HIST 348 The Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Global Sixties

This course will look at the long 1960s in China and their relationship to and influence on the global 1960s. Beginning with the rise of thirdworldism in the mid-1950s and ending in the 1970s, this period of radicalism reached its height with the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1969). Through memoirs, primary source material from the time, film, and secondary sources we will investigate why after years of political and economic consolidation the People’s Republic of China underwent such a dramatic and chaotic political upsurge. We will end the course by looking at the influence of China’s Cultural Revolution on the radical 1960s movements of the world, in particular in the United States and France and peasant movements in the third world.