The Fifties Research Guide
Reference Desk (413) 774-1509	Research Guides | Library Home

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Selected Reference Sources

Use reference sources to choose a topic, understand terminology, locate background information, and identify good search terms.

• American Decades: 1950-1959, R 973.9 A513de, v.6
• American Decades: Primary Sources: 1950-1959, R 973.9 A512dp, v.6
• The American Years: a Chronology of United States History, R 973 G878am
• Chronicle of America, R 973 C557
• American Chronicle, R 973.91 G663am
• Day by Day: the Fifties, R 909.825 M572d
• The Fifties in America R 973.92 F469
• Encyclopedia of American History: Postwar United States, 1946 to 1968, v.9, R 973.03 M268en
• Historical Dictionary of the 1950's, R 973.921 O52h
• Britannica Book of the Year, R 032 E56b
• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, R 973.9 S143 (also available electronically through the Gale Virtual Reference Library)
• Some of the research databases listed below also include reference sources (dictionaries and encyclopedias).

Finding Books in the Online Catalog

Books accumulate and synthesize information from various sources. Use history books (900's) on the fifties to identify a topic of interest and locate background information.

The term "fifties" is not a subject heading. Search the Online Catalog by subject for these recommended subject headings to find information on the 1950's:

• United States--History--1945- (1945-1953, 1953-1961)
• United States--Economic conditions--1945-
• United States--Politics and government--1945-1953 (1945-1989, 1953-1961)
• United States--Social life and customs--1945- (1945-1970)
• United States--Civilization--1945- (20th century)

Search tips:

• "Fifties" works as a keyword because it is commonly used in the titles of books or articles, however, keyword searching works best when searching multiple concepts.
• Try a keyword search like: women and (fifties or 1950's or 20th century)
• After a topic from the fifties has been identified, search that topic as a subject in the catalog to identify titles in other areas of the collection (political science, economics, sociology, etc.).
• If your topic has multiple concepts, try a keyword search. See Boolean Logic for more information on constructing keyword searches and using Boolean operators.
• Use the bibliographies or reference lists in the books you find to identify other books and articles on the topic.

Finding Periodical Articles

The library owns long runs of popular periodicals from the fifties such as Life, Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times. These articles, published at the time, are primary documents. Use an index or database, such as Readers Guide Retrospective, to identify articles on a subject from the fifties.

Use the New York Times Index or the Historical Newspapers database to identify newspaper articles from the 1950's on a subject. Articles from various newspapers are available in the database. The library also owns the New York Times on microfilm.

Use Periodicals & E-Journals to determine where periodicals are located in the library and the years that the library owns and whether articles are available in the research databases. If they are, links are provided.

Databases provide citations for periodical articles and the full text of some articles in electronic format. Some databases also provide the full text of articles from reference sources.

History Research Databases
(Go to DA Orgs/Library to access the databases from a computer located off-campus)

• SIRS Decades (full text)
  Contains primary sources from the 20th century and reference source content organized into topics pertaining to American history, culture, and daily life
• American History Online (full text)
  Provides comprehensive coverage of the history of America and its people--includes biographies, primary sources, timelines, images, maps and charts
• History Reference Center (full text)
  Contains the full text of over 750 historical encyclopedias and other non-fiction books and at least 60 leading history periodicals--includes over 55,000 historical documents, plus photos, maps, film, and video
• History Study Center (full text)
  Consists of digitized primary and secondary sources, reference sources, historical images, video clips, and links to reliable web sites
• Historical Newspapers (and American Periodicals Series) (full text)
  Provides digitized images of the following newspapers published in the fifties:
  Hartford Courant (1764-1984)
  Chicago Tribune (1849-1986)
  The New York Times (1851-2005)
  The Altanta Constitution (1868-1939)
  The Boston Globe (1872-1925)
  The Washington Post (1877-1992)
  Los Angeles Times (1881-1986)
  The Wall Street Journal (1889-1991)
  The Christian Science Monitor (1908-1995)
• Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)(citations only)
  Indexes the most popular general interest periodicals published in the U.S.--use Periodicals & E-Journals to determine whether the library owns the publications cited
• Black Thought & Culture (full text)
  Includes monographs, speeches, essays, articles, and interviews by leaders within the black community from early times to 1975
• Historic Events of the 20th Century (full text)
  Provides resources on the Civil Rights Movement, including a time line of major events.
• Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000)(full text)
  Includes over 1,500 documents as well as book, film, and website reviews

Other Databases

General databases such as JSTOR and Expanded Academic do not include articles published in the 1950's (primary documents). Use them to locate articles about events that occurred during the period. Articles that look back on events offer a different perspective.

Selected Internet Sites

• American Cultural History: 1950-1959 (Kingswood College)--this site lists books available at the Kingswood College Library--check our catalog by title to determine availability in this library
• WWW-VL: History: USA: 1950-1959--the World Wide Web Virtual Library is an evaluated directory of sites selected by educators and specialists
• Literature and Culture of the American 1950's (U. of PA)--this site supports a class on the 1950's at UPenn
• Presidential Elections: 1952 and 1956 (New York Times)
• Year by Year (a chronology including the 1950's from Infoplease)

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