France Still Divided Over Lessons of 1968 Unrest [Free registration may be required] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/world/europe/30france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Visiting the ghosts of Paris 1968 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7354335.stm Time: Battle of the Sorbonne http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838353,00.html BBC Radio 4: 1968, the Year of Revolutions [Real Player] http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/1968/yearofrevolutions.shtml Echoes of 1968 [Real Player] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89372462 Revolution was certainly nothing new to France in 1968, but a series of student protests that began at Nanterre University in March that year continues to be a polarizing subject of conversation throughout the country. Eventually the university was closed in May, and students began a widespread attack on the outdated rules imposed on them by the university system across France. Demonstrations and riots soon engulfed the Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne and forty years later, the country remains deeply divided about the legacy of these events. Even the language used by different factions within French society reflects the stark differences, as the right refers to the protests as "the events", while the left refers to these protests as "the movement". One person who has not minced any words about his feelings on the matter is French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has stated that May 1968 represents anarchy and moral relativism. A student activist from that period, Andre Glucksmann, recently commented, "Sarkozy is the first post-'68 president. To liquidate '68 is to liquidate himself." The first link leads to an excellent article from this Tuesday's The Age (Melbourne), which discusses the legacy of the student protests and demonstrations in France 40 years ago. The second link will whisk users away to an article from the New York Times about the legacy of the protests and general perceptions about these events in contemporary France. The third link will take visitors to a personal reflection on the protests offered by BBC correspondent John Pickford. Moving on, the fourth link leads to a piece on the protests that originally appeared in the May 17, 1968 edition of Time magazine. The fifth link whisks users away to a four-part series from the BBC on the "year of revolutions" conducted by Sir John Tusa. The final link will lead visitors to a nice series from National Public Radio on the various social and political upheavals going on in the United States during 1968.