Were the sixties swinging?

The final primary source I interview was my great aunt Stella Caffrey, she was born in England and was 33 at the start of the sixties. At the beginning of the sixties she lived in Germany and after 1963 she moved to Huntsville, Alabama. She had slightly different views than the other two and talked in more detail about them. Here is what she thought.

Vietnam

She said that it was a very devicive time because of very mixed views. She commented on the traumatic reporting of it through the media, I know this to be true from studying sources related to this. She said that because of the alien jungle conditions many people thought that the notion of fighting there for little understood cause was abhorrent. She agreed that opinion was extremely divided. 'many thought it was necessary to combat communism but others thought it too remote to be relevant'

Assassination of president Kennedy

She said that these were traumatic and shocking times, it was seen to be the end of an era she said that there was also great instability on the world stage

Martin Luther King

She said he had a profound effect on the acceptance into the mainstream of Black people. She compared him to Gandhi in his non-violent measures.

Fashion

It was for some people, but not for her. She was too preoccupied with other things as she was working on the space program. However she was sure that fashion was a big deal to some people especially the 'flower children' who I will go on to talk about later.

Were the sixties swinging?

She said that the sixties were not swinging where she was and that they were very serious times in her life.

(full transcripts of these three interviews can be found in the appendix)

So we have heard from the people who were there at the time, now we will look at the perceptions of the sixties through the eyes of someone who was not there.

Firstly I talked to Alice Fixsen, she is 16. When I asked her what she thought the sixties were she said 'flower power', now according to the primary sources I interviewed flower power didn't play a very important part in most peoples lives, only those who were involved. She next said 'the Beatles' it is true that the Beatles where a big musical influence during the period but they obviously weren't for everyone as none of my interviewees even mentioned them in the musical section. This may be because my primary source interviewees were a little older than the Beatles target audience but still they had very little effect on a lot of people.

She didn't even mention Vietnam or Martin Luther King or the Cuban missile crisis. This shows how for her at least her perception of the sixties was very far from the reality of it.

Next interviewee who wasn't around at the time was Sam Wain he is 17. The first thing he mentioned was Martin Luther King, he is a great admirer of his work. The second thing he mentioned was the World Cup Victory of 1966. He didn't even mention the Beatles. But he did mention Wood stock '69. A rock concert, which really was a historic event. He then mentioned the outrageous fashions in the sixties.

We can see from Sam's response that his perception also differs from reality although not as much as Alice's.

The last person who I interviewed was Jason Maude age 19, the first thing he talked about was Vietnam and then the assassination of president Kennedy. He then talked about the Cuban missile crisis. The last thing that he thought of was England's world cup victory of 1966.

As we can see from looking at the results of these three interviews in relation to the three primary source interviews Jason was probably the closest to the reality of the sixties, and Alice farthest from it. These results however may not be accurate because the three primary sources I interviewed may not all be typical men and women of the sixties.

But the real truth is that the perception of the sixties, even for the people who were there, depends very much on the person themselves. What you were listening to, reading or watching would affect very much the outcome of your opinion of the period.

Looking at the sources in the book People in Change by Josh Brooman. I can see that it was a time very different from our own. Paul McCartney said that the fans were a lot more friendly then and that he felt he understood them. This was from an interview in 1984 so I don't think he would lie about the quality of his fans to gain popularity as I would've done if it was written in 1965 this is a secondary source because it wasn't written at the time.

Source 2 describes clothing by a woman born in 1948. but it is written in the 1980's so it is a secondary source. The clothing sounds like nothing we are used to nowadays with stockings and suspender belts and tummy flattening girdles. This is a pretty reliable source because there would be no reason for her too lie about her clothing. It isn't very useful to us as historians unless we were studying in depth about clothing.

Source 3 is a 1965 cut out from the TV times. It is primary but not of great use to me. As im not studying the history of television

Source 4 shows two male fashion models, it is a primary source but not a very useful one because although it was taken in 1967, the photo is a fixed one so it isn't real.

Source 5 This is a very interesting source, it isn't primary because it is written in 1982 but it is from the book 'the sixties' and it gives us a real insight into the way denzil the mod lives. I would say that although this is a secondary source it is still accurate because there would be no reason to lie about it.

Source 6 is a primary source cartoon. Showing a MOD making an excuse about why he or she can't go out. It is a joke because MODs were always out and about. It is a primary source, drawn in 1963 it shows the attitude of people towards MODs. It is probably not very accurate really. Because it is satirical.

Source 7 is a recount of a Beatles concert. We do not know when it was written or the author or for what purpose. It is probably an over exaggerated account of the night but some is probably true, this shows that the Beatles were incredibly popular too have people fainting at their shows.

Source 8 Written in a newspaper in 1964 the paper was the daily mail so we cannot be sure of its accuracy. This woman in the source was trying to help religious and politically correct writer's work televised. This shows that already by the 1960's people were already complaining about TV standards. It is a primary source.

Source 9 doesn't say if it is primary or secondary but it shows that in 1961 there were 200,000 students in fulltime education in Britain and by 1969 there were 390,000 this shows a huge increase in education. We aren't sure the accuracy of this data or whether it is primary or secondary.

Source 10 this is a primary source taken from the daily mail 9th September 1968. It describes the minister's wife's shocking attire, which she wore to church. We can be sure that this is accurate and not too extreme because it includes an actual quote from the women. This was probably written for shock value and as an amusing story. It tells me that during the sixties there were definitely people who were outrageous but whether there were enough of them to justify calling it the 'swinging' decade remains to be seen.

It was also the decade of youth and young adult culture, it was the time when youth culture was accepted. Nobody really knows why it came about but a reason could have been because between 1955 and 1960 average weekly earnings rose 34% while average prices only rose 15%. This trend continued throughout the sixties so people had more money to spend on things they wanted. By 1969 weekly earnings had risen 130% but prices only 63%. This could explain widespread fashion and youth culture.

During the sixties though there was a lot of international mistrust, it was the era of the cold war. Many incidents occurred, such as the Cuban missile crisis, and Vietnam. The memories of these events still leave their mark today. The space race was also a key point for international mistrust there was great sadness during the sixties, the death of president Kennedy and the persecution of black Americans. But also times of joy like when England won the world cup.

No one can deny that the 1960's were definitely a time of change. A change in the fashion world, the musical world. The sixties produced some of the best musicians ever to be seen, such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. A change in the way black people were treated in America and a change in attitude towards young people all over the world. In these respects it could be called 'the swinging sixties' but in others maybe not. Things such as Vietnam I don't think could be considered 'swinging'.

So in conclusion I would say that the sixties was a mixed decade with its ups and down but from what I have read and seen I wouldn't say that everything about it was as swinging as some people make it out to be.

Shamim Gammage