Hello,
I was wondering if anyone can recommend me sources that dive into the culture/society of American during the mid-20th century. I've already checked the book list, but from the summaries I feel as though they dive too much into the political context; something that I am not looking for (since I'm studying a specific novel in school).
Thanks
I think you'd do well to start with a classic (and still considered quite authoritative) take on the mid-century changes, Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier. It's a great read, almost breezy by academic standards, and it's really quite good.
Others I'd strongly recommend:
Arnie Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto
Tom Sugrue Origins of the Urban Crisis
Rick Fried The Russians are Coming!, The Russians are Coming!
There are oodles more. If you could be a bit more specific re time, place, and context, there may well be a perfect book out there.
The recent book The Third Coast, by Thomas Dyja, focuses on changing art and cultural forces in Chicago in the immediate postwar years. If that's overly focused, you may find a general history like David Halberstam's The Fifties useful.
A very interesting way to look at the past is through "histories" of the time: yearbooks produced annually by World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica as supplements to their multivolume encyclopedias. Simon & Schuster published photographic annuals called Year and the Associated Press published annuals called The World in 19__. It's enlightening to see what the editors at the time thought was the most significant news.