Synopses & Reviews
Arguing that historians have been besotted by the cultural revolution of the Sixties, Dominic Sandbrook re-examines the myths of this controversial period and paints a more complicated picture of a society caught between conservatism and change. He explores the growth of a modern consumer society, the impact of immigration, the invention of modern pop music, and the British retreat from empire. He tells the story of the colourful characters of the period, like Harold Macmillan, Kingsley Amis, and Paul McCartney, and brings to life the experience of the first post-imperial generation, from the Notting Hill riots to the first Beatles hits, from the Profumo scandal to the cult of James Bond.
Review
A clever and engaging history of Britain in the early 1960s.
Synopsis
In the late 1950s, Britain was a society on the brink of unprecedented materialism, opportunity, and cultural change. From the bloodshed of the Suez Crisis to the giddy heyday of Beatlemania, British life seemed more colorful, exciting, and more controversial than ever. The memories of these years still resonate: Teddy Boys and the Profumo scandal, the New Wave and James Bond, the rise of immigration and the birth of pop music. So, too, do the personalities who dominated the period, including Kingsley Amis, Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, and Paul McCartney. In this fresh and enlightening history of early 1960s Britain, Dominic Sandbrook illuminates the contradictions of a society caught between cultural nostalgia and economic opportunism and explores what British life was really like in the age of affluence.