Description: Twentieth Century Advice Literature brings together more than 150,000 pages of rare material to provide a reflection on historical American attitudes towards race, citizenship, education, work, sex, gender roles, life cycles, family, and religion. Alexander Street Press’s rich collection of popular culture documents makes available traditionally published items, including how-to books and guides; professional and employee manuals; society publications, among them sorority and fraternity pledge manuals and Boy Scout and Girl Scout manuals; textbooks discussing home economics, health and hygiene, and sex education; teacher-training and course manuals; commercial literature; and government instruction manuals for various workplaces and industries. And because much of the content was distributed by organizations only to their members without being cataloged, more than a third of the materials in the database have never before been seen in the academic sphere. The advice publications within the collection serve as a lens through which to study the evolving culture. Materials provide direct and often entertaining evidence of how society grappled with issues such as war, technology, education, leisure, consumerism, and class and race relations. In plain language accessible to all, advice literature gives detailed accounts of how people conformed, or failed to conform, to societal expectations of the time.

Concurrent Users: unlimited

Other info: always proxy off-campus, provides full text

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