All Dressed Up

This account expands upon the author's previous Days in the Life to provide a fascinating and controversial overview of the cultural and political events of the 1960s. Green's starting point is the invention of the teenager, Teds, Beats and CND; he finishes with the Oz trial, the women's movement and gay politics. In between, his focus is on the whole panoply of that extraordinary decade, from sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to student protests. He also surveys the anti-Vietnam movement, and the radical social legislation pioneered by Roy Jenkins - on abortion, obscenity, homosexuality and capital punishment. The underground press, the Arts Lab, Swinging London, anti-psychiatry, the hippie trail, the festivals, the drug busts, all fall under an affectionate but critical eye, celebrating the prevailing optimism of the decade without being blind to its absurdities.