Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
This unit is aimed at a source based exam paper
The exam has 5 source questions
The exam is 1 ½ hours
Major Topics
 The impact of the Second World War on people’s lives,
particularly women and young people.
 The Beveridge Report, National Health Service and the
Welfare State
 Immigration into Britain, 1945-75
 The changing role of women, 1950-75
 Growing up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
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Our Topic
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
What was it like growing up in the 1950s?
Why were there changes in the lives of teenagers in the
1960s?
How did teenagers and students behave in the 1960s and
70s?
How far did lives of teenagers change in the 1960s and 70s?
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
1945 -1955 Young people were
 Still living with effects of 6 years
of war
 Living with rationing until 1954
 Dressed the same as their
parents
 Had same set of values as
parents
 Had no access to TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 Listened to the same music as
their parents
1940
1939 only 50,000
young people go on
to higher education
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45
50
1960s Change became more rapid
 More money
 More products aimed at
teenagers
 TV and radio aimed at the young
 Fashion – Mini Skirts
 Music –Beatles and Stones
 Rebellion! ‘The Swinging Sixites’
55 1950s Things 60
start to
change
 Wear
different
clothes to
parents
 Spend
more time
with
friends, in
coffee
shops etc
 Start to
watch
Hollywood
films
Growing up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s
65
1965 390,000
young people go on
to higher education
70
1975
1970
1,145
Comprehensive
Schools built
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Draw a stickperson and label the characteristics of a TEENAGER
(mine is having a boogie!)
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
What was it like growing up in the 1950s?
Objectives
 To investigate what life
was like for ‘teenagers’ in
the 1950s
To be able to describe
the life of a ‘teenager’ in
the 1950s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWApeBRj1Zw Bored Teenagers
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
What was it like growing up in the 1950s?
Label and
annotate this
photograph
Family photograph 1950s
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
What was it like growing up in the 1950s?
Using page 482 –
Give five specific reasons why life for teenagers was dull at this
time.
Read source One. Give one use of this source
Give one limit of the source
What do the young people need to help them become the
teenagers we know?
Think of three ideas
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Why were there changes in the lives of teenagers in the 1960s?
What is the message of
this source?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHkgwA8t-g
While the song plays,
using the cartoon
Can you infer three
ways teenagers have
changed from the
1950s?
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Why were there changes in the lives of teenagers in the 1960s??
Objectives
 To investigate
why life changed
for teenagers in
the 1960s
To learn
specific examples
to support your
reasons
What changes in the life of teenagers does source give?
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Why were there changes in the lives of teenagers in the 1960s?
Using all the information you have complete the Tree Map below
Three main reasons for change
Cultural Influences
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Consumer Boom
Financial Power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di44bACr03w
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Why were there changes in the lives of teenagers in the 1960s??
Did it change for all teenagers?
Why do you think this is?
Give two reasons
Cramlington?
Investigate source 8 and 9 on page 486
Using N/O/P
For each give a USE and a limit to its use
In conclusion which is more useful to a historian in understanding the
changes in the lives of teenagers in the 1960s?
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Hello I’m a
MOD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswXI4fDYrM
My Generation
Rockers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zju6KbP_1xY
Rock around the clock
Where’s
my motor
bike!
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did teenagers behave the 1960s and 70s?
Objectives
 To investigate
examples of teenage
behaviour!!!!!!!
To look at the level of
violence between Mods
and Rockers
To find out just how
much sex they were
having
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Annotate and label the photograph
Note the different groups
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
What do you think is going on?
What impression does this photograph give of teenagers?
Do you think this is right for all teenagers in the 60s?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rj-OHCusEI
Margate
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Why would a newspaper report this story?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did teenagers behave the 1960s and 70s?
Read page 492
Study Source 27 and 28
Which source is more useful to a historian in studying teenage violence in the
1960s?
Complete the following sentences
Source----- is the most useful.
Source 27 is useful because………
Although it could be limited because
Source 28 is useful because…..
Although it could be limited because…..
