Do you like research?
Are you fascinated by the way people used to live?
How they talked?
What clothes they had?
How they got places and what was going on in the rest of the country?
I am. I love finding little things here and there that actually happened and filing it away in my brain or elsewhere to use for later.
But perhaps it would be easier if I had a book. Or two. Or three.
You think so too?
When I was doing my research for “Home Fires of the Great War” I was having trouble. There were plenty of books about the 1940s, but what about farther back? Books about the Great Depression weren’t much help either because things had changed so much. A trip to the library brought a few books to the light that were exactly what I needed. But, not only were they perfect for WWI research, they covered almost the entire 1900s! Though I live minutes away from the library, I wanted the books at home because the library would be closed when I would be writing. (And I wasn’t about to head over there in my pajamas!)
After a little searching, I found them.
If you are looking for good research books to help you with what life was really like, check these out. Your library might have them if you’d like to take a look at them first. Sorry, they don’t go before 1900.
The Columbia Chronicles of American Life 1910-1992
by Lois Gordon and Alan Gordon
This is one of my favorite resources when it comes to knowing what books were popular, what music people were listening to, what adds were out, and oh, so much more! There are a few black & white pictures in this book, but it’s mostly information. Sometimes I get very distracted reading all the interesting things in here and forget what I was trying to look up. 🙂
(Right now you can get used copies for only a few dollars.)
Chronicle of the 20th Century 1900-1991
This is by far the fattest book on my bookshelves being about 3 inches thick! This was a very commonly used research book for “Home Fires” as it is full of actual newspaper articles from every month of every year since 1900! And lots and lots and lots of pictures. Yeah, talk about information overload. But very fascinating if you love history and real events. However, I am going to give a disclaimer–I would NOT give this book to any guy unless a sister or mother went through it first with a black sharpie. It might depend some of your views of modesty, but I know there are at least some pictures in this book that should never have been taken to begin with. So be forewarned.
(Right now you can get it for only a few dollars used.)
America’s Century Year by Year from 1900-2000
A Dorling Kindersley book
This book is quite similar to the one above only much smaller and has different articles. It can be very helpful to look up the same time in different books because you might find new information. Again, a word of caution–This book also has photo problems so, if you have brothers, be sure you look through it first with a black sharpie.
(Right now you can get this book for $.01 plus shipping.)
There are some other research books that I’ve used and liked for different things, but these three are probably the most used of my collection. If you’re interested, I can tell you about some of the others another time.
So, what research books do you use? Do you like books or the internet best for research? Are you planning on getting any of these books to add to your research shelf?
Thank you, Rebekah. I could find all of the books at other libraries, so I can rent them out. Thanks for the suggestions. I could not find the second one, however. Do you own it? We should get together soon.
Amy, Yes, I own all these books. And we should get together to talk about writing. 🙂