This course examines the political, social, and cultural history of one of the most important decades in the twentieth century: the sixties. It adopts global perspectives to ask how and why the sixties mattered in the development of the modern world. A diverse range of themes may be covered, from the political controversies stirred up by the Vietnam War, decolonisation in Africa, Mao's cultural revolution, the Cuban missile crisis, and the upheavals of 1968 to the social changes occasioned by the introduction of the birth control pill, the rise of The Beatles, and the emergence of television. (First offering - Fall 2011)