While Denis Boyles commemorates the 40th anniversary of the May ’68 Paris uprising on the homepage today, the old gang at City Journal have brought together a group of former radicals (some not so radical, like Kay Hymowitz, and some not so former, like Hitch) to reflect on that tumultuous year. The estimable Guy Sorman’s contribution is particularly interesting — and wry:

Some historical precedents haunted us. We remembered that the French Revolution was the work of 20-year-old boys. So, too, were the Romanticism of the 1820s and the surrealist revolution of the 1920s. History does repeat itself. After long periods of confinement under tight social, economic, and military strictures, a new generation gets up and says: “Enough! No more!” Just as in 1789 and 1830, the young in 1968 didn’t want the same life that their parents had. For one thing, we wanted to work less.

Other contributors include former Time editor Steve Kanfer, former Ramparts editor Sol Stern, and Denis Boyles’ Brouzils Seminar colleague, Harry Stein — with illustrations by Arnold Roth.