Young lives on the Left

Sixties activism and the liberation of the self

By (author) Celia Hughes

Publication date:

01 March 2015

Length of book:

328 pages

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Dimensions:

234x156mm

ISBN-13: 9780719091940

This book examines the coming of age experiences of young men and women who became active in radical Left circles in 1960s England. Based on a rich collection of oral history interviews, the book follows in depth the stories of approximately twenty individuals to offer a unique perspective of what it meant to be young and on the Left in the post-war landscape. The book will be essential reading for researchers of twentieth-century British social, cultural and political history. However, it will be of interest to a general readership interested in the social protest movements of the long 1960s.

Introduction
1. Post-war childhood and adolescence
2. Youth sub-cultures
3. The student movement and the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
4. New Left politics and Women’s Liberation
5. Adulthood and activism in the 1970s
6. Trotskyism and the revolutionary self
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Index

'Hughes’ book provides ballast for the ongoing historiographical project of moving beyond the hackneyed caricatures, slogans and images that still form our primary points of reference when discussing the 1960s. This makes Young lives on the Left a worthy addition to the growing body of work that’s serving to build up a richer and more nuanced picture of the changes that took place during the mid-20th Century.'
Josh Allen, Journal of History and Cultures, Vol. 7, 2017