My own knowledge supports this because
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did teenagers and students behave in the 1960s and 70s?
A Sexual Revolution?
Objectives
 To investigate teenage
attitudes to sex in the
sixties
To use sources to come
to a judgement on the
extent attitudes had
changed
To complete a exam style
essay question.
‘All right, Miss Linnet, I’ve got my lot covered –you can let
yours out’
A cartoon from the Sunday Express 8th March 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MYBlSF_HTs
Too much too young
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How far did lives of teenagers change in the 1960s and 70s?
What can we learn about attitudes to teenage sex from this cartoon?
‘All right, Miss Linnet, I’ve got my lot covered –you can let yours out’
A cartoon from the Sunday Express 8th March 1964
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Read through each source, does it agree or
disagree and highlight the quotes you would use
to support your decision. Then plan the answer.
Support with own knowledge from page 490
Source A
A worker at Butlin’s Holiday Camp: I was sickened the
sex was so totally available
B An actor in his early 20s: The chicks are so cool about
sex. At a party you can come up to a girl and say within a
couple of minutes of meeting her ‘How about coming back
to my place?’ There’ll be no messing about. If she likes you
she says ‘sure, lets go.
Source B
Teenagers in the sixties were the first generation since the
war to decide that the mysteries of sex should be explored
and discoveries made for the sheer fun of it. People had sex
at the slightest excuse after meeting for only ten minutes.
Sexual partners were snapped up and discarded without
ceremony, provided that they had the newly available
contraceptive in their pocket or handbag.
-An extract from The Swinging Sixties
by Brian Masters, published in 1985.
Masters is a journalist and a writer
Source C
Most teenagers were still virgins at nineteen, Only one in
three boys and one in six girls had ever had sex. When
contrasted with the recurring outcry about teenage
immorality, these figures seem low. For younger teenagers,
sexual experience of sex with a steady partner. These results
suggest that promiscuity, although it exists, is not a
prominent feature of teenage sexual behaviour.
- An Extract from The Sexual Behaviour of Young
People by Michael Schofield published in 1965. It
was based on a survey of 2000 young people
Source D
Among the married interviewees, one in four men and two in
three women had been virgins on their wedding day, figures that
were not radically different from those for earlier periods. The
importance of virginity to both sexes was ‘remarkably high’, but
attitudes to pre-marital experience have relaxed since 1950… Half
the men thought that it was reasonable for women to be sexually
experienced but only a third of the female interviewees agreed.
- An extract from Sex and Marriage in England Today by
Geoffrey Gorer based on a survey of 2000 people aged
16-45 carried out in 1969
Source E
Masters says that by the end of the sixties ‘people had sex at the slightest excuse after meeting for only ten minutes’. This seems
rather unlikely given what studies said about their behaviour just a few years before… If wild abandoned sexual relations suddenly
became the norm, why did marriage reach such unprecedented levels of popularity during the sixties.
- An extract from White Heat: A History of Britian in the Swinging Sixties by the historian Dominic Sandbrook,
published 2006. Sandbrook is a historian at Oxford University
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Source A
A worker at Butlin’s Holiday Camp: I was sickened the
sex was so totally available
B An actor in his early 20s: The chicks are so cool about
sex. At a party you can come up to a girl and say within a
couple of minutes of meeting her ‘How about coming back to
my place?’ There’ll be no messing about. If she likes you she
says ‘sure, lets go.
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Source B
Teenagers in the sixties were the first generation since
the war to decide that the mysteries of sex should be
explored and discoveries made for the sheer fun of it.
People had sex at the slightest excuse after meeting for
only ten minutes. Sexual partners were snapped up and
discarded without ceremony, provided that they had the
newly available contraceptive in their pocket or
handbag.
-An extract from The Swinging Sixties by Brian
Masters, published in 1985. Masters is a
journalist and a writer
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Source C
Most teenagers were still virgins at nineteen, Only one in
three boys and one in six girls had ever had sex. When
contrasted with the recurring outcry about teenage
immorality, these figures seem low. For younger
teenagers, sexual experience of sex with a steady partner.
