Shire Living Histories: 1960s Britain (ePub)

The book describes the ways in which the lives of all sections of British society were transformed during th1950s. The consequences of the Second World War - the Cold War, the loss of Empire, the new economic realities, American political and cultural hegemony - were only then becoming apparent. At the same time economic, social and cultural developments were transforming people's expectations and aspirations: the first generation of working-class grammar-school pupils were going into higher education and the proliferation of clerical and administrative employment enabled the children of manual workers to progress into the middle class. At the same time full employment and the availability of mass-produced consumer commodities transformed the material culture of all classes making available to all previously undreamt of luxuries. The initial stages of mass immigration occurred during the 1950s as did the development of a new mass culture, closely linked to the television and influenced increasingly by America. Yet the 1950s was also a period of continuity: organised labour, the monarchy, the public schools, the Church of England and class divisions were still extremely important. While many saw the decade as a time of exciting new opportunities others felt that the values on which British society rested were being undermined.