Book excerpt: In this compelling book, Gerard DeGroot overturns the generally held belief that the sixties was a time of peace, love and understanding, of power to the people, freedom and new dawns. In fact, as he reveals, the decade was as much marked by mindless mayhem, shallow commercialism and unbridled cruelty as it was by wearing flowers in your hair and embracing your fellow man. How many of us, reflecting on those times, think about Sharpeville, the Gaza Strip, Vatican II, Biafra, Jakarta or the Cultural Revolution? Far from being a decade of opening doors, DeGroot argues convincingly that it was, rather, a decade in which they were slammed firmly shut, in which revolution was never on the cards, a time where chauvinism and cynicism got the better of hope and tolerance. Thought-provoking, persuasive and never less than entertaining, De Groot offers readers the Sixties unplugged, free of the amplifiers and filters that blur our memories and muddy our ability to see the past clearly.