Power and the Idealists2005

Berman, one of the leading essayists and intellectual historians of the New Left, reflects on a crucial question - was the violence-tinged radicalism in America and Europe in the 1960s a force for social good or social ill? Exploring the response of the 'grown-up' Left to human rights abuses around the world, Berman discusses the intellectual evolution of figures such as Adam Michnik, Azar Nifisi, Kanan Mikaya and Bernard Kouchner to argue that liberals willing to use their power to protect human rights are the true heirs of the '68 radical Direct Action principles.