Support Us
Five Books
 
Search
MENUMENU
  • Nonfiction
        • Art
          • Architecture
          • Art History
          • Design & Illustration
          • Fashion & Style
          • Modern and Contemporary Art
          • Photography
        • Business Books
          • How to Invest
          • Leadership
          • Marketing
        • Economics
          • Behavioural Economics
          • Development Economics
          • Economic History
          • Finance
          • Financial Crisis
          • Globalization Books
          • World Economies
        • Environmental Books
          • Climate Change Books
          • Environmental Ethics
        • Food & Cooking
          • The Best Cookbooks
          • Food & History of Food
          • Wine & Drinks
        • Health & Lifestyle
          • Death & Dying
          • Education
          • Family & Relationships
          • Happiness
          • Sex & Sexuality
        • History Books
          • American History
          • Ancient History (up to 500)
          • Modern History (1800-1945)
          • History of Science
          • Historical Figures
          • Military History
        • Language
          • English Grammar & Usage
          • Books for Learning Languages
          • Linguistics
        • Law
        • Literary Nonfiction
          • Best Biographies
          • Essays
          • Memoir
          • Artists' Biographies
          • Travel
          • True Crime
        • Music & Drama
          • Classical Music & Opera
          • Film & Cinema
          • Music
          • Theatre
        • Nature
          • The Prehistoric World
          • The Earth
          • Plants, Trees & Flowers
        • Philosophy Books
          • Ancient Philosophy
          • Ethics & Moral Philosophy
          • Great Philosophers
          • Social & Political Philosophy
        • Politics & Society
          • War
          • Feminism
          • Foreign Policy & International Relations
          • Human Rights
          • Terrorism
        • Psychology
          • Mental Health
          • Neuroscience
          • Psychoanalysis
          • Psychology Research
          • Self Help
        • Religion
          • Best Atheist Books
          • Buddhism
          • Christian
          • Islamic
          • Jewish
          • Religious History Books
        • Science
          • Astronomy
          • Biology
          • Chemistry
          • Geoscience
          • Maths & Statistics
          • Popular Science
          • Physics Books
        • Sports, Games & Hobbies
          • Football (Soccer)
          • Gardening
          • Hobbies
          • Sport & Sporting Culture
        • Technology
          • Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
          • Computing
          • Digital Age
          • History of Technology
          • Internet
  • Fiction & Literature
        • Classic English Literature
        • American Literature
        • World Literature
        • Literary Criticism
        • Literary Figures
        • Classical Studies
        • Contemporary Fiction
          • NEW Fiction
        • Poetry
        • Memoir
        • Comics & Graphic Novels
        • Fairy Tales & Mythology
        • Historical Fiction
        • Horror
        • Humour
        • Crime Novels
        • Science Fiction
        • Short Stories
        • Romance
        • Thrillers (Books)
        • Mystery
        • Fantasy
  • World
        • Africa
          • Egypt
          • Ghana
          • Nigeria
          • Rwanda
          • South Africa
          • Zimbabwe
        • Americas
          • Latin America
            • Argentina
            • Brazil
            • Caribbean
            • Chile
            • Cuba
            • Mexico
          • United States
          • Canada
        • Arctic & Antarctica
        • Asia
          • Afghanistan
          • Bangladesh
          • Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
          • China
          • India
          • Japan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Korea
          • Pakistan
          • Sri Lanka
          • Singapore
          • Vietnam
        • Australia
        • Europe
          • Belgium
          • Britain
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Ireland
          • Italy
          • Netherlands
          • Norway
          • Spain
          • Ukraine
        • Middle East
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Israel
          • Syria
          • Turkey
          • Yemen
        • Russia & FSU
          • Azerbaijan
          • Georgia
          • Russia
  • Kids
        • Kids Recommend Books for Kids
        • High School Teachers Recommendations
        • Novels & Novelists
        • Ages Baby-2
        • Ages 3-5
        • Ages 6-8
        • Ages 9-12
        • Books for Teens and Young Adults
        • Best Kids Books of 2022
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Audiobooks for Kids
        • Prizewinning Kids' Books
        • Popular Series Books for Kids
        • History
        • Economics
        • Environment
        • Family
        • Science
        • Mental Health
  • Best Books 2022
        • Audiobooks
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Kids' Books of 2022
        • Best Fiction of 2022
          • Historical Fiction
          • Romance
          • Science Fiction
          • Fantasy
          • Mystery
        • Best Nonfiction of 2022
          • History
          • Politics
          • Memoir
  • New Books
        • New Science Books
        • New Climate Books
        • New Psychology Books
        • New Philosophy Books
        • New Math Books
        • New Economics Books
        • New History Books
        • New Physics Books
        • New Memoirs
        • New Biography
        • New Fiction
        • New World Literature
        • New Historical Fiction
  • Audiobooks
    • Actors Read Great Books
    • Best Audiobooks for Kids
    • Books Narrated by Their Authors
    • Best Audiobook Thrillers
    • Best History Audiobooks
  • Book Awards
    • Nobel Literature Prize
    • Booker Prize
    • Baillie Gifford Prize
    • Royal Society (science)
    • Wolfson Prize (history)
    • Walter Scott Prize
    • Arthur C Clarke Prize
    • Pushkin House Prize
    • Audie Awards
  • Experts

The Crown Season 3: History Books about the Period

Season 3 of the Netflix series The Crown takes the story of the British royal family from 1964 until 1976. This was a period of great social and economic change for the United Kingdom and many aspects of national life traditionally associated with the monarchy—empire, patriotism, social hierarchy, Christian values—were undermined, abandoned or called into question.

