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

by Arthur Marwick

If the World Wars defined the first half of the twentieth century, the sixties defined the second half, acting as the pivot on which modern times have turned. From popular music to individual liberties, the tastes and convictions of the Western world are indelibly stamped with the impact of this tumultuous decade.Framing the sixties as a period stretching from 1958 to 1974, Arthur Marwick argues that this long decade ushered in nothing less than a cultural revolution – one that raged most clearly in the United States, Britain, France, and Italy. Marwick recaptures the events and movements that shaped life as we know the rise of a youth subculture across the West; the sit-ins and marches of the civil rights movement; Britain's surprising rise to leadership in fashion and music; the emerging storm over Vietnam; the Paris student uprising of 1968; the growing force of feminism, and much more. For some, it was a golden age of liberation and political progress; for others, an era in which depravity was celebrated, and the secure moral and social framework subverted.The sixties was no short-term era of ecstasy and excess. On the contrary, the decade set the cultural and social agenda for the rest of the century, and left deep divisions still felt today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History, Politics, European History

814 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 5, 1998

About the author

Arthur John Brereton Marwick (1936-2006) was a Scottish social historian, who served for many years as Professor of History at the Open University. His research interests lay primarily in the history of Britain in the twentieth century, and the relationship between war and social change.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Key Points:

1. A 'cultural revolution' occured in 1960s, a revolution "in material conditions, lifestyles, family relationships, and personal freedoms for the vast majority of ordinary people." (15)

2. "The sixties were characterized by the vast number of innovative activities taking place simultaneously, by unprecedented interaction & acceleration." (7)

3. The decade in this sense lasted from "1958 & end[ed] broadly speaking... in 1973-4" as the effects of the economic downturn began to be felt.

4. The counter-cultural movements which constituted the sixties "did not confront society, but permeated and transformed it."

5. Transformation of society was aided by "the existence in positions of authority of men and women of traditional enlightened and rational outlook who responded flexibly & tolerantly to counter-cultural demands." (measured judgment)

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having lived the decade Marwick writes about with some consciousness of what was happening, I found this portrayal extraordinarily dull, rather like a great list or chronology written by someone alien to the topic. Since the author is only fifteen years older than me, this is rather inexcusable. Hypothetical causes of his failure to write an insightful book range from the charitable assumption that he was trying overhard to be objective to the suspicion that he found much of the period distasteful. Such little virtue this dry-as-dust book represents, for this American reader at least, is in its coverage of European events, particularly those in Italy, of which I'd been unaware.

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was extraordinarily detailed, though more often than not very dry. Occasionally, Marwick would add in a bit of dry wit or British understatement that would make me chuckle, but for the most part this was a highly informative, well-researched slough.

I do question a little about the things he chose to cover though. He goes back a number of times to city ordinances that would see bypasses go through city parks in the US as a way to highlight environmentalism, but then makes absolutely no mention of the Stonewall Riots. None at all. (There are references to gay liberation being won through a couple of pamphlets [one of these very few examples he gives is pro-pedophilia, as if to imply that the entire movement was pro-pedophilia], and there's one mention of the Stonewall bar in the approximately five pages he dedicated to gay liberation, but not one mention of the riot that took place in 1969), and I don't recall any mention to what was going on in Europe in terms of gay liberation. There's a single reference to the disabled community winning accessibility rights to public spaces, but there's no reference at all to how this came about. You'd think in 800 pages we could have had at least some mention of either of these things.

Still, as far as sixties histories go, this seems to be pretty thorough, and filled with plenty of comparisons between the titular countries. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for very detailed and academic comparative history from 1958 - 1974.

[Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This far-reaching history has so much in it. The references to other European countries are very helpful- especially to me, an Englishman who only saw the British side of the Sixties and the monumental change that occurred.
Marwick outlines VERY clearly the scope and range of this work and why he chose a 'floating' Sixties decade (1958-1974). His list of 16 'characteristics of a unique era' are as good an outline of the causes behind the upheavals and changes that occurred in the 60s.
I doubt there is a more scholarly honest work on this topic

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extremely uneven, huge, engagement with the Sixties in the US and western Europe--mostly France and Italy. He moves back and forth between large political and economic trends and minutely detailed microstudies, which seem to have been chosen somewhat randomly; his treatment of civil rights puts an inordinate emphasis on Memphis (which is interesting but not particularly representative). I learned a lot, but ultimately it doesn't quite cohere.

[Jake Marsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, but it’s so so long.