The path students took to the events of 1968 was signposted by cultural markers. There were books to read and films to watch (often derived from literary sources) and each anticipated and shaped the response to political events that would lead to student explosions in Paris, Prague, London and Chicago.

Michael Goldfarb remembers the books he and his contemporaries read and the films they watched. He traces the way ideas in literature and cinema are absorbed into the mind and heart and become shapers of action. He also looks at how these books continue to influence those who were in the streets in 1968.

Using his trademark blend of historical research and memoir he recreates a time when, either side of the iron curtain, youth were united not just by music but by books and movies. Inspired by them, they risked everything to try and overthrow the existing order.

Episode 5: Race: Is always a central part of all politics in the US. The world of literature is not immune to being flung into its crucible. 1968 was the year when Who has the authority to write about race became central to politics? In America, William Styron, a white Southerner, close friend of James Baldwin, won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel about a slave revolt, The Confessions of Nat Turner. The book was then the subject of a vilification campaign. In this essay he looks at how the racial tensions in America's streets played out in the high cultural world of literature. Show less