This issue presents new directions in the study of the civil unrest in France during May 1968 on its fiftieth anniversary. Authors from France and the United States emphasize the nature and experience of the political upheaval in May 1968, the long-term cultural impacts of events in Paris, and the ways in which these events figures into a global context. Contributors offer new ways of understanding and interpreting the discord by focusing on the emotional and cultural resonance of the events of May 1968 in activism and popular culture. Other essays explore the relation of student activism in former French colonies to events in France, place the events of May 1968 in a global context by considering diplomatic and radical networks between Europe and the United States, and examine the cultural relationship between France and Germany. 

Contributors: Ludivine Bantigny, Françoise Blum, Tony Côme, Boris Gobille, Bethany Keenan, Salar Mohandesi, Donald Reid, Sandrine Sanos, Daniel Sherman

Donald Reid is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Daniel Sherman is Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Art History and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.