1968 and its other worlds: Global events and (anti-)state dynamics in France,Mozambique and Vanuatu

ABSTRACT

This article de-centres the moment, event and impact of 1968 and expands it temporally and spatially. Taking a longue durée approach charting a trajectory from the 1960s into the 1980s, we analyse statist and anti-statist dynamics through a comparison of the May 1968 Paris riots with the Nagriamel movement in Vanuatu and the phenomenon of Naparama in Mozambique. Such a horizontal triangulation and spatio-temporal expansion is undertaken to contribute to a more global understanding of what we term ‘the 1968 event’ entails. However, this comparative analysis also underlines how its impact should be measured as, first, an experimentation with and attack on political reality, second, how the intricate connections between Euro-American and other worlds were integral to its articulation and, third, how paradoxically 1968 and its response spawned the rise of an authoritarian form of nation-state – eclipsing the openings in the firmament of the political, social and the real afforded by the original event.     

On the identity of Euowenia robusta De Vis, 1891 with a description of a new zygomaturine genus

An occluded skull and dentaries, recovered from the Floraville Local Fauna, northern Queensland, is referred to Euowenia robusta De Vis, 1891. The specimen has distinctive zygomaturine features including a quinquetubercular upper third premolar and lower molars with cristids obliqua, directly challenging the synonymy of E. robusta with Nototherium inerme and N. mitchelli proposed by Woods (1968 Woods, J. T. 1968. The identity of the extinct marsupial genus Nototherium Owen. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 15: 111–116.  [Google Scholar]). Comparison with the genotypic Euowenia grata (De Vis, 1887) has further confirmed that E. robusta does not belong within the Diprotodontinae. After examining all named zygomaturine genera, including a large data set of Zygomaturus trilobus Macleay, 1858, it is concluded that Euowenia robusta can not be placed within any known zygomaturine genus and, therefore, a new genus is proposed. It is perhaps the most derived of all the zygomaturines described to date from the Australian Cenozoic.     

Beyond the Vietnam Principle

K. Buchanan, Out of Asia: Asian Themes. 1958–66, Sydney University Press, 1968, pp. 320, $6.75. H. G. Gelber, The Australian American Alliance: Costs and Benefits, Penguin, 1968, pp. 160, 85c. G. Greenwood and N. Harper, Australia in World Affairs, 1961–1965, F. W. Cheshire for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1968, pp. viii + 503, $8.75. T. B. Millar, Australia's Foreign Policy, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1968, pp. xiv + 361, $4.95. T. B. Millar (ed.), Australian‐New Zealand Defence Co‐operation, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. ix + 125, $3.75. R. J. O'Neill, Indo China Tragedy, 1945–54, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 56. M. Teichmann (ed.), New Directions in Australian Foreign Policy: Ally Satellite or Neutral?, Penguin, 1969, pp. 212, $1.00. D. Vital, The Inequality of States: A Study of the Small Power in International Relations, Oxford University Press, 1967, pp. 198, $5.10. A. Watt, Vietnam: an Australian Analysis, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. ix + 177, $3.50.     

Dr. Cairns on Vietnam

J. F. Cairns, The Eagle and the Lotus: Western Intervention in Vietnam 1847–1968, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 250, $4.95.     

History repeats itself—flooding in moray in August 1970

GEOMORPHOLOGY

The cycle of Erosion in Different Climates. By Pierre Birot. Translated by C. I. Jackson and K. M. Clayton. 9×6. 144pp. 21 figs. Batsford, 1968. 35s.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

Geography and Regional Administration. By T. W. Freeman. 8 ¼ × 5 ¼. 200 pp. 34 figures. Hutchinson, University Library, London, 1968. 13/6d.

BRITISH ISLES

Eday and Hoy: a Development Survey. R. Miller and S. Luther‐Davies. 10 × 8. 94 pp. Issued by Department of Geography, University of Glasgow, 1968. 12/6d.

EDUCATIONAL

The British Isles: a colour geography, J. B. Goodson, 10×7 ½. Pp 121, 284 illustrations. Nelson, London, 1968. 18s 6d.     

