In this compelling book, Gerard DeGroot overturns the generally held belief that the sixties was a time of peace, love and understanding, of power to the people, freedom and new dawns. In fact, as he reveals, the decade was as much marked by mindless mayhem, shallow commercialism and unbridled cruelty as it was by wearing flowers in your hair and embracing your fellow man. How many of us, reflecting on those times, think about Sharpeville, the Gaza Strip, Vatican II, Biafra, Jakarta or the Cultural Revolution? Far from being a decade of opening doors, DeGroot argues convincingly that it was, rather, a decade in which they were slammed firmly shut, in which revolution was never on the cards, a time where chauvinism and cynicism got the better of hope and tolerance. Thought-provoking, persuasive and never less than entertaining, De Groot offers readers the Sixties unplugged, free of the amplifiers and filters that blur our memories and muddy our ability to see the past clearly.

Without sentiment or tears, "The Sixties Unplugged" takes a fresh look at that insane and wonderful sore-thumb decade of the 20th century. A thoroughly researched work of history, it is also a good story, beautifully told--William McKeen, author of "Outlaw Journalist."

The 1960s is a decade often seen through a rose-tinted lens. But does such fond nostalgia really stand up? Vivid, rich in anecdote, angry and persuasive, this is an authoritative account of the decade of myth and madness.

Blue Jean Baby is a surprisingly real trip through the Los Angeles music scene of the 1960s. Sally finally gives true pop culture buffs what they've been seeking: The Sixties Unplugged.

For the first hundred years or so of their history, public libraries in Britain were built in an array of revivalist architectural styles. This backward-looking tradition was decisively broken in the 1960s as many new libraries were erected up and down the country. In this new Routledge book, Alistair Black argues that the architectural modernism of the post-war years was symptomatic of the age’s spirit of renewal. In the 1960s, public libraries truly became ‘libraries of light’, and Black further explains how this phrase not only describes the shining new library designs – with their open-plan, decluttered, Scandinavian-inspired designs – but also serves as a metaphor for the public library’s role as a beacon of social egalitarianism and cultural universalism. A sequel to Books, Buildings and Social Engineering (2009), Black's new book takes his fascinating story of the design of British public libraries into the era of architectural modernism.

This book focuses on sciences in the universities of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the chapters in it provide an overview, mostly from the point of view of the history of science, of the different ways universities dealt with the institutionalization of science teaching and research. A useful book for understanding the deep changes that universities were undergoing in the last years of the 20th century. The book is organized around four central themes: 1) Universities in the longue durée; 2) Universities in diverse political contexts; 3) Universities and academic research; 4) Universities and discipline formation. The book is addressed at a broad readership which includes scholars and researchers in the field of General History, Cultural History, History of Universities, History of Education, History of Science and Technology, Science Policy, high school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students of sciences and humanities, and the general interested public.

The life and work of motion picture director Robert Altman (1925-2006) are interpreted from a variety of perspectives in this collection of essays. Actors, historians, film scholars, and cultural theorists reflect on Altman and his five-decade career and discuss the significance of music, history and genre in his films. Two actors who have appeared in some of the filmmaker's most important works are prominently represented, with a statement from Elliot Gould (MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split) and an essay by Michael Murphy (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, Tanner '88). The collection ends with an essay on the importance of death in the director's final productions The Company (2003) and Prairie Home Companion (2006) by noted Altman scholar Robert T. Self.