From Reform to Revolution: The Road to the Sixties and the US New Left

Waves of protest, whether political, cultural or a combination of the two, do not spring from nowhere. Protest occurs when an increasing number of individuals is motivated by a set of common causes, a common goal, and when the confrontation with a political, socioeconomic and cultural situation they consider is blocking their self-fulfillment and well-being becomes inevitable. At that point, social protest arises from a complex set of attitudes and actions whose main purpose is to encourage protesters to rise up against the established order and everything it represents through non-violent direct actions, at least at the very beginning of their fight against the System. If these actions prove unsuccessful or if they bring mixed results, social protest can become more violent, if not revolutionary. This is exactly what the Sixties, the most turbulent decade of the 20th century in the United States, are all about with the New Left being the spearhead of social transformation.