Handcraft as Cultural Diplomacy: The 1968 Mexico Cultural Olympics and U.S. Participation in the International Exhibition of Popular Arts

Mexican post-revolutionary cultural institutions excelled at implementing Mexican art and popular arts as key elements in cultural diplomacy. However, while there is abundant research regarding these arts and their inclusion in international exhibitions during the first part of the twentieth century, there is little research on their role in international cultural diplomacy during the second half of that century. In the first part of this article I present a historiographical appraisal of the 1968 Mexican Cultural Olympiad and the resolutions of the “First Latin American Seminar on Popular Arts and Crafts” sponsored by UNESCO in Mexico City in 1965. In the second, I examine the case of U.S. participation in the “Exposición Internacional de Artesanías Populares” (International Exhibition of Popular Arts), which was part of the 1968 Cultural Olympiad’s programme – largely neglected by the historiography of the XIX Olympics – to explain how popular arts were made to perform as agents of cultural diplomacy in Mexico and the U.S. during the Cold War. In addition, I argue that U.S. participation in this exhibition also reveals negotiations and redefinitions of the concepts of handcraft and arte popular, and the economic and social situation of their makers in the United States.     

The Weight of the Moment: J. G. A. Pocock's Politics of History

One of the great intellectual productions of the postwar period, J. G. A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment was also an intervention in the American polity of the 1970s. The book's content, its rhetorical style, its methodology, and even its physical printed form were all designed to effectuate a political gesture. The crises of 1968 to 1973 invalidated the optimistic liberalism of Pocock's academic circle. The history of political language offered a refuge and a programmatic foundation for Pocock's pragmatic conservatism. The Machiavellian Moment was designed to reinforce the weight of tradition in contemporary political debate.     

Representations of 1968 in French Popular Music: The Case of Dominique Grange

Focusing on the songs written during 1968–69 presented on the album L'Utopie toujours…(2004) by Dominique Grange, this article discusses some of the representations of key themes of 1968 in song. Grange is a politically engaged singer-songwriter who, whilst enjoying limited commercial success, was very much involved with the 1968 protest movement in Paris and was subsequently linked with various Maoist organisations throughout the 1970s. Her songs constitute an immediate response to the events of 1968 and reflect many of the key themes of the period as identified by Kristin Ross, whose seminal work on May ’68 provides the starting point for the article. The themes of disruption, displacement and reappropriation that Ross identifies in the movement generally are analysed within the context of Grange's songs. In particular the representations of these themes in the context of political contestation, the occupation of space and the seizing of speech are considered. This analysis will ultimately show how Grange's songs highlight the complex nature of the cultural construction that is 1968.     

Capitalism,Crisis and Critique: Reassessing Régis Debray's ‘Modest Contribution’ to Understanding May 1968 in Light of Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello's Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme

In 1978 Régis Debray argued that, rather than threatening to overthrow capitalism, the student and worker revolt of 1968 actually strengthened the mechanisms of capital accumulation in France. Today the historical significance of May 1968 continues to generate much debate and scholarly interest, yet Debray's controversial thesis is largely absent from contemporary accounts of May's impact on post-1968 socio-economic and political change. Adopting the theoretical framework of Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello's Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme, this article shows that Debray's work correctly highlights the ability of post-1968 capitalism to appropriate the critiques of May. In certain respects, Debray offered a prescient analysis of capitalism's ‘new spirit’ as later described by Boltanski and Chiapello. The article also explores some of the political and theoretical implications of a grave anti-capitalist threat being paradoxically turned into a source of capitalist strength. While highlighting the notable shortcomings in Debray's argument, particularly its deterministic approach, the article suggests that Debray's stimulating analysis of May 1968 instructively reveals the importance of understanding and explaining capitalism, crisis and critique together.     

Australian economic policy

Bruce McFarlane: Economic Policy in Australia—The Case for Reform, Cheshire Melbourne. 1968, 243 pp., $3.00.     

‘The Old Woman as Hare’: Structure and Meaning in an Irish Legend

This paper looks at the St Kitts and Nevis Mummies' plays as published in Folklore by Roger Abrahams (1968). It demonstrates that the texts were originally taken from a play published by the Victorian children's author Mrs J.H. Ewing. This play appeared in several editions, most notably in two series issued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Mrs Ewing's text was itself compiled from three northern English chapbook texts and a version from Silverton, Devon. The relative contribution of these texts to Mrs Ewing's play, and the way she put them together, are both explored.     

