The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum

INTRODUCTORY NOTE The author, a well know theorist and activist of the civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War, published the first part of this article from his own intervention and experience in 1968. There, he analyses the emergence of the New Left in the United States –a...

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Main Author: Michael Walzer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 2018-08-01
Series:Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales
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Online Access:https://www.journals.unam.mx/index.php/rmcpys/article/view/65558
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author Michael Walzer
author_facet Michael Walzer
author_sort Michael Walzer
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description INTRODUCTORY NOTE The author, a well know theorist and activist of the civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War, published the first part of this article from his own intervention and experience in 1968. There, he analyses the emergence of the New Left in the United States –and its global connection– through the social structure, the actors’ class background and their cultural configuration to account for the aspirations and limits that accompanied the middle class youth that lead this movement. The dilemmas that emerged between the racial, ethnic, social and economic axes that defined the actors framed the diverse social movements and throw light on the promises, scope and weaknesses that characterized them. In the post scriptum, written explicitly for the Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales 50 years later with a great analytical and existential wisdom, the author inspects the way in which class profile, radicalization and separatism led to an isolation of the New Left from the natural support basis it should have reached. It evaluates the consequences of its integration either to the Old Left or to the system, as it manifests in the turn towards right that progressive and democratic sectors had in the United States. Furthermore, he underlines the way it influenced the inequality and vulnerability that prevails among the social class –the “precateriat”– the left should have represented, and projects itself in the current situation and in Trumpism. Without a doubt, the depth, realism and theoretical and practical vision of Michael Walzer have turned him into one of the representative figures of political theory. JBL
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spelling doaj-art-7ab6e8ec206e45c9868372e631c83a492025-08-20T02:37:24ZengUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoRevista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales0185-19182448-492X2018-08-016323410.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2018.234.65558The New Left. 1968 and Post ScriptumMichael Walzer0Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Princeton University. E-mail: <walzer@ias.edu> INTRODUCTORY NOTE The author, a well know theorist and activist of the civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War, published the first part of this article from his own intervention and experience in 1968. There, he analyses the emergence of the New Left in the United States –and its global connection– through the social structure, the actors’ class background and their cultural configuration to account for the aspirations and limits that accompanied the middle class youth that lead this movement. The dilemmas that emerged between the racial, ethnic, social and economic axes that defined the actors framed the diverse social movements and throw light on the promises, scope and weaknesses that characterized them. In the post scriptum, written explicitly for the Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales 50 years later with a great analytical and existential wisdom, the author inspects the way in which class profile, radicalization and separatism led to an isolation of the New Left from the natural support basis it should have reached. It evaluates the consequences of its integration either to the Old Left or to the system, as it manifests in the turn towards right that progressive and democratic sectors had in the United States. Furthermore, he underlines the way it influenced the inequality and vulnerability that prevails among the social class –the “precateriat”– the left should have represented, and projects itself in the current situation and in Trumpism. Without a doubt, the depth, realism and theoretical and practical vision of Michael Walzer have turned him into one of the representative figures of political theory. JBL https://www.journals.unam.mx/index.php/rmcpys/article/view/65558New Left1960s civil rights movementVietnam Warmovement radicalizationpolitical theoryUnited States
spellingShingle Michael Walzer
The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales
New Left
1960s civil rights movement
Vietnam War
movement radicalization
political theory
United States
title The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
title_full The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
title_fullStr The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
title_full_unstemmed The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
title_short The New Left. 1968 and Post Scriptum
title_sort new left 1968 and post scriptum
topic New Left
1960s civil rights movement
Vietnam War
movement radicalization
political theory
United States
url https://www.journals.unam.mx/index.php/rmcpys/article/view/65558
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