In 1956 the Suez Crisis finally shattered the old myths of the
British Empire and paved the way for the tumultuous changes of the
decades to come. In NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD, Dominic Sandbrook takes a
fresh look at the dramatic story of affluence and decline between
1956 and 1963. Arguing that historians have until now been besotted
by the supposed cultural revolution of the Sixties, Sandbrook
re-examines the myths of this controversial period and paints a
more complicated picture of a society caught between conservatism
and change. He explores the growth of a modern consumer society,
the impact of immigration, the invention of modern pop music and
the British retreat from empire. He tells the story of the
colourful characters of the period, like Harold Macmillan, Kingsley
Amis and Paul McCartney, and brings to life the experience of the
first post-imperial generation, from the Notting Hill riots to the
first Beatles hits, from the Profumo scandal to the cult of James
Bond. In this strikingly impressive debut, he combines academic
verve and insight with colourful, dramatic writing to produce a
classic, ground-breaking work that will change forever how we think
about the Sixties.
關於作者:
Dominic Sandbrook is set to lead the next generation of
narrative historians. Born in Shropshire in 1974 and educated at
Oxford, St. Andrews and Cambridge, he taught history at the
University of Sheffield and is currently a fellow of the Rothermere
Institute at Oxford.