1968 Revisited: A French View

In 1968 I wrote an essay entitled “Le Désordre nouveau”*— it was written hurriedly, in the heat of the events. There is a passion in it that may seem surprising today. But at least I gave no credence to expectations that the May events heralded a revolution. I emphasized that the students’ audacity had been accompanied by a new kind of realism. This was in sharp contrast to most other commentaries, which tended to note only the movement’s messianism and utopianism o...