The Sixties Cultural Transformation in Britain, France, Italy and the United States, c. 1958 - c. 1974

Nothing quite like it, and nothing ever quite the same again Mention of the sixties arouses strong emotions, even in those who were already old when the sixties began and those who were not yet born when the sixties ended. For some, it is a golden age of political progress; others see it as an era in which depravity was celebrated, and the secure moral andsocial framework subverted. The sixties was unquestionably a decade of exceptional historical significance, witnessing transformation in personal relationships, in attitudes towards authority, in modes of self-presentation, in material standards, customs, and behaviour. Arthur Marwick's book is a monumental study of social and political change in Europe and the United States during this period of cultural revolution. Paying particular attention to the impact of the sixties on the lives of ordinary people, Marwick exposes as myths and caricatures many of theaccepted views of the decade. He analyses phenomena as diverse as sexual permissiveness, innovations in high art, the civil rights movement, feminism, improvements in material conditions, the rise of youth culture, and trends towards individualism and self-expression, arguing that the sixties wasno short-term era of ecstasy and excess, fit only for nostalgia or contempt. On the contrary, the sixties set the cultural and social agenda for the rest of the century.

Arthur Marwick is one of Britain's leading social and cultural historians. He has been Professor of History at the Open University since 1969, and is the author of a number of best-selling history books, including The Nature of History and British Society since 1945.