Knopfelmacher's essays

Frank Knopfelmacher: Intellectuals and Politics, Nelson's Australian Paperbacks, Melbourne, 1968, vii + 156 pp., $2.95.     

Book reviews

Australian Books

A. T. Yarwood: Attitudes to Non‐European Immigration (Problems in Australian History), Cassell, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 146, $2.25.

Frank Hardy: The Unlucky Australians, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 249 + index, $4.95 (cloth), $1.95 (paper).

Stanley Brogden: Australia's Two‐Airline Policy, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 235, $5.75.

C. A. Hughes, ed.: Readings in Australian Government, University of Queensland Press, 1968, pp. 504, $6.50.

Jean Spender: Ambassador's Wife, Angus and Robertson. Sydney, 1968, pp. 207, $4.25.

Arthur Huck: The Chinese in Australia, Longmans, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 117, $4.50.

M. Revelman: Sex and Politics in Australia, Publicity Press Books, Adelaide, 1968, pp. 297, $1.35.

J. A. La Nauze, ed.: Alfred Deakin: Federated Australia: Selections from Letters to the Morning Post: 1900–1910, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 314, $7.20.

Overseas Books

Frank Parkin: Middle‐Class Radicalism: The Social Bases of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 207 + vii, $4.75.

L. J. Sharpe, ed.: Voting in Cities, Macmillan, London, 1968, pp. 340, $8.80.

The Times News Team: The Black Man in Search of Power, Nelson, London, 1968, pp. 174, $4.95.

J. A. A. Stockwin: The Japanese Socialist Party and Neutralism: A Study of a Political Party and its Foreign Policy, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 197 + x, $6.50.

D. A. Low, ed.: Soundings in Modern South Asian History, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 399 + viii, $7.50.

Gwendolen M. Carter, Thomas Karis and Newell M. Stulyz: South Africa's Transkei: The Politics of Domestic Colonialism, London, Heinemann, 1967, pp. 184 + viii, $6.70.     

Book notes

Australian Books

Burgess Cameron: Federal Economic Policy, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 100, $1.55.

J. G. Crawford, assisted by Nancy Anderson and Margery G. N. Morris: Australian Trade Policy, 1942–1966: A Documentary History, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 641 ‐f xxvii, $10.50.

James Griffin, ed.: Essays in Economic History of Australia, 1788–1939, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1967, pp. 296, $4.50.

Australian Institute of Political Science: New Guinea . . . Future Indefinite? ed. John Wilkes, Angus and Roberston, Sydney, 1968, pp. 167. $2.25.

C. W. (Edgar) Williams: Yellow Green and Red, The Worker Newspaper, Brisbane, 1967, pp. 408 + xv, $4 plus postage.

R. L. Wettenhall: A Guide to Tasmanian Government Administration, Platypus Publications, Hobart, 1968, pp. 341 + xii, $6.50 plus postage, from OBMs Booksellers, 36 Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

L. D. Meo: Japan's Radio War on Australia, 1941–1945, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 300 + xv, $6.75.

T. H. Rigby, ed.: The Stalin Dictatorship, Sydney University Press, 1968, pp. 128, $2.

David S. Macmillan: Australian Universities, Sydney University Press, 1968, pp. 98 + xiii, $4.

Donald B. Williams: Agricultural Extension: Farm Extension Services in Australia, Britain and the United States of America, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 218 + xi., $6.90.

B. D. Haig: Real Product, Income, and Relative Prices in Australia and the United Kingdom, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 105 + x, $3.

Geoffrey Serle: The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria. 1851–1861, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 455, $3.75.

Henry Mayer: The Press in Australia, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 281 + xxi, $10.

Richard G. Fox, The Concept of Obscenity, Law Book Co., Melbourne, 1967. pp. 193, $4.75.

R. J. W. Selleck, ed.: Melbourne Studies in Education, 1967, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 251, $6.75.

John Larkin and Geoffrey Barker: The Holt Report, The Age, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 121, $1.

R. B. Rose: The Enrages: Socialists of the French Revolution? Sydney University Press, for Australian Humanities Research Council, 1968, pp. 102, $2.

Russell Mathews: Public Investment in Australia, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 461, $14.50.

Bethia Foott: Dismissal of a Premier (The Philip Game Papers), Morgan Publications, Sydney, 1968, pp. 223, $4.25.

