but none of that is exactly new.

What is largely missing is the Sixties' sense of optimism and possibility, political, personal and cultural, whether misplaced or not. One of the best illustrations of the mood of the decade comes in DeGroot's description of the Beatles: "The British... fell instantly in love, thanks in part to Fleet Street's conspiracy of adoration." Contrast that with the conspiracy of vilification directed today against Amy Winehouse.

The point is that the Sixties generation - in Britain, anyway - was not braver, brighter or better, but luckier. Post-war austerity had ended, jobs were plentiful, further education becoming universally available and Britain was, briefly, the cultural centre of the world. AIDS, recession, and the divisive Thatcher years had yet to arrive. A young Labour government presided over the legalisation

of homosexuality and abortion and the abolition of the death penalty (some 'decline of liberalism'). When US news magazines put Britain on their covers it was in admiration rather than, as today, in disdain.

In his chapter on Paris '68, DeGroot quotes a popular slogan of the time: "I have something to say, but I'm not sure what." Not a problem limited to that decade.
The 60s Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade by Gerard DeGroot, (Macmillan £20)