“White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties”, by Dominic Sandbrook

976 pages, Abacus/Little, Brown UK, ISBN-13: 978-0349118208

White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties by Dominic Sandbrook is, like its predecessor Never Had It So Good, brilliant – and, like that previous book, it takes its title from a speech given by the dominant political figure of this era; namely, Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister from his narrow victory on October 15^th, 1964 to his unexpected defeat on June 18^th, 1970 (“[t]he Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of industry”). Wilson’s government was, perhaps, unique for its supreme arrogance, frivolity, intemperance and misapplied ideology (which is saying a lot for government); and though the PM had committed his government to reforming British society in the “white heat” of a scientific revolution, Labour rarely managed to do more than smash things up or tinker about at the edges (which seems to be a common Labour theme, then and now: promise revolution, deliver stagnation). It must be admitted, however, that Wilson and his modernizers were hampered from the get-go by public finances which had been debauched by the Tories and their chancellor, Reginald Maudling (as Jim Callaghan, the new Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer sat at his desk at No. 11 Downing Street on October 17^th, 1964, Maudling stuck his head round the door and said from under a pile of suits: “Good luck, old cock. Sorry to leave it in such a mess”).

I found White Heat to be better organized than Never Had It So Good, with each chapter coming in at a reasonable 20-pages or so, and with Sandbrook tending to alternate chapters on political and economic matters with social history, which helped the book flow seamlessly between more weighty issues to more frivolous ones between 1964 and 1970. Thus, while we get the low down on Britain East of Suez, the conflict in Rhodesia, the crisis in Aden, the Vietnam war, grammar schools, the Time of Troubles, the Bogside district of Derry, George Brown, Barbara Castle, Richard Crossman, Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn and Cecil King, we also learn all there is about Doctor Who, pop art, Terylene and Formica, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the new towns and Ronan Point, foreign holidays, mods vs. rockers, the 1966 World Cup, the Hayward Gallery, The Avengers, Biba and Till Death Us Do Part (crikey!). It all leaves little room for the pompous industrial themes of the period, from Concorde, to the AGR nuclear power stations or the motor industry (mind you, this does not deflect from Sandbrook’s achievement in cramming so much into so little; rather, it just serves to underscore all that was going on in Britain during this most turbulent of decades).

Sandbrook’s ultimate argument seems to be that, for all of the chaos and upheaval that seemed to be going on, British politics, society and culture in the so-called Swinging 60s were predominantly characterized by continuity, conservatism and conformity. The Beatles, for all their avant-garde musical showmanship, were firmly in the British mainstream traditions of the music hall and the Goons to the bohemian scene of the 50s and the satire of that era. Similarly, the Rolling Stones were apprentice country gentlemen (offstage), and Sandbrook relishes the anecdote that the bibliophile Keith Richards “was later forced to cancel several concert dates after falling off a ladder while searching for Leonardo da Vinci's book on anatomy”. Sorry, old cock, indeed. White Heat, along with its predecessor, are a pair of must-reads for anyone wishing to know more about this fascinating period in English history, especially for ignorant Yanks, like me.