The New Left: Legacy and Continuity.

Dieter K. Buse is professor emeritus of history at Laurentian
University.

“Legacy” and “continuity” remain undefined as the editor of this collection claims great importance for the New Left movements of the 1960s, especially in fostering participatory democracy. Perhaps the heritage of a movement whose leaders mostly marched successfully into established institutions during the next decades—as the essays and contributor’s biographical notes underscore—is symbolized by the present World Social Forum. The editor applauds it for its international contacts. Yet the main activity presented amounts to replicating the large conferences of world leaders, whose policies it mostly opposes without attaining any significant social transformation aside from increasing pollution.

The editor’s conclusion offers many self-centered assertions about his part in creating a revived urban social movement, which to him means “We live in hopeful times, again.” One has to wonder whether the present organizations have the imagination, the fervour about inclusive democracy, or the media savvy of their predecessors. Certainly, if the attainments of the civil rights activists and the opposition to the Vietnam War are the criteria, then comparable contemporary issues such as the environment and the Middle East mess demonstrate the limits of the present movements.

The majority of the essays focus on the U.S., and one-third of the book is reprinted from the journal Our Generation (1993–4). The collection includes very informed essays, some of which are nuanced and prepared to acknowledge the shortcomings of the New Left as well as to explain its essence and successes. Andrea Levy provides solid examples of the New Left’s impact on institutions of higher education and the German Greens. Yet she finds its ideals are misused in present identity politics where everything is judged by race, gender, and sexuality. Tom Hayden, the author of the Port Huron statement of 1962 outlining the aims of his generation of committed students, reviews thoroughly the origins, contents, and impact of that ideological manifesto. Katherine Harris very precisely narrates the European, especially the German, generation’s endeavours despite beginning with a statement the book does not substantiate: “1968 was one of the most significant years in history from the beginning of the 19th century until today.”