May Made Me: An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France

Q: "You threw paving stones at the cops]?"

A: "Oh yeah. I had no problem doing that. And I threw marbles as well that we stole from stores. And towards the end we even managed to steal tractors from construction sites and we knocked over trees with them."

The mass protests that shook France in May 1968 were exciting, dangerous, creative, and influential, changing European politics to this day. Students demonstrated, workers went on general strike, and factories and universities were occupied. Before it was all over, children, homemakers, and the elderly were swept up in the life-changing events that targeted bureaucratic capitalism and the staid Communist Party. The French state was on the ropes and feared civil war or revolution. Decades later, here are the eye-opening oral testimonies of those young rebels who demanded the impossible.

Published on the 50th anniversary of those momentous events, May Made Me presents the legacy of the uprising: how those explosive experiences changed both the individual and history.

"These powerful and moving testimonies create an eye-opening account of the inspiring events of May '68, which are more relevant for today's activists than ever before." --Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

Author: Mitchell Abidor
Publisher: AK Press
Published: 04/10/2018
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781849353106

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/19/2018

About the Author

Mitchell Abidor is a translator from Brooklyn whose works include A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès and Anarchists Never Surrender by Victor Serge.