Using the annual hardcover best seller lists from 'The Bookman' and then 'Publishers Weekly,' examines twentieth-century American social, cultural, and historical trends through the lens of popular literature. (view table of contents)

Product Description: The Publishers Weekly bestseller list started on May 3, 1919; the New York Times Book Review list began on October 6, 1935. Though the lists do not always reflect the best in American publishing, they do offer a myriad of insights into popular culture...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Lists hundreds of books that have made the famous list, and offers facts about the publishing industry, authors, and the list itself

Product Description: With reference to the works of contemporary fiction writers such as Judith Krantz and Barbara Taylor Bradford, Resa Dudovitz presents an analysis of women's best-sellers and the present-day myth of the superwoman.

Product Description: In the twentieth century Marxism challenged laissez-faire economics, psychoanalysis reinterpreted the processes of thought, and evolution discredited the idea of creation. These changes profoundly affected American Protestantism. Ferré examines the belief system that underlies what middle-class Protestants chose to read...read more

Product Description: Book by Beacham, Walton

Product Description: William Darby gives us a comprehensive and (mostly) sympathetic reading of over fifty novels and a few movies from the 1950s. He examines titles such as Mandingo, The Invisible Man, I the Jury, Catcher in the Rye, Battle Cry, The Caine Mutiny, The Revolt of Mamie Stover, The Manchurian Candidate, Hawaii, The Bramble Bush, Peyton Place, Ten North Frederick, A Stone for Danny Fisher, The Bad Seed, Not as a Stranger, The Blackboard Jungle, From Here to Eternity, and Compulsion...read more

Analyzes the best-sellers published between 1945 and 1975 to determine how American dreams of success have changed, and discusses the issues these novels raise about modern life

Compiles lists of and commentary on best-selling books during each of the eighty years covered and briefly recounts the history of best sellers