Ideological movements that inspire the possibility of a radically different future

Abstract

Historical research on the Global 1960s has flourished in the last decade. 'The Routledge Global 1960s and 1970s Book Series' produced books like The Global 1960s: Convention, Contest and Counterculture, and also launched the re-named Global Sixties Journal which have provided us with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of this important historical decade in the twentieth century. The focus of much of this new research has shifted towards the Third World, now commonly referred to as the Global South. For much of the Global South, the 1960s marked a period of significant turbulence and transformation. People in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America were guided by new ideological movements that inspired the possibility of a radically different future. A feeling of transnational solidarity buttressed this moment of optimism. Young people across the world, including those in Africa, were often the conceivers and drivers of such change.