Mention of the 1960s often arouses strong emotions even in those who were already old when they began and those who were not even born when they ended. For some, it is a golden age of liberation and political progressiveness; others see it as a time when the secure framework of morality, authority and discipline disintegrated. Arthur Marwick's book is a study of social and cultural change in Europe and the United States in a period of outstanding historical significance, analyzing phenomena as diverse as the rise of youth culture, the impact of the civil rights movement, feminism, sexual permissiveness, the rise of rock music and the reassessment of traditional attitudes to class, race and the family.