Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cultural Resort of Europe: The Creation of the Festival, c. 1944–1947
- 3 Cultural challenge: The Creation of a ‘Fringe’, 1947–1955
- 4 Convergence of Cultures: New developments in the Arts, 1956–1962
- 5 Culture and (Im)morality: The Year of the Happening, 1963
- 6 Cultural Explosion: The Arts and Moral Conflict in Edinburgh in the High Sixties, 1964–1967
- 7 Cultural Crisis? Protest and Reaction, 1968–1970
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 List of Lord Provosts/Edinburgh Festival Society Chairs and Festival Artistic Directors, 1947–1970
- Appendix 2 Short Biographies of Oral History Interviewees
- Sources and Select Bibliography
- Index
7 - Cultural Crisis? Protest and Reaction, 1968–1970
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cultural Resort of Europe: The Creation of the Festival, c. 1944–1947
- 3 Cultural challenge: The Creation of a ‘Fringe’, 1947–1955
- 4 Convergence of Cultures: New developments in the Arts, 1956–1962
- 5 Culture and (Im)morality: The Year of the Happening, 1963
- 6 Cultural Explosion: The Arts and Moral Conflict in Edinburgh in the High Sixties, 1964–1967
- 7 Cultural Crisis? Protest and Reaction, 1968–1970
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 List of Lord Provosts/Edinburgh Festival Society Chairs and Festival Artistic Directors, 1947–1970
- Appendix 2 Short Biographies of Oral History Interviewees
- Sources and Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The world appeared to erupt in 1968. Major upheavals and a wave of rebellion unfolded across the globe: increasing levels of opposition to the Vietnam War (in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, which had been launched in January), the Prague Spring (March), les événements in Paris (May), violent struggles during the Democratic Convention in Chicago (August), major student revolts (including in Belgrade, Tokyo and Mexico City), and student protests and sit-ins in a number of British universities (including Leeds, the LSE and Sussex). Also in 1968, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, and Enoch Powell made his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. The year came to be seen as a ‘watershed’ for the peaceful ‘love’ revolution of 1967, as ‘the contradictions between what the post-war generation had been educated to expect and the reality of the world around them’ was revealed. Growing economic difficulties in Britain contributed to a sense that the consensus and affluence of the post-war years were coming to an end. Catherine Itzin remarked:
Rarely can one year be singled out as an isolated turning point, but in the case of 1968 so many events coincided on a global scale that it clearly marked the end of an era in a historically unprecedented fashion, and the beginning of a period of equally unprecedented political consciousness and activism.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Edinburgh FestivalsCulture and Society in Post-war Britain, pp. 191 - 222Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013