Historical fiction is a great way to capture an era, whether it is the elegant Victorian era or the swinging pace and sizzle of the Jazz era. Unlike contemporary novels or even fantasy where all a writer needs is their imagination, historical fiction requires meticulous research and often the options are overwhelming. Here are five research titles to discover the world of the 1970s.

The Women's Liberation Movement in America: (Greenwood Press Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century) by Kathleen Berkeley

In the 1960s and 1970s women's liberation movement, lives for a vast majority of middle class women were stifled under the repressive ideals of the 1950s. The movement changed the lives of young women forever. In this introduction to the movement, it not only provides a narrative overview, but is filled with a wealth of reference materials and biographies of key figures. With a broad selection of primary source documents and a bibliography, Berkeley crafts the definitive source for anyone curious about the earlier waves of feminism.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

The definitive history of the birth of hip-hop and the cultural wave that changed popular music for decades to come. With an introduction by D.J. Kool Herc, the founder of hip-hop, Chang delves into how the post civil rights era and the dissatisfaction of the youth in the 1970s spawned a generation-defining movement, growing from de-industrialization to becoming a global multi-cultural phenomenon that transformed American politics and culture.

Filled with original interviews from DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including D.J. Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the '60s into the new millennium.

Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 by Kenneth O'Reilly

Shining a light on a part of American history that is difficult to delve into, the FBI's counter-intelligence efforts against the civil rights anti-war and counter-cultural movements. It showcases the FBI's secret program to destabilize it all, spearheaded by J. Edgar Hoover could not believe black Americans capable of producing a grassroots movement to gain legal rights. An even-handed account that explores many of the other groups the FBI also directed secret campaigns against, O'Reilly spares none in this history, including the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Fashion in the '70s: The Definitive Sourcebook by Emmanuelle Dirix and Charlotte Fiell

A great addition to a fashion library. While the 1970s were not known for glamorous fashion, Dirix and Fiell still manage to showcase some of the highlights of the decade with an emphasis on some of the trends that trickled down to the common fashions such as peasant dresses, platform shoes.

Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul by Clara Bingham

From August 1969 to August 1970, the United States witnessed nine thousand protests and eighty-four acts of arson or bombings at schools across the country. It was the year of the My Lai massacre investigation, the Cambodia invasion, and Woodstock. Counter-culture was challenging nearly every aspect of American society, leaving it on the brink of a civil war at home, as it fought a long, futile war abroad. Filled with firsthand narratives of that period of upheaval from the activists, organizers, radicals, and resisters, Witness to the Revolution highlights both the birth and the end of an era.