hoefferle, C. (2013). British Student Activism in the Long Sixties. Abingdon: Routledge.
Jackson, J. (2011). Rethinking May 68. in Jackson, J., Milne, A., & Williams, J. (Eds), May 68: Rethinking France’s Last Revolution. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jones, G., & Roderick, G. (2003). A History of Education in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Judt, T. (2007). Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. London: Pimlico.
Klimke, M. (2001). The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties. Woodstock. Princeton University Press.
Klimke, M., & Scharloth, J. (Eds.) (2008). 1968 in Europe: A History of Protest and Activism, 1956-1977. Basingstoke. Palgrave Macmillan.
Marwick, A. (2012) The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy and the United States, c.1958-c.1974. London. Bloomsbury Press.
Morris, R.J. (2014). The 1960s: Days of Innocence. In Harris, T., & Castro, M., (Eds), Preserving the Sixties: Britain and the «Decade of Protest». Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sandbrook, D. (2014). Foreword. In Harris, T., & Castro, M., (Eds), Preserving the Sixties: Britain and the «Decade of Protest». Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thomas, N. (2002). Challenging the Myths of the 1960s: the Case of Student Protests in Britain. Twentieth Century British History, 13(3), 277-297.
