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squareRESEARCH GUIDE: U.S. HISTORY

This is a guide to the major print and online bibliographic resources in U.S. history. While basic resources are included, there are many others that cannot be covered here because of length. For assistance in using these resources, or to find additional information, contact a Reference Librarian.

Reference Sources | Books | Journal and Newspaper Articles | Texts | Dissertations | Selected Internet Sites

1. Reference Sources

1.1 General

  • Dictionary of American History -- REFERENCE E174.D52 2003
  • Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History-- REFERENCE E169.1.E624 2001
  • Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates-- REFERENCE E174.5.C3 1997
  • Encylopedia of American History-- REFERENCE E174.E53 2003
  • Oxford Reference Online: History Full-text
    • Offers complete content of more than 125 titles from Oxford University Press. The collection includes authoritative dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works in more than 20 subject areas, including U.S. history. Search sources collectively or search within an individual title.
  • Reader's Companion to American History-- REFERENCE E174.R43 1991

1.2 By Period

  • Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America -- REFERENCE E188.E63 1990
  • Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century -- REFERENCE E169.1.E626 2001
  • Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 -- REFERENCE E354.H46 1997
  • The United States and Mexico at War -- REFERENCE E404.U66 1998
  • Encylopedia of the American Civil War -- REFERENCE E468.H47 2000
  • American Reconstruction, 1862-1877 -- REFERENCE E668.R53 1996
  • Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century -- REFERENCE E740.7.E53 1996

1.3 By State

1.4 Biography

  • Current Biography -- REFERENCE CT100.C8
    • A good source for biographical information on influential Americans in all fields; emphasizes people currently in the news.
  • American National Biography -- REFERENCE CT213.A68 1999
    • A project of the American Council of Learned Societies and Oxford University Press to update the Dictionary of American Biography below. Includes biographical information on a broad range of individuals important to United States history who died before 1996.
  • Dictionary of American Biography -- REFERENCE CT213.D55
    • The good place to look for major (deceased) historical figures in America, it contains 500-1600 word articles with bibliographies by scholars. It consists of a twenty volume section plus supplements bringing coverage to 1980.
  • Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives -- REFERENCE CT213.D551 1998

1.5 Maps and Atlases

  • American Heritage Pictorial Atlas of United States History -- REFERENCE G1201.S1A4 1966
    • Color maps with accompanying text dealing with most subject areas and places, it is a good first place to look.
  • Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States
    • An extensive atlas dealing with environment, cartography, explorers and Indians, land, settlement and population, churches, boundaries, politics, industries and military history.

1.6 Statistics

  • Statistical Abstract of the United States
    • Yearly publication from the U.S. Bureau of the Census containing government and non-government statistics about social and economic conditions, usually on the national and state levels, but also including some international statistics. Electronic versions (non-searchable PDF files) available from 1878 to the present. Print versions available from 1913 to the present (HA202.A21 - Latest in REFERENCE)
  • Datapedia of the United States, 1790-2000 -- REFERENCE HA202.K87 1994
    • Presents the most significant historical statistics of the United States in 23 selected areas from 1776 to 1990.
  • Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 -- REFERENCE HA202.H57 2006
  • Historical Census Browser, 1790-1960
    • National, state, and county census data retrievable through a user-friendly forms interface. The earliest censuses include total population, age, sex, free or slave. Beginning in 1840 additional detail for occupation, education, churches, mortality, and wealth is included.

2. Books

  • Centre Library Online Catalog
    • Contains the cataloged holdings of the Centre College Library.
  • Kentucky Virtual Library
    • Use KYVL to search other Kentucky libraries, including the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.
  • Electronic Books
    • A selection of Internet sites that provide access to full-text electronic books, including NetLibrary and the History E-Book Project.
  • Worldcat
    • WorldCat contains records for the holdings of several thousand libraries. This is an excellent starting point for identifying and locating material beyond the Centre College library.
  • Interlibrary Loan
    • Use the Interlibrary Loan service to borrow books and journal articles from other libraries.