John L. Dillon and G. C. McFarlane, comps.: An Australasian Bibliography of Agricultural Economics, 1788–1960, Dept. of Agriculture, N.S.W., pp. 433, Government Printer, Sydney, 1967, $6.

L. J. Louis and Ian Turner, eds.: The Depression of the 1930s, Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 239, $3.50.

J. T. Gilchrist and W. J. Murray, eds.: Eye‐Witness: Selected Documents from Australia's Past, Rigby, Adelaide, 1968, pp. 257, $1.90.

A. K. Collins: The Dynamics of Organization, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 128, $1.85.

Australian Pamphlets

Communism, Conspiracy and Treason, Tidal Publications, Sydney, 1968, pp. 22, free.

University of Queensland Press: Microform Division: 1968 Catalogue, pp. 14, free.

F. K. Crowley: Sir John Forrest, The John Murtagh Macrossau Lecture, 1967, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1968, pp. 22, 75c.

Elmer Zalums, comp.: Western Australian Government Publications: 1829–1959, Flinders University of S.A., Bedford Park, 1968, pp. 288, roneod.

Colin A. Hughes: Political Stability and Political Behaviour, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1968, pp. 26.

R. W. Gibson, comp.: Directory of Market Research Organizations, Market Research Society of Australia, Melbourne, 1966, and Supplement, pp. 7, 1967.

Geoffrey Sawer: Ombudsmen, 2nd ed., Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 50, 75c.

W. M. Corden, Australian Economic Policy Discussion: A Survey, Melbourne University Press, 1968, pp. 71, $1.65.

Report of a Special Committee of the Australian Council of Churches, 1968: Conscientious Objection to Military Service, Sydney, 1968, pp. 48, 60c.

Harold Holt: Advance Australia, the First Monash Economics Lecture, 1967, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 18, $1.

Rex Mortimer, Jack Blake: Some Problems of the Australian Left, Sydney, 1968, pp. 18, 20c.

John Playford: The Truth behind “Captive Nations Week” and the extremist emigres—A.B.N. (Anti‐Bolshevik Bloc of Nations) in Australia, Sydney, 1968, pp. 27, Outlook—as above, 30c.

Communication—Key to Good Government, Fourth Summer School of Professional Journalism, Canberra, 1968, pp. 84, SI incl. postage from P.O. Box 1315, Canberra City, A.C.T., 2601.

John Bennett: Freedom of Expression in Australia, Civil Liberties Publication, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 39, 30c. From J. Bennett, 89 Caroline St., South Yarra, Vic, 3141.

Bill Hayden: The Implications of Democratic Socialism. Melbourne, Vic. Fabian Society, 1968, pp. 28, 40c.

We the Australians: What is to follow the Referendum? Proceedings of the Inter‐Racial Seminar held at the University College of Townsville, 2–3 December, 1967. Inter‐Racial Citizens’ Committee, Townsville, 1968, pp. 33, $1.30.

Clyde Holding: The Good Oil and What it Means to the People in Victoria, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 28, 30c.

Australian Journals

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 1 (1), March, 1968, pp.64.

The University Liberal, ed. P. W. Nichols, 1 (3) N.S. 1968, pp. 32, n.p., no other details.

Aboriginal Quarterly, Newspaper of Abschol. Aboriginal Affairs Dept. of N.U.A.U.S., 1 (1). March, 1968, pp. 12.

History and Politics Review: Western Australia, 1 (1), 1967, History and Politics Society, University of W.A., pp. 63, multilithed, 75c.

The New Conservative: a journal for balanced opinion, 1 (1), June, 1968, pp. 24, 20c or $2 p.a., Box 179, P.O., Kings Cross, N.S.W. 2011. Multilithed.

Spectra: A D.L.P. journal of comment, review and background information, 1 (1) July, 1968, pp. 16.

Partisan: An independent journal of comment and analysis, 1 (1), June, 1968, pp. 38.

Overseas Texts

Joseph R. Barager, ed.: Why Peron came to Power, Knopf, New York, 1968, pp. 274, $U.S.2.75.

R. M. Punnett: British Government and Politics, Heinemann, London, 1968, pp. 488 + xii, $6.40.

Eugene K. Garber and John M. Crossett, eds.: Liberal and Conservative: Issues for College Students, Scott, Foresman and Co., Glenview, Ill., 1968, pp. 334.

