Abstract
Offers a critical evaluation of James C. Kennedy's analysis of the 1960s in the Netherlands in Nieuw Babylon in aanbouw: Nederland in de jaren zestig ([Building New Babylon: The Netherlands in the Sixties] 1995) & "New Babylon and the Politics of Modernity" (1997). Two hypotheses derived from Kennedy's speculation that the intergenerational gap of the 1960s was closed by the middle classes of the prewar generations were tested with empirical data collected by Chris C. Middendorp (1978) among a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = about 2,000). It is hypothesized that (1) differences in attitudes of the protest generation vs the middle classes of the prewar generations regarding democratic rights & educational styles were smaller at the end of the 1960s than in the early 1960s, & (2) these differences further decreased during the 1970s. Since it is found that there were significant differences between generations but no class-related differences within generations, both hypotheses are rejected. Kennedy's view that the middle classes of the prewar generation followed the trends set up by the protest generation, & thus closed the generation gap, is therefore disputed.
