Plan II Honors Program

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American Youth and the New Left: The Influence of Chile on Ideologies of the Global Sixties
(2021-05) Read, Rachel
The 1960s were a turbulent decade in the United States and Chile alike. While protests and calls for change were prevalent across the United States, Cold War tensions between the United States and many countries across the globe were reaching new heights. As research on this decade has evolved, many historians have begun to examine how events in Latin America shaped the ideologies of young Americans and helped create a generation that would mobilize against injustice. This thesis seeks to examine how the experience of residing in Chile during the 1960s shaped students’ and young adults’ understanding of that decade and their ideologies upon returning home. This thesis argues that failing to examine and fully consider the 1960s in Latin America limits one’s understanding of the 1960s in the United States. More broadly, this thesis also examines a global interpretation of the 1960s and argues that failing to do so hurts historians’ analysis of how many ideologies and events that arose in the 1960s came to being. To make this argument, I combine insights from secondary literature with anecdotal accounts from previous exchange students and Peace Corps volunteers who reside in Chile in the 1960s.