The Beatles and Sixties Britain

The Beatles were symbols of modernity in 1960s Britain, inspiring phobia and mania. They developed forms of living, loving, thinking, looking, creating, worshipping, and campaigning that became subjects of intense controversy. Their disruptive presence incited a wholesale re-examination of social, political, and cultural norms.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 383 pages
Publication date: 24 March 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Even though the Beatles are now regarded as national treasures, this book demonstrates how and why they inspired both phobia and mania in 1960s Britain. They served as symbols of modernity in the early 1960s, functioning as a stress test for British institutions and identities, simultaneously 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 that 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.

Even though the Beatles are now regarded as national treasures, this book demonstrates how and why they inspired both phobia and mania in 1960s Britain. They served as symbols of modernity in the early 1960s, functioning as a stress test for British institutions and identities, simultaneously 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 that 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.

Weight: 666g
Dimension: 169 x 243 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108708463
Edition number: New ed