
Deep Into the Sixties
Britain 1965-66
David Kynaston(Author)
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Will be published approx. on 24. September 2026
Book
Hardback
688 pages
978-1-5266-5764-0 (ISBN)
Description
'The most entertaining historian alive' SPECTATOR
'Addictively readable' DOMINIC SANDBROOK
'The poet of postwar Britain . . . In a league of his own' JONATHAN COE
'My goodness, [the series] rockets along: every page contains something surprising, something funny, something sad' CRAIG BROWN, SUNDAY TIMES
A definitive portrait of Britain in the throes of the Swinging Sixties, the new instalment in David Kynaston's legendary 'Tales of a New Jerusalem' series - named one of the best non-fiction works of the 21st century by the Sunday Times
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.
'Addictively readable' DOMINIC SANDBROOK
'The poet of postwar Britain . . . In a league of his own' JONATHAN COE
'My goodness, [the series] rockets along: every page contains something surprising, something funny, something sad' CRAIG BROWN, SUNDAY TIMES
A definitive portrait of Britain in the throes of the Swinging Sixties, the new instalment in David Kynaston's legendary 'Tales of a New Jerusalem' series - named one of the best non-fiction works of the 21st century by the Sunday Times
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.
Reviews / Votes
The most humane and even-handed chronicler of our time * GUARDIAN * The poet of postwar Britain . . . Modern history has never been more popular, but the scale and detail of Kynaston's work puts him in a league of his own -- JONATHAN COE, author of The Proof of My Innocence In the book trade there is a buzz word: "Kynastonesque". It describes big social history books, with expansive narrative sweeps and formidable sources, which celebrate domestic intimacies against the background of public events -- Richard Davenport-Hines * GUARDIAN * Dazzling, compendious and finely judged. Post-war Britain has no finer chronicler -- D. J. TAYLOR, author of Poppyland Magnificent . . . The early Sixties have never been recounted so well * THE TIMES, Books of the Year *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-5764-0 (9781526657640)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. His many books include King Labour (1976, a study of the Victorian working class), The City of London (1994-2001, a widely acclaimed four-volume history), and Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket (2018, co-written with Stephen Fay). Since 2001 his main focus has been on 'Tales of a New Jerusalem', a multi-volume history of post-war Britain. He continues to support Aldershot Town, subject of his diary Shots in the Dark (2020).