How 1968 French radicalism reshaped France and seeped into U.S. academia
Éric Zemmour’s book argues that the far-left revolt of May 1968 dismantled French traditions and later influenced American progressive thought.
In his controversial volume, Éric Zemmour recounts the explosive student protests of May 1968, when barricades rose in Paris and a massive strike threatened the stability of the Fifth Republic. He portrays the rebels as nihilists intent on deconstructing all institutions, from religion to national identity, and replacing them with an ever-expanding catalogue of rights and identities. According to Zemmour, French conservatives eventually capitulated, first by allowing large-scale Islamic immigration after de Gaulle’s Algerian retreat, then by enshrining abortion as a constitutional guarantee and surrendering sovereignty to the European Union under leaders like Mitterrand and Sarkozy.
The author warns that the same post-modern French thinkers now dominate American humanities syllabi, creating a feedback loop that fuels “wokeness” on both sides of the Atlantic. While acknowledging his own sweeping judgments, Zemmour ends by urging a return to Western civilizational roots as a counter to what he calls nihilistic universalism.
Why it matters
It shows how historic French radicalism may have shaped current cultural and political debates in both Europe and the United States.
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