Charles A McCoy and John Playford, eds.: Apolitical Politics: A Critique of Behavioralism. Thomas Crowell, New York, 1967, pp. 246, $5.30.

Robert Benewick and Robert E. Dowse, eds.: Readings on British Politics and Government, University of London Press, London, 1968, pp. 284, $3.55.

Gwendolen M. Carter: The Government of the United Kingdom, pp. 218, $3.10; The Government of the Soviet Union, pp. 137. $2.55; The Government of France, pp. 138. $2.45; John H. Hertz, The Government of Germany, pp. 172, $2.90—all Harcourt Brace, New York, 1967.

Paul T. Mason, ed.: Totalitarianism: Temporary Madness or Permanent Danger? D. C. Heath, Boston, 1967, pp. 121, $2.65.

Allen Guttman, ed.: Korea and the Theory of Limited War, D. C. Heath, Boston, 1967, pp. 118, $2.65.

Edward G. McGarth, ed.: Is American Democracy Exportable? Glencoe Press, Beverly Hills, 1968, pp. 148.

Carl Leiden and Karl M. Schmitt: The Politics of Violence: Revolution in the Modern World, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1968, pp. 244 + x, $3.80.

Betty B. Burch and Allan B. Cole, eds.: Asian Political Systems: Readings on China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1968, pp. 466 + xii $6.25.

Irving M. Zeitlin: Ideology and the Development of Sociological Theory, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1968, pp. 326 + x, $8.30.

Martin Schapiro: The Supreme Court and Administrative Agencies, The Free Press, New York, 1968, pp. 288.

Other Overseas Books

I. K. Steele: Politics of Colonial Policy: The Board of Trade in Colonial Administration, 1696–1720, Oxford University Press, 1968, pp. 233, $7.10.

D. D. Raphael, ed.: Political Theory and the Rights of Man, Macmillan, Lbndon, 1967, pp. viii + 152, $4.60.     

Thomas Mann und Luther

At the center of Sophocles’ Antigone is a struggle to reconcile personal beliefs with the needs or dictates of society. At no time is such a struggle more relevant than in periods of war, so it is not surprising that new adaptations of Antigone cluster around periods of armed conflict, whether between nations or within a single nation itself. In Luis Rafael Sánchez’s The Passion of Antígona Pérez (1968)—the subject of this essay—the nation or territory in question is one not typically featured in Western anthologies of drama: Puerto Rico, in the troubled possession of the United States.     

Book review

Miriam Wright: A Fishery for Modern Times. The State and the Industrialization of the Newfoundland Fishery, 1934–1968, The Canadian Social History Series, Ottawa 2001, 196 pages     

Two judicial biographies

C. H. Currey: Sir Francis Forbes: The First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Angus and Robertson Sydney, 1968, pp. 586, $10.00.

C. H. Currey: The brothers bent: Judge‐Advocate Ellis Bent and Judge Jeffery Hart Bent. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1968, pp. 176, $4.75     

Book reviews

Louise Overacker: Australian Parties in a Changing Society: 1945–67, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968. pp. xi + 337, $3.95.

P. Y. Medding: From Assimilation to Group Survival: A Political and Sociological Study of an Australian Jewish Community, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 309 + xiii, $6.00.

John R. Williams: John Latham and the Conservative Recovery from Defeat 1929–1931, APSA Monograph 10, Sydney, 1969, pp. 28, 50 cents from APSA, School of Political Science, University of N.S.W., P.O. Box 1, Kensington, N.S.W. 2033.

L. G. Churchward: Contemporary Soviet Government, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1968, pp. 366 + xix, $6.65.

A. R. Hall: The Stock Exchange of Melbourne and the Victorian Economy 1852–1900, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 267 + xiii, $7.95.

A. L. May: The Battle for the Banks, Sydney University Press, 1968, $5.00.

Robin Gollan: The Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Origins and Early History, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1968, pp. vii + 179, $5.00.

Ronald F. Stinnett: Democrats, Dinners and Dollars, The Iowa State University Press, Ames (Iowa), 1967, pp. 310, $6.30. University of Sydney.

P. N. Troy, ed.: Urban Redevelopment in Australia, Research School of Social Sciences, A.N.U., pp. 441.