The Age of Protest

Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1970, examines significant protest movements of the twentieth century and looks at the similarities and differences between the various dissents and rebellions. Beginning with the mood of weariness and dissatisfaction with the old regimes at the turn of the century, it discusses the emergence of protest as an ideal, a viable force for reform. From radical unionism, it traces the thread through bohemianism, international communism and anticolonialism in the twenties; fascism and Nazism and protest as a way of life up to 1945; the Afro-Asian and early civil rights movements of the fifties; and the agitating students and revolutionary movements of the sixties.