The 1960s and 1970s witnessed the final rolling up of the British Empire in the West Indies and in Africa and the emergence of a vibrant pop culture, not just in music, but in all the arts, facilitated by the democratic medium of television. It was a golden age of satire and comedy. Deference to conventions and hierarchies of all kinds were deemed passé.

By the late 1960s, the post-war political consensus was breaking down and things only got worse in the 1970s as industrial action, inflation, immigration and broader social issues—sexual equality and sexual liberation most obviously—polarised the country. Despite the radical change, the monarchy appeared to remain above the social revolutions and political chaos raging around it, and largely untouched by the collapse of deference. Some young people may have pogo-ed to the Sex Pistols' mocking “God Save the Queen” in 1977, but millions more of all ages took to the streets that year to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee with unfeigned enthusiasm.

Below is our selection of nonfiction books that give a good sense of the period The Crown, Season 3 is set in. If you're interested in British royalty in general, we also have a collection of interviews with royal experts who discuss books on the British royal family. You can also read our interview with royal biographer Robert Lacey on the Queen.

Surviving Aberfan: the People's Story
Buy now

Surviving Aberfan: the People's Story

The third episode of series three of The Crown opens with the Aberfan disaster of 1966, when a slag heap on a hill above the Welsh mining village collapsed onto a school, killing 116 children and 28 adults.

This book is an oral history in which people from Aberfan tell the story of how the tragedy unfolded and how the community survived the trauma and rebuilt itself.

Read expert recommendations

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
Buy now Listen now

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret

by Craig Brown

Read expert recommendations

“Brown makes Margaret an interesting, complex figure, and he pushes the traditional form of biography by contending with both a life, and the spectacle of a life.It raises fascinating questions about formation of public impressions and somehow in creating this multi-faceted form, is also profoundly empathic.” Read more...

The Best Biographies: the 2019 NBCC Shortlist

Elizabeth Taylor, Biographer

The Queen by Robert Lacey
Buy now

The Queen

by Robert Lacey

In the new series of The Crown, the Queen is seen visiting the Duke of Windsor (as Edward VIII became on his abdication) just a few weeks before his death. Although the series does take some liberties with historical fact, this meeting did take place and the Duke did make considerable efforts to get off his sickbed to greet his niece-monarch as a subject should. This event is described in Robert Lacey's The Queen.

Read expert recommendations

Edward VIII by Frances Donaldson
Buy now

Edward VIII

by Frances Donaldson

This is the definitive biography. France Donaldson’s is the one which best captures the ambiguous spirit of Edward VIII.

 

Read expert recommendations

Estates by Lynsey Hanley
Buy now

Estates

by Lynsey Hanley

Lynsey Hanley, the author of Estates, was brought up on a council estate in the 1960s. Familiar to British citizens and residents but perhaps not to all, council estates are publicly funded housing in the UK for those who can’t afford to buy or rent accommodation privately. After the Second World War, there was a massive increase in the building of council houses. By the end of the 1970s, a third of all housing in the UK was council housing. In Estates, Hanley tells her story of life on the estate and reflects on the successes and failures of council housing as a social experiment. This book tells the story of how the Queen’s poorer subjects lived in the 1960s and 1970s. It's a fascinating and valuable historical testimony.

Read expert recommendations

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
Buy now

The Female Eunuch

by Germaine Greer

A timeless classic, published in 1970, but also a book for its time. The 1960s are seen as a decade of social liberation of all kinds, but women still had plenty to complain about by the end of the decade (the Equal Pay Act only came into law in the UK in the year of publication). Greer does that complaining with humour, outrageousness and anger. Her thesis is that the suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually.  The book became a key text in the feminist movement of the 1970s.

Read expert recommendations

Style Wars by Peter York
Buy now

Style Wars

by Peter York

This book, written by Peter York, the author of the Sloane Ranger Handbook, is based on a series of articles he wrote for Harpers & Queen, the UK glossy magazine, observing the social and cultural scene of the 1970s. It’s a good antidote to the picture most people have of Britain during the decade, of a country inexorably going to the dogs. York paints a picture of a Britain, or at least a London, where cool people in architecture, fashion and pop music were having a great time and where money was not a problem.

Read expert recommendations

Edward Heath by Philip Ziegler
Buy now

Edward Heath

by Philip Ziegler

"Edward Heath became prime minister in 1970, after somewhat unexpectedly winning the general election of that year."

Read expert recommendations

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

Newsletter Contact us Privacy Policy Terms of Service Mastodon Social

© Five Books 2023

Get our newsletter