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”.
历史学家可能是一帮自命不凡的家伙。他们会孜孜不倦地告诉你，十年总结不过是为了便于回顾；而任何概括其主要特征的说法，都可能立刻被同样合理的对立的说法所推翻。20世纪50年代？保守党人志得意满的年代，也是愤青的年代。20世纪60年代呢？SuperMac和GannexMac（指哈罗德•麦克米伦和哈罗德•威尔逊两位英国首相，SuperMac是麦克米伦的绰号，Gannex则是一种防水布，威尔逊穿过这种布做的雨衣）；迷你裙和长大衣；奎因特和碧芭（两个时尚品牌）。但是，在英国的历史撰述中，铭刻一个十年的记忆影子的习俗，至少可追溯到19世纪的“饥饿的四十年代”，当时发生了爱尔兰饥荒和宪章运动。艰难时期尤其容易被归纳为某一个十年的特征。没有人把之后那个比较宁静的十年（除了一、两场克里米亚战争外）称为“祥和的五十年代”。