ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1968 the general climate of student unrest, which had erupted violently in France the previous May, spread rapidly through the rest of Western Europe. I do not know whether any careful historical inquiry has been made about its origins and aims, but as it hit us in one small college of a large university, it was more like a virus than a revolution. It affected undergraduates much more strongly than postgraduates, and it was characterised by a kind of euphoria that caused its adherents to feel that all initiative and all decision making should henceforward belong to persons aged eighteen to twenty-one. Older people were members of “the Establishment” and were the dupes or the conscious collaborators of the military-industrial complex. By bringing about the resignation of President de Gaulle, French students had shown what could be achieved in other countries also. With only a little marching and waving of banners the walls of Jericho would crumble. In particular the undergraduate students of this age group felt that the universities belonged solely to them. Although their stay was for only three years, they felt that it was they who should decide what subjects were “relevant” and who should appoint the professors best suited to teach them. The fount of rightful authority was the Students’ Union, the almost daily meetings of which should naturally take precedence over other, merely academic, engagements.
