Full-text Alternative/Underground Press
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975A database of photographs, images, manuscripts, rare printed material documenting the music, politics, fashion and youth culture in America and Great Britain from 1950-1975.
Try this database's list of underground press publications to find full-text versions from BGSU and other collections
How to find alternative & underground press
The Jerome Library also houses many books on the alternative and underground press movement and on different aspects of the counterculture movement. These sources can be identified under the subject heading in the BGSU Libraries Catalog using the following:
- Conservatism--United States--Periodicals
- Libraries--Special collections--Underground press publications
- Radicalism--United States--Periodicals--Bibliography
- Right and left (political science)--Periodicals--Bibliography
- Reference books--Underground press--Bibliography
- Underground press
- Underground press publications
Jerome Library also holds 147 reels of microfilm (almost 600 titles) of underground newspapers and 23 reels of “Herstory” (women's publications) that are not covered in this guide.
Outside BGSU but still in Ohio
These are holdings of primary and secondary sources on the underground press in OhioLINK.
Books on the Underground Press
In addition to the primary source materials at the Browne Popular Culture Library related to the alternative and underground press that are listed on the preceding pages, the following resources describe some secondary sources that provide useful reference and background information. Such resources include indexes, resource guides, bibliographies, historical studies, and reprints of underground press and other articles. Note: some of these are not located in the Browne Popular Culture Library.
American Women's Magazines : an annotated historical guide by Call Number: popref PN4879.H85ISBN: 0824075439Publication Date: 1989-02-01Part One of this annotated guide is devoted to women's alternative publications, and is broken down into two sections-- Early Women's Rights Periodicals (related to the suffragist movement) and Feminist Periodicals from the women's movement that began in the 1960s.
“Included here is information about alternative press feminist newspapers and organizational newsletters, women's studies journals, and cultural magazines.” This resource would be helpful to scholars searching for secondary sources concerning women's alternative publications.
The British Counter-Culture, 1966-1973 by Call Number: PN5124.U53N4 1989ISBN: 0312027664Publication Date: 1989-10-01A social historian's overview of the British counterculture as represented in the British underground publications of the period, specifically Oz, It, and Friends. Includes bibliography, glossary, and index.
The Dissident Press by Call Number: PN4888.U5K47 1984ISBN: 0803920873Publication Date: 1984-01-01Excellent historical review of the alternative press throughout American history, dating from pre-Civil War to the 1980s. Coverage includes the journalistic efforts of six groups: Black Americans; utopians and communitarians; feminists; non-English-speaking immigrants; Populists, anarchists, socialists, communists, and their splinter groups; and pacifists, noninterventionists, and resisters during World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Each chapter contains references. Highly recommended resource for background on the historical development of the alternative press in the United States.
Fire! Reports from the underground press by Call Number: pop E169.12.F5 1970bISBN: 0525472541Publication Date: 1970-11-20“..the best underground press writing and over 200 graphics on the events and feeling that have shaped a whole generation. Written by people who are the counterculture they write about”.
Green Isle in the Sea: an informal history of the alternative press, 1960-85 by Call Number: rare PN4784.U53G73ISBN: 0913204153Publication Date: 1986-03-01“First person narrative accounts from the editors of the leading American litmags and small presses of the past quarter century, beginning in the seminal '60s”.
The Hippie Papers -- a history of the Communication Company by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5 H55ISBN: 0934953341Publication Date: 1992-03-01Catalog of fliers printed by the Communication Company in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco, California during the late 1960s.- The hippie papers; notes from the underground press by Call Number: pop HN65.H57Publication Date: 1968Collection of articles appearing in various underground newspapers in the 1960's. “One way to learn about what tomorrow may bring is to read what has become known as 'the underground newspaper'. To understand what it is that this most vocal of generations wants and believes, it is necessary to read their journals”.
A History of Underground Comics by Call Number: pop PN6725 .E8 1993ISBN: 091417164xPublication Date: 1993-01-28Highly illustrated overall history of the underground comics. Various chapters focus on the content of the underground comics, including “Sex and Sexism,” “Violence,” “The World Around Us,” “Drugs,” and others. Many underground cartoonists got their first exposure in the underground newspapers and many still appear in these papers. Bibliographies of and about underground comics are included in this resource.- New Journalism by Call Number: PN4867 .J64ISBN: 070060085XPublication Date: 1971-11-01A timely piece focusing on the emergence of “New Journalism.” Focuses on underground papers and magazines, with an emphasis on New Journalistic books and examples of “liberalizing” changes in the “established media,” such as magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. Includes endnotes and an index.
