Professor Robert Gildea (Oxford)
The Personal and the Political in Oral Testimonies of French 1968 Activists

This emerges from a collaborative project of historians from across Europe entitled ‘Around 1968: Activism, Networks, Trajectories’, which is rewriting the history of Europe’s 68 from the oral testimony of former 1968 activists. This lecture takes the very limited case of four former French activists, two men and two women, and explores the ways in which they talk about their engagement with political activism, about the friendship and conflict that existed in radical groups over questions such as sexual politics and political violence, and about how today they make sense of their radical past – does it still inspire them, or do they have regrets?

This event has been recorded and is available as a podcast at the following URL: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2010/10/robert-gildea-the-personal-and-the-political-in-oral-testimonies-of-french-1968-activists/