Postgraduate Multidisciplinary Conference, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, 12 May 2008

Plenary Lecture by Professor Bruce Schulman, Boston University

Panel Outline

Panel 1: ‘The Other Side of 1968’

Introduced by Dominic Sandbrook

The 1960s have been romanticised as an era when cultural norms were turned upside down, protesters took to the streets and the campuses, and the nation’s youth was encouraged to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” But the decade was also known for the rise of grassroots conservatism, the success of television shows such as Bonanza, Bewitched and The Lawrence Welk Show, and the election of Richard Nixon. How can we explain this dichotomy? Have we got our images of 1968 all wrong?

Panel 2: ‘Culture Meets Politics in 1968’

Introduced by Lizabeth Cohen

This was the year of the ‘Selling of the President’, the year television channels beamed back coverage of the Tet Offensive into American living rooms. Norman Mailer’s Miami & the Siege of Chicago and films such as The Graduate, Medium Cool and In the Heat of the Night artfully mixed culture with politics. What do these cultural artefacts of 1968 tell us about the political scene of 1968? How did the politics of 1968 permeate American culture in this tumultuous year, and how did cultural developments impact on the American political scene?

Panel 3: ‘1968 – Forty Years On’

Introduced by Godfrey Hodgson

What does 1968 mean to us forty years on? What legacy has it left us? Does it mark the end of post-war America and the beginning of something new? What were the short and long term reactions to 1968? How have they gone on to shape American society, culture, and politics over the last forty years?