3. Journal and Newspaper Articles

3.1 Resources for Finding Journal Articles

  • Academic Search Premier
    • A multi-disciplinary index to periodicals that covers over 8,000 scholarly and popular periodicals, and includes full-text for more than 4,500 of these. Designed specifically for academic institutions, ASP spans most areas of study. Coverage varies, but most titles begin in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
  • America: History and Life
    • A comprehensive bibliography of articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
  • JSTOR
    • Full-text back files of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. JSTOR includes many journals in U.S. history. Note: coverage varies by title, but the most recent 2-5 years is not available.
  • OmniFile Full Text Mega
    • Collection of Wilson full-text databases, including Humanities Full Text and Social Sciences Full Text, good resources for finding scholarly undergraduate-level journal articles. Indexing begins in 1983; full-text of selected articles in 1995.
  • Project Muse
    • Unlike JSTOR, this includes only recent issues of full-text journals, but not the backfile. With coverage of over 250 journals in arts and humanities, social science, and mathematics, it includes many full-text history journals. Use in tandem with JSTOR for full-text retrieval of history articles from scholarly journals.

3.2 Resources for Finding Newspaper Articles

  • LexisNexis Academic
    • Includes large numbers of recent U.S. and overseas papers full-text, plus wire services, television, and radio transcripts.
  • Historical New York Times Full-text
    • Searchable full text of the New York Times back to the first issue of the newspaper with full page and article images. Includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. Coverage is from 1851 to 2003.

3.3 Electronic Journals

4. Texts

  • AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History Full-text
    • Links to the full-text of hundreds of primary source documents relating to American history which have been digitized by academic institutions. The documents, which cover the 15th century through the 21st century, are easily accessible from a straightforward chronological listing. Because these documents have been created by many different institutions as part of separate digital projects, users will find considerable variation in the type of accompanying materials available.
  • Annals of American History Full-text
    • Full-text of over 2000 primary documents in American history, including historical accounts, speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, and essays. Also has multimedia files including more than 500 pictures, hundreds of video clips, and audio of famous speeches.
  • Avalon Project at Yale University Full-text
    • An extensive collection of digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government covering time periods from pre-18th Century to the 20th Century. Links to supporting documents are also provided. Documents include charters, constitutions, declarations, diplomatic documents, papers, speeches and treaties.
  • A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation Full-text
    • A wealth of information on the Constitutional Convention, Continental Congress, and Congress provided by the American Memory site at the Library of Congress. It also contains specialized information on the impeachment trial of President Johnson, Indian land cessions, Journals of the Confederate Congress, the evolution of the conservation movement 1850-1920 and links to related databases.
  • Historic Documents Full-text
    • Published annually since 1972, the series now contains 33 volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. The documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.
  • Making of America
    • A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

5. Dissertations

  • Dissertation Abstracts
    • The primary source for over 1.4 million doctoral dissertations (and selected master's theses) from over 1000 North American and European universities. Coverage is from 1851 to the present. Abstracts are available for dissertations since 1980, abstracts for theses since 1988.
  • WorldCat Dissertations and Theses
    • A subset of the WorldCat database, allows user to locate some 5 million items cataloged as dissertations, theses or published materials based on theses or dissertations including those published prior to 1861.

6. Selected Internet Sites

6.1 General

  • American Women's History: A Research Guide
    • Provides citations to print and Internet reference sources, as well as to selected large primary source collections. The guide also provides information about the tools researchers can use to find additional books, articles, dissertations, and primary sources.
  • Best of History Websites
    • Contains annotated links to over 1000 history web sites arranged by time period.
  • History Guide
    • An up-to-date guide to scholarly Internet resources in Anglo-American history.

6.2 Digital Collections

  • American Memory Project (Library of Congress)
    • A wealth of documents, oral histories, photographs, maps, motion pictures, recordings, with a search engine which can search topics across collections.
  • Documenting the American South
    • Sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the twentieth century.
  • Federalist Papers
  • First American West: the Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
    • Consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. The collection is drawn from the holdings of the University of Chicago Library and the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky. Among the sources included are books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, scientific publications, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents, ledgers and other financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and pictorial images.
  • National Archives
    • The nation's largest repository of federal, state, and local documents, the NARA's site includes thousands of images of historical documents, figures, and events.
  • Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
    • Documents the 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, by 300 French and their Native American allies.
  • Witchcraft in Salem Village
    • An electronic collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records.

Last updated September 25, 2008

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