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HIST 398.001: Leisure-Time in the Making of Modern America: Sample Topics

Topic Ideas

Here are a variety of interesting resources, both primary and secondary, to get you thinking about possible areas of research.

WWII and Recreation

Pocket guides to Hawaii, New Zealand, Alaska, and Australia

A digitized series of culture/travel guides from the U.S. Navy and War Department for servicemen stationed abroad. Others are available in print in the Davis basement.

Automotive Travel

H. M. Berry Papers, 1890-1962 at Wilson Library; Secretary of the North Carolina Good Roads Association.

Southern Good Roads periodical

National Parks

Public use tabulations of visitors to areas administered by the National Park Service
1940s, attendance numbers

National Parks Service History Digital Library
This site is NOT affiliated with NPS, but collects agency publications and offers lots of older digitized guidebooks and other publications

Dance Halls and Theater

Newspapers, like ProQuest Historical Newspapers, will be helpful.

Large public libraries may have digitized collections of local interest; Chicago Public Library and San Francisco Public Library are two examples. Chicago PL even has a theater section of playbills from 1848-1922.

The taxi-dance hall : a sociological study in commercialized recreation and city life
Ebook version of a 1932 study.