Notes from the New Underground; an anthology by Call Number: pop HQ796.K673ISBN: 0670517135Publication Date: 1968-11-20Forty-two well chosen articles from the underground press organized under groupings such as “The Redefinition of Culture: Life as Art;” “The Nature of Revolt;” “The Hippies: Flowering of a Nonmovement;” and “The Radicalization of Hip and the Reportage of Empathy.”- Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide by Call Number: pop Z5956.C6K46 1982ISBN: 0517547988Publication Date: 1982-08-31Covers U.S. and Canadian undergrounds from 1962 to 1982. Indexes by title and artist for undergrounds and independent/ground level comix. “'Newave' or 'new wave' comics are usually small autopublications done on photocopy machines and distributed by exchange through the mail...'groundlevel' comic books was a term used to mean comparatively rare black and white comic books not 'underground' in nature.” [Scott, p. 8.] Includes eleven features on different aspects of the undergrounds, while the introduction gives a brief overview of this genre. Illustrated with many black and white and color reproductions of comix covers.
Outlaws of America by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5L48 1972bISBN: 0140215867Publication Date: 1973-03-30This informative study discusses the role and proliferation of the underground press, outlines its historical context, and reviews its social and political implications. Includes a list (dated June 1971) of the “members and friends” of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS). Also includes index, black and white illustrations, and bibliographical references.
Paper Revolutionaries; the rise of the underground press by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5L4ISBN: 0671211447Publication Date: 1972-08-19Readable historical overview of the development of the underground press in the U.S. covering the press's impact on the mass media and the eventual “selling out” of radicalism. Includes many graphics and reprints of pages from underground papers. Contains bibliography, index, and an international listing of Underground Press Syndicate member papers.- Shots; photographs from the underground press by Call Number: pop TR820.S458Publication Date: 1971Collection of photos and text from underground press publications during the 1960's.
Uncovering the Sixties by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5P43 1985ISBN: 039471217XPublication Date: 1985-05-12A comprehensive study of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) and the movement it covered. Pertinent information regarding the purposes and important landmarks of the organization is contained. The author, a past contributor to the underground press, interviewed “former undergrounders and other participants” whose statements make up a large proportion of the text. The epilogue contains long passages from his sources in which they assess the underground press and its impact. Includes index and bibliography.- Underground newspaper collection, UM libraries by Call Number: popref PN4784.U53U5 1989Publication Date: 1989?A holdings list for the University of Missouri-Columbia's underground newspaper collection. Descriptions of subject material for each title in their collection is provided. This guide was used to provide descriptions of the same titles held by the Browne Popular Culture Library for this research guide.
Underground press anthology by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5F673Publication Date: 1972Mass audience-oriented book containing selected articles from various undergrounds; a good introduction to the underground press. Contains a collection of essays and articles by Timothy Leary, Huey Newton, Dick Gregory and Todd Gitlin, and covers topics such as dope and dealing, the Altamont massacre, and the Black Panthers, among others. Reprints of the underground comic “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” and other material from various undergrounds are also included.
The Underground Press in America by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5G5ISBN: 0253190088Publication Date: 1970-10-01A solid history of the evolution of underground journalism as well as a thorough analysis of the underground press in 1970, including reviews of editorial content, language analysis, and audience analysis. Chapters on campus undergrounds, military, and peace papers are included. Contains twelve black and white page reproductions from the Oracle, Avatar, and others, as well as a directory of approximately 450 underground papers, a glossary of terms, and an index. Bibliographical references are included.
The underground reader by Call Number: pop PN4888.U5H6Publication Date: 1972“An international selection that allows the initiated and uninitiated underground press reader to follow the Movement and Counter-Culture Movement through the great adventure of these past five years.”
Chronologically-ordered classic underground articles by Jerry Farber, John Wilcock, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, John Sinclair, Tom Hayden, William S. Burroughs, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and many others. Reprints of selected cartoons from the underground press complement the collection.- Underground : the London alternative press, 1966-74 by Call Number: PN5124.U5F68 1988ISBN: 0415007283Publication Date: 1988-07-01Traces the history of the underground press in London from its beginnings in the late 1950s to its demise in the late 1970s, using the British underground publications Idiot International, Black Dwarf, Friends, Friendz, Ink, Gandolf's Garden, Ox and It as primary sources. Includes bibliography and index.
Utopia now : a handbook by Call Number: popovsz JC328.3.M36Publication Date: 1973A collection of “The Little Free Press,” a newsletter proposing a new Utopia and free society.
