American Popular Culture

• Reference Works
  
• Appropriate Journal Indexes
  
• Selected Internet Resources
  
• Finding Scholarly Book Reviews in History
  

Reference Works

Handbook of American Popular Culture / Ref E 69.1 H2643 1989
American Popular Culture: A Guide to the Reference Literature / Ref E 169.1 H64 1995
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture / Ref E 169.1 S764 2000
Encyclopedia of American Social History / Ref HN 57 E58 1993
Everyday Life: American Social History / REF HN 57 E93 1998
Guide to United States Popular Culture / REF E 169.1 D399 2001

There are a number of other titles in the library's reference collection that would be useful to students researching particular aspects of American popular culture, such as encyclopedias of films, or of particular decades or events in American history, as well as a variety of social issues.

Appropriate Journal Indexes

The library has several journal indexes available. The best index for you will depend on your topic. Some of the general indexes that are likely to be relevant are:

• America: History & Life
  
• Sociofile
  

The Libraries also subscribe to a number of electronic journal packages. Those of most use to you for this project are:

• JSTOR (titles from volume 1 until about 5 years ago)
  
• Project MUSE (current humanities journals)
  

If you would like to get a feel for current topics of discussion in the field or to see what scholarly articles and reviews look like, browse current issues of these journals:

• Journal of American History (paper issues in Camden, also online)
  
• American Historical Review (paper issues in Camden, also online)
  
• Reviews in American History (paper issues in Camden, also online)
  
• Journal of Popular Culture (paper issues in Camden, also online)
  
• Journal of American Culture (no paper issues in Camden, but online)
  

Selected Internet Resources

Popular Culture Association of America (http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~pcaaca/popindex.html)
Popular Culture Library (BGSU) (http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/pcl.html)

Finding Scholarly Book Reviews in History

Using General Book Review Indexes (print)

The library has both Book Review Digest (BRD) and Book Review Index (BRI). BRD provides excerpts from reviews, and there is a cumulative 1902-1974 index. BRI indexes many more publications but does not provide excerpts. These indexes are only available in print at our library and they index all types of publications. Some hints on using them and on evaluating the reviews are:

• look items up by author, or by title if there is no author
  
• if you are unsure of the author's name, use the title index in the back of each volume
  
• look in the year the book was published and in the next 2 years; scholarly book reviews are often slow to appear in print
  
• don't guess at the periodical title abbreviations; look at the key in the front of each volume
  
• look at the length of the review; scholarly reviews are longer than other kinds of reviews
  
• look closely at the title of the periodical; JAH (Journal of American History) is more scholarly than NYTBR (New York Times Book Review)
  

Using Subject Specific Journal Indexes

Use the indexes or electronic journal packages listed above for finding scholarly journal articles; scholarly book reviews will be indexed as well, simply search on the book title or author.

Internet Resources

Rutgers University Libraries British and American History Guides (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/reference.shtml)