The Sixties

by Arthur Marwick

If World Wars defined the 1st half of the 20th century, the 60s defined the 2nd, providing the pivot on which modern times have turned. From popular music to individual liberties, the tastes & convictions of the Western world are indelibly stamped with the impact of that tumultuous decade. Now one of the world's foremost historians provides a look at this momentous time. Framing the 60s as a period stretching from '58 to '74, Marwick argues that this long decade ushered in nothing less than a cultural revolution--one that raged most clearly in the USA, UK, France & Italy. Writing with wit & verve, he recaptures the events & movements that shaped lives: the rise of a western youth subculture; the impact of post Beat novels & New Wave cinema; the civil rights movement; Britain's surprising rise to leadership in fashion & music; the emerging storm over Vietnam; the Paris student rising of '68; the new concern for poverty; the growing force of feminism & the gay rights movement etc. As he unfolds his narrative, he illuminates the era, both its origins & its impact. He concludes it was a time that saw great leaps forward in the arts, in civil rights & in other areas of society & politics. But the decade also left deep divisions still felt today. Written with insight & narrative power, The Sixties is an important account of the most important decade of our times.

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

903 pages, Hardcover

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.