ABSTRACT
A bout of nostalgia for the years between 1945 and the early 1960s has created an image of simplicity and calmness, o f a society in which a basic consensus reassuringly underlay healthy adolescent rebelliousness. Post-war American society has been depicted as free from the need to think deeply and at length about big questions. This composite image of ‘the best years of our lives’ (to borrow the title of the 1946 film) has doubtless been firmed up by an increasingly widespread view of ‘the sixties’ as little more than a diversion from a consensus about society’s aims and values.
