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Inventory of the Bennet M. Berger Papers
D-441  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Related Collections
  • Indexing Terms
  • Access
  • Processing Information
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Publication Rights

  • Creator: Berger, Bennett M.
    Title: Bennett M. Berger Papers
    Date: 1950-2005
    Date (bulk): (bulk 1970-1979)
    Extent: 5.8 linear feet
    Abstract: Academic writings of Bennett Berger during his career as a professor at UC Davis and UC San Diego. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and articles on his work on suburbia, counter-culture, and communes. Also included is his collection of other authors' correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and publications related to Berger's research subjects.
    Phyiscal location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
    Repository: University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections.
    Davis, California 95616-5292
    Collection number: D-441
    Language of Material: Collection materials in English

    Biography

    Bennett Berger was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the Bronx and he served as a Marine during World War II in the Pacific. He did his undergraduate work in sociology at Hunter University then received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. After receiving his Ph.D., he served as a faculty member in the School of Communication at the University of Illinois from 1959 to 1963. In 1963, he left the university to assume the chairmanship of the Sociology Department at UC Davis. Ten years later, he left UC Davis and joined the faculty of UC San Diego until his retirement in 1991. During his career, Berger researched and wrote on several different subjects such as suburbanization, youth culture, counter-culture, and communes. He published Working-Class Suburb: A study of Auto Workers in Suburbia in 1960, Looking for America: Essays on Youth, Suburbia and Other American Obsessions in 1973, The Survival of a Counter-Culture: Ideological Work and Everyday Life Among Rural Communards in 1981, and several dozen articles and book reviews. He died in 2005.

    Scope and Content

    The Bennett M Berger papers spans 1950-2005, with the bulk of material from 1970-1971. This collection contains to Berger's correspondence, manuscripts, notes and articles relating to his work on suburbia, counter-culture, and communes. This collection includes several manuscripts that deal with the deconstruction of sexuality and age-difference among children living in communes.
    Also included is his collection of other authors' correspondences, manuscripts, and notes related to Berger research subjects.

    Arrangement of the Collection

    The collection is arranged into three series: 1. Bennett M. Berger; 2. Other Authors; 3. Audio Visual.

    Related Collections

    The following collections at Special Collections may also be of interest:
    D-425, Edwin McCarthy Lemert Papers, 1936-1996: This collection contains correspondence and subject files relating to Lemert's research on social issues such as stuttering, check forgery, alcoholism, and juvenile justice.
    D-473, John Lofland Papers, 1977: This collection contains research materials on demonstrations in or near the California State Capitol building in 1977.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Berger, Bennet M.--Archives.
    University of California, Davis--Faculty--Archives.
    Communal living.
    Counterculture.

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Processing Information

    Michael Rodriguez, Special Collections intern, processed the collection and created the finding aid under the direction of Elizabeth Phillips, Manuscript Archivist.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Jane Berger, 2006.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Bennet M. Berger Papers, D-441, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17, of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections, University of California, Library, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.