The Beatles and Sixties Britain
The Beatles and Sixties Britain
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Though the Beatles are nowadays considered national treasures, this book shows how and why they inspired phobia as well as mania in 1960s Britain. As symbols of modernity in the early sixties, they functioned as a stress test for British institutions and identities, at once displaying the possibilities and establishing the limits of change. Later in the decade, they developed forms of living, loving, thinking, looking, creating, worshipping and campaigning which became subjects of intense controversy. The ambivalent attitudes contemporaries displayed towards the Beatles are not captured in hackneyed ideas of the 'swinging sixties', the 'permissive society' and the all-conquering 'Fab Four'. Drawing upon a wealth of contemporary sources, The Beatles and Sixties Britain offers a new understanding of the band as existing in creative tension with postwar British society: their disruptive presence inciting a wholesale re-examination of social, political and cultural norms.
- Provides readers with an accessible, rigorously researched study of a band and a decade that have long been subject to myths and misrepresentation
- Shows how the Beatles acted as the sand in the oyster of sixties Britain: a disruptive presence inciting a re-examination of key institutions and core beliefs
- Provides a new answer to the perennial question of the Beatles' relationship to the 'swinging sixties' and the 'permissive society'
Reviews & endorsements
‘… Collins helps readers better understand the forces that impacted Britain during the turbulent 1960s, shedding new light on the Beatles for modern audiences. This deeply researched, distinctive, and well-argued book is a much-needed addition to the field … Highly recommended.’ J. F. Lyons, Choice
Product details
April 2020Hardback
9781108477246
382 pages
253 × 182 × 27 mm
0.82kg
10 b/w illus. 15 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The other sixties: an anti-permissive permissive society?
- 2. Society, 1963–65: The Beatles and modernity
- 3. Society, 1966–70: The Beatles go too far
- 4. Culture: the Beatles as artists
- 5. Politics: the Beatles, parliament and revolution
- Conclusion.
