XML Template (2012) [13.4.2012–1:04pm] [1–9] {APPLICATION}JCH/JCH 441755.3d (JCH) [PREPRINTER stage] Journal of Contemporary History 47(3) 1–9 ! The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0022009412441755 jch.sagepub.com Review Article One-dimensional Conflict? Recent Scholarship on 1968 and the Limitations of the Generation Concept Maud Anne Bracke University of Glasgow, UK Belinda Davis, Wilfried Mausbach, Martin Klimke and Carla MacDougall (eds), Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in West Germany and the US in the 1960s and 1970s, New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2010; 360 pp.; $95.00 hbk; ISBN 9781845456511 Norbert Frei, 1968: Jugentrevolte und globaler Protest, Munich, DTV, 2008; 286 pp.; E15.00 pbk; ISBN 97834232465389 Gerd-Rainer Horn, The Spirit of ’68: Rebellion in Western Europe and North America 1956–1976, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007; ix+254 pp.; »54.00 hbk; ISBN 9780199541591 Wolfgang Kraushaar, Acht und Sechzig: Eine Bilanz, Berlin, Propyla ¨en, 2008; 300 pp.; E19.90 hbk; ISBN 9783549073346 Stephan Wolle, Der Traum von der Revolte: Die DDR 1968, Berlin, Ch. Links Verlag 2008; 256 pp.; E19.90 hbk; ISBN 9783861534693 The processes of accelerated cultural change and radicalization of the sixties con- tinue to fascinate historians. Historical debate on ‘1968’ exists in a context of memory battles in wider public and political discourse. From the call for ‘the liquidation, once and for all’, of the legacy of 1968 by Nicolas Sarkozy during the presidential election campaign in 2007, to the heated debates in Germany in the context of the fortieth anniversary regarding the presumed illiberal nature of rad- ical 1968 politics, a fascination with the social crisis of the late 1960s has led to fierce disownment, political appropriation, or a curious combination of both. In all the works discussed here, ‘1968’ is taken as shorthand for the processes of rapid cultural change, political radicalization and social conflict that characterized the two decades between 1956 and 1977. The strong emphasis on the events of one particular year – 1968 – is one sign of the degree to which these events continue to Corresponding author: Maud Anne Bracke, School of Humanities, University of Glasgow, 1 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ Email: Maud.Bracke@glasgow.ac.uk