The Way We Were: Britain at the Start of the Seventies

Historian Dominic Sandbrook looks back at an era that profoundly shaped our present - one of strikes, bombs and blackouts, but also creativity, energy and revolution

[@markokrunic3887]

The 1970s were a time of crisis,national emergencies,blackouts and petrol shortages,but also had the best cinema,best music,best TV,best sport,the best looking women and the most flamboyant fashions! None of the dreary,somnolent uniformity of today!It was a wonderful.giddy,infuriatingly contradictory but uniquely exciting and turbulent decade and despite everything I wouldn't have a changed a thing!

[@MichaelLantz]

I heard that Robin Askwith was the ultimate Porn Star of the 1970's

[@ajpadgett2301]

Robin Askwith did a series of films called “confessions of a .....”. They were on general release and were saucy as opposed to porn.

[@zeddeka]

What you're describing there isn't the seventies - you're describing being young. Pretty much everybody who ever lived who's got older has described the era they were young in in that way. All that is happened is that you were looking at the 70s through the giddy, naive eyes of a young person and you're looking at the world now through the sober eyes of an adult who's had to grow up and accept responsibility.

[@angelacooper2661]

In my case, the seventies were my formative years from birth to nine. The early part of the decade I would have been too young to understand or remember what was going on. So I see the period through the eyes of a young child (Play School, Play Away, infant and junior school, my toys). The blackouts I only remember as part of a kid's game, walking around in the dark and thinking it was fun!

[@mefinlay1780]

Hell yea

[@mefinlay1780]

This sparked a memory .. think it was 73 or 4 .. wevlived in a tythe cottage and we got indoor plumbing , a bedroom was halved and we had an indoor toilet ,a bath and sink .. all to a soakaway .. we got posh that day

[@disoriented1]

In the central U.S. in the 70s, I would visit my grandparents in the country..about 40 miles from a fairly sizeable city..Kansas City, Missouri. They had no running water...only what we called an 'outhouse' for a privy and a hand pump for water in the house from a cistern (water well). Their heat was from a propane gas tank and no air conditioning at all. (I understand in the U.K. air conditioning is not always necessary nor universal, but as a native of this area, i would gladly reduce food consumption in our summers to pay for air conditioning..(When it is 95F with 70 percent humidity...no one is hungry anyway!)

[@SSCFPA]

Thanks. I can highly recommend Sandbrook's books, 'State Of Emergency' which covers the Heath years being his best yet.

[@basehead617]

I'm an American but I just finished his first book in the series (Never Had It So Good) and was amazed by it! Just started White Heat, and looking forward to all the rest. It'll be another 10 years of books before he gets to the end of the 20th century!

[@disoriented1]

In the U.S., I was age 10 in 1974...I recall the gasoline or petrol crisis of '73, when the entire West suffered the consequences of U.S. foreign policy. I do not however, recall such thing as rolling electric blackouts..blackouts in my area of the U.S. only occurred due to severe weather (blizzards, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms)...never because of strikes. I am sure the U.K. was much more accepting of strikes than in the U.S. I recall strikes when I was young in the 70s and 80s...but it was usually auto workers who earned more per hour than people with master's degrees..so there was not much sympathy..especially when strikes caused companies to fail. And in the U.S., it was other workers who did not show sympathy. When I was young, I always believed if someone is striking, that is their right, but it is also a right of someone to work in their place if they so choose...a 'scab'. My father was working class until he owned his own business. I have much more formal education than my father...but he had much more control of his own life and that of his family back in the day.

[@mrbeancounter90]

I think this is very good. His aim to to revisit opinions on history, and he does that. The popular idea of "60's good, 70's bad" is reviewed by looking at absolute improvements in living standards. The idea that the entire '60's population was living in a flat off the Kings Road and having sex in between concerts is a myth (broadcast repeatedly by prominent media voices who were). 1960's population had a hard economic fight. Their emotional reference point was the previous decade so anything was better than that decade where rationing and war damage still existed. But still the technology of the 1970's improved living standards for "most" people.

[@johnking5174]

In December 1973 the government announced measures to conserve electricity. This would involved BBC and ITV television - they were forced to end their broadcasting day on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV at 10.30pm to save electricity. Radio was spared this, and they carried on as usual, as radio broadcasting cost less. The restrictions commenced on Monday 17th December 1973 however from Christmas Eve 24th December 1973 until Friday 4th January 1974 the restrictions were lifted to bring some Christmas joy.

[@angelacooper2661]

The power cuts formed my earliest memory of walking down in my Granny's hallway in the dark and thinking it was a game. I was just three and a half during the period you mention, too young to understand politics and current events!

[@johnking5174]

@@angelacooper2661 What a weird system the British had back then, where power supplies could be brought down by a strike. If that happened in Los Angeles, there would be riots.

[@MrJeremyWeeks]

I left England for Canada in 1974. 'Nuff said.

[@angelacooper2661]

I spent my first nine years during that decade and am four years older than Sandbrook. Too young to remember the first part of it (Princess Anne married when I was just three and Play School age). Difficult to imagine life back then as an adult - when you are a small child at the time!

[@hosephanerothe1440]

Angel Delight is and always will be a gourmet dessert !

[@lemmy6782]

Loved the 70s it was hard and grim but wish I could go bk to them

[@zeddeka]

What you're basically saying there is "I want to be young again". Every generation who ever lived says that about the time they were young

[@lemmy6782]

@@zeddeka I'd go back the age I am now . Mind you I'd probably be a whining old bastard if I did all them long haired hippies bring bk national service they need a wash etc you know how it goes .

[@angelacooper2661]

I WAS young then - a child in their formative years, born at the start of the decade. Difficult for me to concur with the hard and grim as the early part of the period I wouldn't understand or remember what was going on. My environment consisted of Play School, Play Away, infant and then junior school and also my toys!

[@TheEsrail]

Yeah, It was relaxing and fun to listen such times ...

[@InfiniteNarwhal]

Thanks! That was very interesting.

[@PeppyOoze]

Sandbrook puts the postmodern world, which I feel almost began in 1974, into context here. Wasn't Thatcher made Tory leader in 74?

[@SuperBartles]

Peppy Ooze 1975 I think

[@zeddeka]

75

[@ajpadgett2301]

No, Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 general election. It was my first time voting.

[@markzee6331]

@@ajpadgett2301 Leader, not PM!

[@jonathannowak3649]

The Maxi dresses are back! Someone get in touch with her and tell her they are back!

[@daikayll1897]

You talk like you remember it well. You cannot be old enough.

[@ajpadgett2301]

He said he was conceived during the 3 day week!

[@daikayll1897]

@@ajpadgett2301 Right. Thankyou. Somy suspicions were correct. Must read his book.

[@normanby100]

I remember it well. Good riddance to the 70's.

[@cdub5033]

Now I want some Fish Fingers.

[@antoniod]

My Grandfather argued that the dole caused Britain's economy to collapse. He loved reductionist arguments.

[@zeddeka]

Yup. Britain's economy has been in steep decline since the 1800s. A mixture of very poor levels of education and training, chronic underinvestment and class conflict