25.getting To Grips With The Big Picture

Change in the 60s- A Timeline Colour according to categories of change: Red= political, Black= economic, Blue= social, Green= international/place in the world

1960

Compulsory National service ends Production of the Contraceptive Pill

1965 Race Relations Act 5-year national Plan for economic growth Circular 10/65 encourages comprehensive education Abolition of the death penalty

1961 Britain begins negotiations for membership of the EEC

1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act introduces voucher scheme

1963 Entry to EEC refused

1964 Harold Wilson’s Labour elected

Beatles have 3 no.1 hits Demonstrations against nuclear weapons

BBC2 launched

TW3

Mini-skirt arrives on catwalk

Satire: Beyond the fringe and Private Eye

National Economic Development Council to encourage cooperation in industry

Robbins Report calls for expansion of higher education

1966

1967

1968

1969

Application to join EEC vetoed by France

NHS prescription charges reimposed

Voting age lowered to 18

£ devalued from $2.8 to $2.4

Commonwealth Immigrants Act excludes Kenyan Asians

First Polytechnics created

Labour wins election with increased majority Colour TV begins National Assistance renamed Supplementary Benefit

Radio 1 launched

“Rivers of Blood” speech

Abortion Act/ Legalisation of Homosexuality

Grosvenor Square AntiVietnam demonstrations

Open University established

Formation of National Front

Musical: “Hair” opens after relaxation of censorship

Divorce Law liberalised

WHAT IS A MIND MAP? A tool to help us think and remember better. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas. WHY MIND MAPS WORK They help you avoid thinking linearly. They help you get the big picture.

We are going to create a mind map to illustrate the different interpretations historians have of change in the 1960s

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Arthur Marwick and The Sixties (1999) (







Social historian Professor at The Open University The OU was itself a product of 1960s government modernisation Identified 16 “characteristics of a unique era”

16 “characteristics of a new era.” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The formation of new subcultures opposed to established society. An outburst of individualism. The emergence of youth culture. Technological advances, including TV & mass air travel. The growth of “world news” & international media images. International cultural exchange, through tourism & popular music. Improvements in material life & the “consumer society.”

...continued Upheavals in race, class & family relationships. 9. Sexual liberation & the rise of permissiveness. 10. Greater freedoms in fashion & self expression. 11. Rock music as a kind of international language. 12. Revolutionary tendencies in elite culture: literature & music. 13. Liberal tolerance inherited from the previous generation. 14. A “conservative backlash” from the older generation. 15. A new concern with Civil Rights. 16. Multiculturalism & the recognition of ethnic diversity. 8.

Economic? Political? Social? Can you classify them?

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Mark Donnelly

What point is being made? What is the author’s attitude toward change? Was there a revolution?

Mark Donnelly

What point is being made? What is the author’s attitude toward change? Was there a revolution?

Mark Donnelly














Donnelly suggests the sixties has long been overheated, polarised between those who see the decade as a 'golden age' and others who blame it for today's apparent social ills. Nevertheless he sees four main developments of lasting consequence: The modern consumer economy was established, reaching across the social and generational divides as never before and transforming popular culture. The growing preoccupation with individual autonomy changed the ways in which individual and civil rights were understood. The full impact of post-war New Commonwealth immigration began to be felt, and many found it uncomfortable. Finally, Britain turned away from Empire and moved towards Europe – a direction that remains contentious forty years on.

Economic? Political? Social? Can you classify them?

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Ian MacDonald

What point is being made? What does the author mean? Are there any links to Marwick’s views?

Ian MacDonald





Ian MacDonald refers to three cultural trends that were crucial to the 1960s: a materialistic individualism that formed the main stream of popular thought and behaviour; the revolutionary radicalism of the New Left; and the psychedelic pacifism of the so-called ‘hippy’ movement. MacDonald reaches the unusual conclusion that the New Left and the hippies had little lasting influence upon the mainstream, and that, if anything, they represented reactions against it. MacDonald saw the collapse of religious belief in favour of a materialistic viewpoint that, according to MacDonald, eroded the idea that happiness was to be deferred until the afterlife, or for future generations. This viewpoint fostered the notion that instant gratification is permissible and is, in any event, made feasible by a period of economic well-being, and by technological developments that made available a wide range of pleasure-giving goods and services – from laboursaving domestic devices to hi-fi systems and hallucinogenic drugs. In short, the deferential, staid 1950s gave way to the sensual, libertarian 1960s.

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Dominic Sandbrook

What point is being made? What is the author’s attitude toward change? Was there a revolution?

Dominic Sandbrook





Sandbrook sees the sixties, like most decades, as more evolutionary than revolutionary. Despite all the snap and crackle of the newly esteemed pop culture, the decade saw rather less radical change than we are apt to remember. If the decade was a party, it was one to which most Britons were not invited. Sandbrook argues convincingly that many of the changes in British life were regarded with suspicion (and often outright hostility) by a population that remained essentially conservative. The period's only genuine change, Sandbrook argues, centred on the socio-economic status of women: "A girl of 16 in 1970 was far more likely to remain in education than a similar 16year-old in 1956. She was more likely to pursue her own intellectual and cultural interests as long as she liked, to marry when and whom she wanted, to have children when and if she wanted, and above all, to choose whether she remained at home as a housewife or pursued her own career."

Economic? Political? Social? Can you classify them?

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Sally Waller








Summarise Waller’s argument from her conclusion What points does she make in favour of the idea of a revolution? Does she make any points against there being a revolution?

Economic? Political? Social? Can you classify them?

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Was there really a revolution?


Argument/Evidence For




Argument Against