The 1950's
History 198
Guide to Research and Primary Resources
 
 





ASA, the Lehigh University Online Catalog


Search ASA to locate books, documents, journals, magazines, web resources and other materials in the Lehigh Collection. There is much material available that analyzes the 1950's. A Keyword search Everywhere of the term 1950's will find several interesting items, look in the full record for additional search terms or subjects. Also try specific subject terms such as McCarthy, Joseph, or Rock Music as keyword Subject searches. To identify material as a possible primary source note when it was published, who wrote it or if it contains the following terms in the subject: Diaries, Memoirs, Sources, Personal narratives, Correspondence.
 

Sources for Journal and Newspaper Articles written during the 50's (Primary Resources)


You will NOT find material from the 50's indexed in our electronic Index Databases, most of which only index journals published in the past 30 or fewer years. To find older material use Print Indexes that are located in Linderman and Fairchild-Martindale, as noted below.

Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, located in the Linderman Reading Room in the free standing case on the far left as you enter. This index covers popular journals from the late 18th century through the late 20th century. The volumes are arranged by year and can be searched by name or subject. Try using various terms to search since, for example, the term Rock and Roll was not used to identify what we know as R&R music until late in the 50's. Be creative!

New York Times Index, located in the Fairchild-Martindale Reference area on the first floor, in the Index area. Search by name or subject terms, try a variety of terms to find how your subject was referred to in the 1950's. Microfilm for this newspaper is located on the second floor of the south wing of Fairchild-Martindale Library, arranged by date.

Some of our periodicals from the 1950's available at Lehigh Libraries:
 
America Film(F)
American Mercury Bound in Print(B) Linderman(Lind) 051 A51
Architectural Record F Fairchild-Martindale(FM)
Atlantic Monthly B Lind 051 A881
Business Week F FM
Commonweal F FM
Fortune B FM 650.5 F744
Harper's B Lind 051 H293m
Life B Lind 051 L694
National Geographic B Lind 910.5 N27
Nation F FM
New Republic F FM
Newsweek F FM
Reader's Digest F FM
Saturday Evening Post F FM
Time F FM
Vital Speeches of the Day F FM

 

Suggested databases for recent articles that analyze the 1950's.

Academic Index contains general and scholarly articles, many full text.

America, History and Life, contains citations to scholarly articles in American history.

Academic Universe (LEXIS/NEXIS), covers full text articles from major and regional newspapers in the NEWS, GENERAL NEWS section.

Also look for other subject indexes from our Database list.

Literary Criticism for books written in the 50's

Book Review Digest Located in the Linderman Reading Room in the free standing case to the far right. This index gives citations to book reviews in Journals and Newspapers and has volumes from 1916 through the present. To find the reviews look up the source journal or paper in our online catalog,  ASA .

Contemporary Literary Criticism Print resource that contains articles, biographies and critical reviews of twentieth century works. This set is located in the free standing case to the left of the fireplace in the Linderman Reading Room. Look up author or title in the index in the latest volumes. This is a cumulative set whose volumes have been issued over many years so only the later volume indexes cover the whole set.

Literary Resource Center This database contains full text of articles, some criticism and biographical information on authors and their works including some from the 50's.

Recent discussions of 50's authors and their works may be found in the article indexes already mentioned, Academic Index and Lexis/Nexis (Academic Universe).

Web resources about the 1950's, some scholarly, some fun!


The Literature & Culture of the American 1950's

American Cultural History 1950-1959

Rewind the Fifties

The Fifties Web

 WWW-VL: HISTORY: USA: 1950-1969

Yahoo! Directory U.S. History > 1950s
 
 

To chat with a Librarian live or send a question via email use the link below which also appears on a variety of the library resource web pages


 
 

        Page edited 1/20/03 by Kathe Morrow, Humanities Librarian, kem6, 83041