Research Guides

Newspapers

Sample Subject Headings

Try the subject headings below to find books about the press.

  • African American press -- History
  • American periodicals -- History
  • Anarchism -- Periodicals -- Bibliography
  • Community newspapers -- United States -- History
  • Journalism -- United States -- History
  • Newspapers -- History
  • Press and politics -- United States -- History
  • Radicalism -- Periodicals -- History
  • Right and left (Political science) -- Periodicals -- Bibliography
  • Socialism -- Periodicals -- History

Looking for a Specific Newspaper or Journal?

Background Reading in Gale eBooks

Background Reading on Newspapers and Magazines - Selected Bibliography

Following is a selected bibliography of books on the history of newspapers and magazines in the U.S.  To find additional sources, try a library catalog search using the subject headings in the boxes to the left.  Links will take you to records for the books in CUNY's OneSearch or WorldCat Discovery.

Magazines and the Making of America  The Rise and Fall of Early American Magazine Culture  The Magazine Century: American Magazines Since 1900  Seeking a Voice : Images of Race and Gender in the 19th Century Press  Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them  The African American Newspaper : Voice of Freedom   The Ethnic Press: Shaping the American Dream

Brigham, Clarence S. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820: Including Additions and Corrections, 1961. Hamden [Connecticut: Archon Books, 1962.

Danky, James Philip, and Maureen E. Hady. African-American Newspapers and Periodicals : a National Bibliography. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Gardner, Jared. The Rise and Fall of Early American Magazine Culture. University of Illinois Press, 2012.

Haveman, Heather A. Magazines and the Making of America: Modernization, Community, and Print Culture, 1741-1860. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1957. The five volume set is available both in print at the Mina Rees Library and online. See the OneSearch catalog record for details.Volume V contains a cumulative index.

Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism: A History, 1690-1960. 3d ed. New York: Macmillan, 1962.

Rhodes, Leara. The Ethnic Press: Shaping the American Dream. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

Risley, Ford. Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle against Slavery. Visions of the American Press. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2008.

Rooks, Noliwe M. Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Also available as a print book. 

Sachsman, David B., Rushing, S. Kittrell, and Morris, Roy. Seeking a Voice : Images of Race and Gender in the 19th Century Press. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2009.

Salmon, Lucy Maynard. The Newspaper and the Historian. New York: Octagon Books, 1976. E-book available to borrow in the Internet Archive.

Scher, Abby, et al. Many Voices, One City: The IPA Guide to the Ethnic Press of New York City. Independent Press Association, 2001.

Shaw, Matthew J. An Inky Business : A History of Newspapers from the English Civil Wars to the American Civil War. London: Reaktion Books, Limited, 2021.

Susca, Margot. Hedged : How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2023.

Sumner, David E. The Magazine Century: American Magazines Since 1900. Mediating American History; v. 9. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

Vincent, Theodore G., ed. Voices of a Black Nation : Political Journalism in the Harlem Renaissance. Trenton, N.J: Africa World Press, 1990.

Washburn, Patrick Scott., and Medill School of Journalism. The African American Newspaper : Voice of Freedom. Visions of the American Press. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006.

Welky, David. Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression. University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Background Reading on The Alternative Press -- Selected Bibliography

Following is a selected bibliography of books on the alternative press.  To find additional sources, try a library catalog search using the subject headings in the box to the left.  Links will take you to records for the books in CUNY's OneSearch or WorldCat Discovery.

Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in AmericaVoices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in AmericaPeople's Movements, People's Press: The Journalism of Social Justice MovementsProtest on the Page : Essays on Print and the Culture of Dissent since 1865Anarchist Periodicals in English Published in the United States (1833-1955): An Annotated GuideBlack, White, and Red All Over: A Cultural History of the Radical Press in Its Heyday, 1900–1917

Baughman, et al. Protest on the Page : Essays on Print and the Culture of Dissent since 1865. 2015. Also available in print.

Conlin, Joseph Robert. The American Radical Press, 1880-1960. Greenwood Press, 1974.

Danky, J. P., & Wiegand, W. A. (1998). Print culture in a Diverse America. University of Illinois Press. (E-book available to borrow from the Internet Archive.)

Duncan, Brad. Finally Got the News: The Printed Legacy of the U.S. Radical Left, 1970-1979. Brooklyn, NY: Common Notions, 2017.

Glessing, Robert J. The Underground Press in America. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1970.

Hoerder, Dirk., and Harzig, Christiane. The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s : An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1987.

Kaplan, Geoff. Power to the People: The Graphic Design of the Radical Press and the Rise of the Counter-Culture, 1964-1974. 2013.

Kessler, Lauren. The Dissident Press: Alternative Journalism in American History. Sage Publications, 1984.

Lewis, Roger. Outlaws of America; the Underground Press and Its Context. London: Heinrich Hanau, 1972. (E-book available to borrow from the Internet Archive.)

Longa, Ernesto A. Anarchist Periodicals in English Published in the United States (1833-1955): An Annotated Guide. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Lumsden, Linda J. Black, White, and Red All Over: A Cultural History of the Radical Press in Its Heyday, 1900–1917. The Kent State University Press, 2014.

McMillian, John Campbell. Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Ostertag, Bob. People's Movements, People's Press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements. Beacon Press, 2006.

Phillips, Peter. Project Censored Guide to Independent Media and Activism. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003.

Skidmore, Gail., et al. From Radical Left to Extreme Right: A Bibliography of Current Periodicals of Protest, Controversy, Advocacy, or Dissent, with Dispassionate Content-Summaries to Guide Librarians and Other Educators. 3rd ed., completely rev. / by Gail Skidmore and Theodore Jurgen Spahn.. ed., Scarecrow Press, 1987.

Streitmatter, Rodger. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. Columbia University Press, 2001.

Wachsberger, Ken, Abe Peck, William M. (William Moses) Kunstler, and Sanford Berman. Voices from the Underground. Tempe, Ariz: Mica Press, 1993.

Wilcox, Laird M. Guide to the American Left: Directory and Bibliography. Editorial Research Service, 1986.

Wilcox, Laird M. Guide to the American Right: Directory and Bibliography. Editorial Research Service, 1986.