A definitive portrait of Britain in the heady throes of the Swinging Sixties, from legendary historian David Kynaston.

Deep into the Sixties

It's the heart of the Sixties in Britain - the Beatles and the Stones vie at the top of the charts, England win the World Cup, and optimism and patriotism percolate through the streets. But this is not the full story of mid-Sixties Britain. Disaffection on the political left increasingly focuses on the escalating Vietnam War; and the ambitious hopes of Harold Wilson's Labour government start to founder on the precarious state of the pound.

This was a time of looking both backwards and forwards - sweeping reforms to secondary education, huge swathes of urban redevelopment, and the irresistible rise of a confident, free-spending youth culture. Yet everyday life for many, especially beyond the big cities, bore striking resemblance to decades earlier.

Covering the short but intense period from after Churchill's death in early 1965 to England's Wembley triumph in July 1966, David Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary sources, including diaries of ordinary people, to paint a richly nuanced picture of unrivalled detail. Deep Into the Sixties continues to revolutionise how we see post-war Britain.

David Kynaston

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He holds a degree from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written many books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and WG’s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman v. Players match at Lord’s in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51; Family Britain, 1951-57; Modernity Britain 1957-1962; On the Cusp; Days of '62; and A Northern Wind: Britain 1962 - 65, all volumes in a series covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-79) under the collective title ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’.

David is an honorary professor at Kingston University.

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