This illustrated account of Britain in the Swinging Sixties will appeal to nostalgia-seekers and social historians alike.

The 1960s was a defining decade for Great Britain. With the uncertainty and hardships of the Second World War finally put to rest, a new spirit of optimism swept the nation, and Labour’s promise of ‘the ending of economic privilege, the abolition of poverty in the midst of plenty and the creation of real equality of opportunity’ heralded unprecedented social and cultural changes.

With these changes came a new sense of permissiveness and cultural liberation among the ‘baby boomer’ generation, counterculture and fashion icons such as The Beatles, Mary Quant and Biba, and new design and technology that transformed virtually every sphere of everyday life.

Punctuated with personal recollections, Susan Cohen’s fully illustrated account of life in the 1960s explores the impact of these political and cultural trends on the ordinary people of Britain.

Susan Cohen is an historian with a wide interest in twentieth-century British social history and refugee studies. She has written and lectured widely on a variety of subjects, and is the author of The District Nurse and The Women’s Institute, both published by Shire.