I was born in 1967 and as a small child I was on my father’s shoulders in anti-Vietnam War rallies in which the (U.S.) National Guard was brought out. I don’t remember that (or better, any memories I might have had are thoroughly blurred with what I later heard about it from my parents). I do remember though being around six years old, riding in a friend’s parents car, and seeing a military vehicle. My immediate reaction was to hide under the seat….Around the same time were the protests over Nixon’s veto of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which my father was very involved in organizing. Mostly I remember that we ended up with a rubber Richard Nixon mask hanging in our garage afterwards.
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Last autumn we ran an experimental online public engagement series called 'earliest political memories'. We collected a total of 68 memories that were generously contributed by members of the public. You can read all the contributions here. The series caught the attention of our colleague Rachel O'Connell in the School of English who…
In "earliest political memories"
I understand 'political awareness' in a very broad sense early on.....my father was a very abusive man and there was a lot of domestic violence in my home when I was young. It still fascinates me now how 'live' this is as a subject (rightly) within Social Work - when…
In "earliest political memories"
It was the year of the coup in the Maldives, which took place in 1988, I was five. I remember being woken up by my brother in the middle of the night. He carried me out of my bedroom in a protective way. I remember hearing gunshots. All of my…
In "earliest political memories"