White Heat

The sequel to Never Had It So Good completes Dominic Sandbrook's groundbreaking history of Britain in the 1960s, weaving together politics, sports, art, fashion, social trends, language, and popular culture "The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of industry." —Harold Wilson, UK Prime Minister 1964-1970, 1974-1976 Harold Wilson's famous reference to "white heat" captured the optimistic spirit of a society in the midst of breathtaking change. From the gaudy pleasures of Swinging London to the tragic bloodshed in Northern Ireland, from the intrigues of Westminster to the drama of the World Cup, British life seemed to have taken on a dramatic new momentum. The memories, images, and colorful personalities of those heady times still resonate today—mop-tops and mini-skirts, strikes and demonstrations, Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, Mary Quant and Jean Shrimpton, Connery as Bond and the Summer of Love, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger. This wonderfully rich and readable historical narrative looks behind the myths of the Swinging Sixties to unearth the contradictions of a society caught between optimism and decline.