What is the nature and timeline of political change and how should its success be assessed? And why do stories matter in grassroots politics? Reading oral histories against the grain of conventional narratives, this history of grassroots activism in West Germany considers these questions in the context of that country's ''68ers.' Drawing together what are often perceived as discrete elements, such as the student and peace movements, Belinda Davis offers new understandings of political transformation, as activists sought to radically transform themselves as well as societal relations, through a politics that was profoundly personal. While recent studies have challenged the achievements of these activists, this book argues that their efforts made some forms of popular democracy mainstream, in the process redefining politics and rethinking the nature of representation, political organization, and notions of what is radical. This work contributes to a fresh take on West German politics and society in this post-fascist state, offering new understandings of where and how change takes place and how to enact it from the bottom up, with significant implications for our present.
Muu info
Through oral histories of West German grassroots activists, this study explores how individuals became and remained politicized.
List of figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. Coming to
Politics:
1. A story of politics;
2. Family life and the confrontation with
change;
3. New lessons: Childhood and politicization beyond the family; Part
II. Speech Acts:
4. Speech, the self and (civil) disobedience;
5. Impediments
to speech;
6. Speech/acts: whose terror?; Part III. 'It was Another World':
Sites of Difference, Belonging and Participation:
7. The city: dreamscape,
surfaces, interiors;
8. Sites of higher education: toward an 'informed
activism';
9. Sites of action: organization and movement; Part IV. 'Life
Artists': Thinking Other/Creating Other:
10. WGs: Experiments in clean
living?;
11. 'Be practical: demand the impossible';
12. Challenging
boundaries and 'Besserwisser'; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
Belinda J. Davis is Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author or coeditor of four books, including Social Movements after '68 (2022) and Changing the World, Changing Oneself (2010). Davis was a full-time community organizer before her academic career and has been interviewed for CNN, France 3 television, and Fortune magazine, among others.
