Twentieth-Century U.S. Cultural, Intellectual, Social, and Political Reading List

This list includes the books I am reading for comprehensive exams for my Ph.D. in twentieth-century U.S. history. My three fields are cultural and intellectual history, social and political history, and film history. Since these fields overlap with each other, I have organized the list into rough thematic and chronological categories. Essentially, this list should broadly cover the ideas, music, art, politics, and social movements within the U.S. during the twentieth century.

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Explaining the Seventies Malaise through “F Is for Family”

F Is for Family follows the Murpheys, a fictional working-class suburban family based loosely off the life of comedian Bill Burr. While the setting and the characters on the show are fictional, they represent actual historical moments, distinguishing the show as unique for its kind by depicting the tangible struggles and sensibilities of the 1970s. Since the Seventies have often been remembered as an uneventful decade, TV shows such as F Is for Family helps to correct the historical memory of this tumultuous decade through the accessible medium of popular culture.

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