Do you really remember the sixites?

New research suggests that the sixties was not really the decade of peace, love and understanding that people generally remember.

Instead, Professor Gerard DeGroot claims that the decade was as much marked by 'mindless mayhem, shallow commercialism and unbridled cruelty' as it was by wearing flowers in your hair and loving your fellow man.

In a new book, the University of St Andrews' researcher attempts to rewrite the history books and capture 'the real spirit of the sixties' that is generally lost in the mists of nostalgia. Out this week, The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade, suggests an alternative view of the decade best known as a time for free love. The new research restores to the hippy era the `prevalent disorder and inconvenient truths that longing, wistfulness, and distance have obscured from memory'.

The historian claims that nostalgia can create a distorted view of history as it 'strives to impose order on memory and value on mayhem'.

He said, "We remember the Sixties for sex, drugs and rock and roll. The 1960s is a decade often seen through a rose-tinted lens: an era when the young would not only rule the world but change it, too, for the better. Books and films about the decade tend invariably to reinforce that image. But is such fond nostalgia really merited?

"How many of us, reflecting on those times, think about Sharpeville, the Six Day War, starvation in Biafra, mass murder in Jakarta or the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which was undoubtedly one of the worst atrocities of the 20th Century? Forty years after the summer of love, it is possible to focus more clearly on what actually took place."

Far from being a decade of opening doors, Professor DeGroot claims that it was, rather, a time when real opportunities for liberal progress were destroyed by a generation of protesters in 'thrall to violence and in love with their television image'.

"The survival of the Sixties myth says something about the resilience of our spirit, if not about the reality of our world", he continued. "The decade brought flowers, music, love and good times. It also brought hatred, murder, greed, dangerous drugs, needless deaths, ethnic cleansing, neo-colonialist exploitation, soundbite politics, sensationalism, a warped sense of equality, a bizarre notion of freedom, the decline of liberalism and the end of innocence. Bearing all that in mind, the decade should seem neither unfamiliar nor all that wonderful."

The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade by Professor Gerard DeGroot is published by Macmillan.

Source: University of St Andrews

Related stories:

'Wildcat Power Cord' repairs cruciate ligament in dairy cow's knee
An 8-year-old Jersey dairy cow is back at her Kansas farm thanks to a decade of research and an experimental surgery performed at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
Species still have more viable offspring if they can choose their best mate
When it comes to picking a mate, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had an answer: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” As it turns out, that may be a cardinal rule in the animal kingdom, too.
Love Bugs: Breakthrough Study of Cockroach Sex
Wanted: Mature males looking for a good time. Must have all six legs, strong antennae and love city life. Proclivity to procreate a must. Apply at crack in the bathroom wall, apartment 8B.
With fruit fly sex, researchers find mind-body connection
Male fruit flies are smaller and darker than female flies. The hair-like bristles on their forelegs are shorter, thicker. Their sexual equipment, of course, is different, too.
Terence Tao, 'Mozart of Math,' Is UCLA's First Mathematician Awarded the 'Nobel Prize in Mathematics'
Terence Tao became the first mathematics professor in UCLA history to be awarded the prestigious Fields Medal, often described as the "Nobel Prize in mathematics," during the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid on Aug. 22. In the 70 years the prize has been awarded by the International Mathematical Union, only 48 researchers ever have won it.
Joyriders Vs. Jaywalkers: a Collision of Cultures
“Look both ways for cars before you cross the street.” That’s one of the most important warnings American children hear when they’re old enough to walk alone. That’s because we live in a culture in which cars, trucks and SUVs rule the streets.
Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear
As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft winds its way on a nine-year journey toward Pluto and the outer solar system, at least one expert wonders why such missions need to take so long.
iPods -- or can we call them iPodsicians?
iPods are no longer just basic MP3 players -- now they are portable musicians, or iPodsicians, too.

News discussion:

General Science news