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

by Marwick, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780192881007
• ISBN10: 0192881000
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	p. xvii
Introduction
Was There a Cultural Revolution c.1958-c.1974?	p. 3
Nostalgia, Prejudice, and Debate	p. 3
Characteristics of a Unique Era	p. 16
Sources and Methods	p. 20
If So, Why?	p. 23
Problems of Explanation	p. 23
The Four Countries and their National Peculiarities	p. 26
Convergence and the Forces of Change	p. 36
The First Stirrings of a Cultural Revolution, 1958-1963
New Actors, New Activities	p. 41
The Common Currency of Change	p. 41
'Your Teenager Is Big Business': 'The Disaffection of the Growing Generation'	p. 45
The Knitting Together of British Youth Subculture	p. 55
Affluence, Sex, and the Environment	p. 80
Blousons Noirs, Copains, Vitelloni: Youth in France and Italy	p. 95
Art, Morality, and Social Relations	p. 112
Reflecting Change-and Reinforcing It	p. 112
The British 'New Wave'	p. 118
Literary Censorship	p. 143
New Modes in American, French, and Italian Novels	p. 149
'Movies Have Suddenly Become More "Frank", "Adult", or "Dirty"'	p. 173
The Explosion of Art	p. 181
Race	p. 194
The American South	p. 194
The North as well as the South, and the West, too	p. 217
Europe	p. 229
Everything Goes, and Catching Up, 1969-1974
Women's Turn	p. 679
From Civil Rights and Student Protest to Women's Liberation and Fundamentalist Feminism	p. 679
The Battles Over Contraception and Abortion	p. 700
Divorce and Equal Rights	p. 716
Full Effrontery	p. 725
Gay Liberation	p. 725
Uncut Film and Superrealism in Art	p. 732
Bullets, Bombs, and a Break-in	p. 744
Living Life to the Full	p. 758
Incomes and Aspirations	p. 758
Who Cares?	p. 770
Going Out	p. 792
Conclusion
The Consummation of a Cultural Revolution	p. 801
Notes	p. 807
Note on Sources	p. 859
Index	p. 873
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