1968: Lessons Learned

It's tempting to view 1968 in the United States and Western Europe as a repetition of 1848—and, contrary to Marx's axiom, one fully as tragic the second time around.

In both years, radical movements mainly of the young made daring, if ill-prepared, assaults on the forces of order. All were crushed and defeated, and the defeats ushered in a long period of left retrenchment and conservative triumph. That temptation should be resisted.