Postwar Culture

Postwar Culture at Beinecke encompasses an extensive array of materials documenting artistic, literary, social, political, and philosophic developments in Europe and America between 1945 and 1989. Ranging from single pieces to entire archives and libraries of prominent figures of the period, these rich and disparate holdings converge to form a unique resource for exploring the work of creative individuals, movements, and transnational networks that reshaped cultural landscapes both “high” and “low” after the Second World War. Yet there are few guides to help students, scholars, creative writers, and artists find their way through the maze of these holdings, diffuse and dispersed as they are. In order to be used, the underlying coherence of the collection must first be seen in its general contours.

The Postwar Culture Portal seeks to provide such orientation. Users will find guides to broad areas of strength in the collection, details about how to find and use specific holdings of print and archival material, and information on additional resources as well as activities of the affiliated Postwar Culture Working Group at Yale. We hope you will join us in exploring this new and still largely unexplored terrain.