The Beatles and Sixties Britain (Marcus Collins)

Though the Beatles are nowadays considered national treasures, this book shows how and why they inspired phobia as well as mania in 1960s Britain. As symbols of modernity in the early sixties, they functioned as a stress test for British institutions and identities, at once displaying the possibilities and establishing the limits of change. Later in the decade, they developed forms of living, loving, thinking, looking, creating, worshipping and campaigning which became subjects of intense controversy. The ambivalent attitudes contemporaries displayed towards the Beatles are not captured in hackneyed ideas of the 'swinging sixties', the 'permissive society' and the all-conquering 'Fab Four'. 

Content:
Introduction
1. The other sixties: an anti-permissive permissive society?
2. Society, 1963–65: The Beatles and modernity
3. Society, 1966–70: The Beatles go too far
4. Culture: the Beatles as artists
5. Politics: the Beatles, parliament and revolution
Conclusion