The Beatles and Sixties Britain
The Beatles and Sixties Britain by Marcus Collins, published by Cambridge University Press on March 24, 2022, is a comprehensive exploration of the complex relationship between the iconic band and British society during the 1960s. This new edition spans 383 pages and is presented in English. The book delves into how the Beatles, once symbols of modernity, elicited both admiration and anxiety, serving as a catalyst for significant cultural shifts in postwar Britain.
Readers will find an analysis that challenges conventional narratives surrounding the Beatles and the so-called “swinging sixties.” The text examines the band’s influence on various aspects of life, including music, social norms, and political discourse, highlighting the ambivalence felt by contemporaries. By utilizing a wealth of contemporary sources, Collins provides insights into the Beatles’ role in reshaping identities and institutions, revealing the tensions that defined their era. This work offers a nuanced perspective on the intersection of music and social change in 20th-century Britain.
Official synopsis Publisher
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.
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