Novels, poetry and plays are valuable sources of evidence and ideas about society. Here, we take three novels as starting points, and suggest possibilities for further research, showing how works of fiction can be used alongside archives, pamphlets, journals and other traditional research materials held by LSE Library, to develop and enhance our understanding of the world.

1. More than Stories Alternatively, and for a completely different perspective,
dip into the History of the Great War Based on
Official Documents, shelved with other pre-1980 UK
Novels, poetry and plays are valuable sources of government publications on the lower ground floor.
evidence and ideas about society. Here, we take three There are volumes covering military and naval
novels as starting points, and suggest possibilities for operations, the role of the Royal Air Force,
further research, showing how works of fiction can be transportation and medical services: search the Library
used alongside archives, pamphlets, journals and other catalogue (www.catalogue.lse.ac.uk) for a full list.
traditional research materials held by LSE Library, to
develop and enhance our understanding of the world. For a more overtly political stance, read the writings of
Visit www.lse.ac.uk/library to find out more about our Bertrand Russell, a conscientious objector and a fierce
collections, and to comment and contribute online. opponent of the war: his famous letter of 15 August
1914 in The Nation (Reserve periodicals: AP4), for
example, or his letters and articles in The Tribunal
(Main service counter fetch, DS1239) and the Labour
Leader (Newspaper collection, N2), or his pamphlet
Political Ideals (LSE Archives, JA/8).
My subject is war
LSE alumna Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy
examines the psychological impact of the First World
War on the individuals involved, looking in particular at
the army psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers and his treatment
of shell-shocked soldiers. Rivers’s work is well-known,
but the anthropologist Charles Seligman also carried
out research in this area, and you can find his papers
on shell-shock in LSE Archives (LSE Archives,
Seligman/10/1-3).
Right: Shell-shock case history: notes taken by Charles
Seligman (LSE Archives, Seligman/10/1)

2. The personal is political The ordinary business of life
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s
Tale, published in 1985, examines both the Women’s
Liberation Movement of the 1970s and early 1980s,
and the conservative backlash against it.
Would you like to know more about feminism in this key
period? Try checking out:
• Pamphlets by Marlene Dixon, Marge Piercy,
Robin Morgan and the Black Bear group
(Pamphlet collection, various classmarks)
• London-based magazines Shrew (Reserve
Periodicals, HQ1101) and Red Rag (Reserve
Periodicals, HQ1597), the bulletin of the Wages for
Housework campaign (Newspaper Collection,
N642), and the scholarly journal Feminist Studies Uncut and unopened first edition of David Ricardo’s On The
(e-journal, available via the Library catalogue). Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (LSE Archives,
RSR 49)
• The archives of the sociologist Mary McIntosh,
including papers delivered or collected at feminist
conferences in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as
material relating to more direct action, including the The Fatal Equilibrium by Marshall Jevons (a
pseudonym for economists William Breit and Kenneth
Women's Liberation Campaign for Legal and
Financial Independence, the YBA Wife campaign G. Elzinga) is a detective novel in which the hero
and Feminists Against Censorship. McIntosh was applies economic theory to analyse human behaviour
and solve the crime. This is an accessible and
active in the Gay Liberation Movement too, so her
papers also provide an insight into the relationship engaging way to learn about the principles of
between gay lib and women’s lib (LSE Archives, microeconomics. For other unconventional takes on the
‘dismal science’, try economist James Meade’s
McIntosh collection).
poems on economic forecasting and food policy
(LSE Archives, Meade/19/2 and 19/4).
• Susan Faludi’s Backlash: the undeclared war
against women (Course Collection, HQ1399 F19),
and Donald Critchlow‘s biography of the anti- For a more traditional approach, visit Archives and
feminist Phyllis Schlafly, Phyllis Schlafly and Rare Books to consult early editions of classic texts
grassroots conservatism: a woman’s crusade by Richard Cantillon, David Hume, Thomas
(Main collection, JC573.2.U6 C93). Malthus, David Ricardo, Adam Smith, John Stuart
Mill and Jean-Baptist Say.
Or, if you prefer to keep right up-to-date, for the latest
research by academics from LSE’s Economics
Department - articles, working papers, book chapters,
conference papers and more - check out LSE
Research Online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk.
About the Library
Founded in 1896, the Library of the London School of
Economics and Political Science responds to around
5,000 visits from students and staff each day. It also
functions as a specialist national and international
research library, and includes extensive collections of
Sticker produced as part of the YBA Wife campaign (LSE archives, historic print and government publications,
Archives Mcintosh/3/2) with over 12,000 registered external users each year.