Historians can be a smug lot. They will never tire of telling you that decade- upsumming is just a retro-convenience; that any generalisations about its defining characteristics can be instantly undone by equally valid counter-generalisations. The 1950s? Tory complacency but also angry young men. The 1960s? Harold SuperMac and Harold GannexMac; mini and maxi; Quant and Biba. But the habit of imprinting a shape on the memory of a decade goes back in British historical writing at least to chronicles of the “Hungry Forties” of the 19th century: the years of Irish famine and Chartist riots. Bad times, especially, may have come in decimal blocks. No one called the next, more serene, decade (give or take a Crimean war or two) the “Fair Fifties”.
歷史學家可能是一幫自命不凡的傢伙。他們會孜孜不倦地告訴你，十年總結不過是爲了便於回顧；而任何概括其主要特徵的說法，都可能立刻被同樣合理的對立的說法所推翻。20世紀50年代？保守黨人志得意滿的年代，也是憤青的年代。20世紀60年代呢？SuperMac和GannexMac（指哈羅德•麥克米倫和哈羅德•威爾遜兩位英國首相，SuperMac是麥克米倫的綽號，Gannex則是一種防水布，威爾遜穿過這種布做的雨衣）；迷你裙和長大衣；奎因特和碧芭（兩個時尚品牌）。但是，在英國的歷史撰述中，銘刻一個十年的記憶影子的習俗，至少可追溯到19世紀的「飢餓的四十年代」，當時發生了愛爾蘭饑荒和憲章運動。艱難時期尤其容易被歸納爲某一個十年的特徵。沒有人把之後那個比較寧靜的十年（除了一、兩場克里米亞戰爭外）稱爲「祥和的五十年代」。