The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

Turkle moves to France in the wake of the May 1968 student-worker revolution, in which a series of student protests inspires country-wide workers’ strikes and leads to a change of government. Turkle plans to study the link between the revolt and its Marxist theoretical underpinnings. She arranges to attend Sciences Po, an independent university well-known for its history, politics, and sociology subjects. In her studies, she learns a French style of composition, divided into three parts. She adapts it to her personal learning style, which involves trial and error rather than a linear process. In her later academic work, she identifies this approach as “bricolage” or “tinkering,” noting that it is a style used by both women and children in computer coding.

In Europe, Turkle seeks to broaden her mindset beyond that of her family of origin, whose experience of wartime and persecution led them to mistrust Germans and boycott German products. Turkle visits Germany to connect with young Germans and understand their perspective of the war. She finds them more willing to discuss their part in the Holocaust than the French, who often deny or defend the past.

Turkle attends many political discussions with intellectual speakers, “debating the Vietnam War, the capitalist system,

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