Magazines were a crucial part of American popular culture and politics in the twentieth century. They were a source of news, information, and entertainment for people of all ages and backgrounds. Magazines also played a role in shaping public opinion on a wide range of issues, from politics to social and cultural trends, and helped to define American culture and identity.

Some of the most popular magazines in the early 20th century included The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, and The Ladies' Home Journal, National Geographic, and Time. The Saturday Evening Post had the highest circulation of any magazine in the early twentieth century, reaching over 3 million readers by 1910. These magazines had circulations in the millions and were read by people across the country. They covered a wide range of topics, including current events, fiction, and advice on everything from cooking to childrearing.

In the 1920s and 1930s, a new type of magazine emerged that was aimed at a younger audience. These magazines, such as Life and Look featured articles on a wide range of topics, from fashion to sports to current events. They were also more affordable than the older, more established magazines, and they quickly became popular with young people. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography, and was one of the most popular magazines in the nation, regularly reaching one-quarter of the population.

In the second half of the 20th century, magazines continued to play an important role in American culture and politics. Some of the most popular magazines in the late 20th century included People, Time", and Newsweek. These magazines had circulations in the millions and were read by people across the country. They covered a wide range of topics, from current events to celebrity gossip to fashion.

Magazines faced increasing competition from television and other forms of mass media. As a result, many magazines began to target specific audiences, such as women, teenagers, or sports fans.

Select collections marked Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century

History Makers picks up where the WPA interviews left off, as the largest oral history collection focusing on Black Americans in the 20th century.

HistoryMakers' is the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. As a non-profit educational institution, the organization is committed to preserving, developing and providing easy access to an internationally recognized archival collection of thousands of African American video oral histories which seeks to preserve and elevate the cultural equity of the African American community to the level of its historical record, as well as to increase the cultural understanding of present and future generations.

Black Thought and Culture is a collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders — teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material.

Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. history generally at the same time that it makes the insights of women's history accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. The collection currently includes 91 document projects and archives with more than 3,600 documents and 150,000 pages of additional full-text documents, and more than 2,060 primary authors. The scholar's edition also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.