These results suggest that promiscuity, although it exists,
is not a prominent feature of teenage sexual behaviour.
- An Extract from The Sexual Behaviour of Young
People by Michael Schofield published in 1965. It
was based on a survey of 2000 young people
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Source D
Among the married interviewees, one in four men and two in
three women had been virgins on their wedding day, figures
that were not radically different from those for earlier periods.
The importance of virginity to both sexes was ‘remarkably
high’, but attitudes to pre-marital experience have relaxed
since 1950… Half the men thought that it was reasonable for
women to be sexually experienced but only a third of the
female interviewees agreed.
- An extract from Sex and Marriage in England Today
by Geoffrey Gorer based on a survey of 2000 people
aged 16-45 carried out in 1969
There was a Sexual Revolution in the Sixties, using the sources and your own knowledge
Do you agree? Assessment
Source E
Masters says that by the end of the sixties ‘people had sex at the
slightest excuse after meeting for only ten minutes’. This seems
rather unlikely given what studies said about their behaviour just
a few years before… If wild abandoned sexual relations suddenly
became the norm, why did marriage reach such unprecedented
levels of popularity during the sixties.
- An extract from White Heat: A History of Britian in
the Swinging Sixties by the historian Dominic
Sandbrook, published 2006. Sandbrook is a historian at
Oxford University
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did Education change?
By the end of the song
Note three changes that have taken
place in education in your life time
Objectives
 To investigate the
changes to education in
the 1960s
To evaluate how much
these changes effected the
lives of teenagers.
To revisit the topic and
complete a summary
diagram
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhgE5bfcFTU
Another brick in the wall
Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did Education change?
Before 1964 all students sat an exam at 11years old. The 11+. This decided
which type of school they would go to.
 Grammar Schools , very academic and seen as good
 Secondary Technical Schools, meant to be vocational but very few ever
built.
 Secondary Modern Schools, seen as less academic and less good
After 1964 this changed to one type of school for all
THE COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL
In Paris come up with two advantages and two disadvantages of this change
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s
How did Education change?
New schools, New Universities.
A better education?
Using pages 494/5
Complete the following table
Level of
education
Problem?
Solution
Problem
solved?
School
University
How far do you believe the changes in education
changed teenagers in the sixties?
Support with reference to at least one source
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?
Summary of changes in the lives of Teenagers
Using the textbook,
find a source to
support each change
and add it to the
diagram
AttitudesSociety generally was becoming more liberal and this was shown in new
laws. A new Obscene Publications Act in 1959 meant that books with
sexual content such as Lady Chatterley’s lover could be published
without prosecution. The death penalty for murder was abolished in
1957
American InfluenceThis was particularly true of the media
industries that were so important in defining
youth culture. American films, American
comics and American television were very
influential.
TelevisionIn the 1950s and 1960s TV moved from
nowhere to the number one form of
entertainment and the most important way
of communicating ideas. As you saw from
page 489, TV spread ideas about style and
culture that was never possible before
Why did life for
teenagers
change during
the 1960s
ConsumerismThese generations in Britain had grown up
with little money and fearful of poverty. This
was the first generation that devoted itself
so entirely to large-scale consumerism.
Business people saw this and built large
businesses around selling goods to young
consumers.
Welfare stateThe teenagers were the first generation to
grow up in the era of the Welfare State and
the NHS. Most teenagers were healthier
than any generation which had gone before
them. They were also better educated and
this affected the way they saw the world.
AffluenceThe figures on page 448 show how well the
British economy was performing. There was
no shortage of jobs. When people today are
interviewed about their memories of the
1960s one of the most common points they
make is how easy it was to get a job. Even if
you walked out of one job you could easily
get another one.
The changing role of women, 1950 -75.
Review and organise your files
1) Make sure all your work is in order and titled
2) What do you consider to be the three most important facts
to remember?
3) What single point surprised you the most?
4) What question do you still have to ask?
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Depth Study – How far did British Society change 1939-75?