[Republicanprofessor]

Keep in mind that existentialism began as a European phenomenon; and its philosophical and academic influences were primarily, if not entirely, European. The post-war attitude in France, for example, was quite different than our own...

Great point. I think Europeans were suffering much more from the end of WWII and the beginnings of the Cold War. If you can elaborate more, I would greatly appreciate it. Sometimes memories and thoughts of FReepers are more alive than dead academic research and statistics.

[Fraulein]

I would venture to say that philosophically the 60s rebellions and riots in the United States had less to do with existentialism and more to do with critical theory, Marxism, etc. In fact today one would be hard pressed to find any existentialists in our universities. Coincidence? By the 1960s, however, the existentialists were for the most part already 'old news' even in France, with Derrida, Baudrillard, Debord, Deleuze, Kristeva, and many other philosophers already rising to the fore, and most of these thinkers had very little, if anything, to say about existentialism.

[Fraulein]

Absurdity, nothingness, meaninglessness -- such ideas were reflective of the European post-war attitude. In fact I believe Sartre had even been a prisoner of war.