American History
This guide includes encyclopedias, dictionaries,
databases, websites, and other reference sources
and resources useful for research in American History.
This guide is arranged in the following sections:
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Research Guide Author:
David Killian
E-mail: dkillian@gwu.edu
Phone: 202-242-6623
Updated: July 2007
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The URL for this page is http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/guides/social/amhistory.html
American Decades. 10 vols. Detroit, Gale Research, c1994
– c2001
Location: REF E169.12 .A419 1994
A ten-volume, hardcopy set covering events of the 20th century.
Dictionary of American History. 10 vols. New York, Thomson
Learning, c2003
Location: REF E174 .D52 2003 (Also at Mt. Vernon Campus Reference)
A ten-volume set covering political, military, social, and cultural topics
in American history.
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century.
3 vols. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001
Location: REF E169.1 .E626 2001
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History.
3 vols. New York, Scribner, c2001
Location: REF E169.1 .E624 2001
Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 vols. New
York, Scribner, c1993
Location: REF HN57 .E58 1993 (Also at Mt. Vernon Campus Reference)
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century.
4 vols. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1996.
Location: REF E740.7 .E53 1996 (Also at Mt. Vernon Campus Reference)
Encyclopedia of American History. 11 vols. New York,
Facts on File, c2003
Location: REF E174 .E53 2003
A multi-volume set that covers important individuals, events, and topics
in U.S. history. “American history” is broadly conceived, and includes
the historical experience of Native American peoples.
American
National Biography
Location: ALADIN
Also in hardcopy: REF E176 .A62 1999 (Also in Mt. Vernon Campus Reference)
Offers lengthily biographical articles for more than 18,300 men and women
whose lives have shaped the United States.
Biography
and Genealogy Master Index
Location: ALADIN
Provides citations to biographical entries in current and retrospective
reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures.
Current Biography. New York, H.W. Wilson Co., 1940 -
Location: CT100 .C8 (Also at Mt. Vernon Campus Reference)
Provides lengthily entries on individuals important in a wide range of
fields.
Dictionary of American Biography. New York, Scribner’s,
c1958 – c1964
Location: REF E176 .D563
An authoritative source of information on individuals who have made significant
contributions to American life in its many aspects.
Great Lives From History: American Series. Pasadena,
Calif., Salem Press, 1987.
Location: REF CT 214 .G74 1987
Provides readable, summary accounts of the lives of 456 individuals.
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New
York, J. T. White, 1898 –
Location: REF E176 .N28
Provides extensive coverage; give information not available in other sources
on lesser figures in American history.
Research Guide to American Historical Biography. Washington,
D.C, Beacham Pub.,
c1988
Location: REF CT214 .R47 1998
Contains bibliographical and other reference aids to assist researchers
in exploring the lives of 278 prominent men and women in U.S. history.
Who Was Who in America. Chicago, Marquis-Who’s Who,
1607/1896-
Location: REF E 176 .W64
Short, condensed entries. Coverage from 1607.
A companion volume to Who’s Who in America (REF E 633 .W56).
To locate books held at GW and other Washington Research Library Consortium
locations, use the WRLC Libraries
Catalog (http://catalog.wrlc.org).
Books on the shelf at GW libraries are organized by subject according
to the Library of Congress Classification system. Titles that are predominantly
about American history may be found in the E and F (for local history)
classification sections. To locate more specifically within these sections
where titles on your topic are located, try searching the Catalog.
A good way to begin a topical search in the Catalog is to do a keyword
search. Please note that when searching by keyword in the Catalog, key
phrases should be enclosed in quotes, e.g., “war of 1812”. For possible
additional titles on your topic, try clicking on the subject heading
links found in the book records. Books on U.S. history generally have
subject headings that begin: United States – History.
Use these databases to find scholarly articles on your topic.
Academic
Search Premier
Location: ALADIN
An academic, multi-disciplinary database that provides full-text for
over one half of the over 8,000 periodicals indexed. Article indexing
is from 1975 to the present. Searches may be limited to “scholarly journals”
only.
America:
History and Life
Location: ALADIN
Provides the most comprehensive coverage available for articles in scholarly
journals on the history of the United States and Canada. Gives citations
and abstracts (with some links to full-text). Coverage is from 1964
to the present (some entries go back to 1954).
Arts
and Humanities Citation Index (part of Web of Science)
Location: ALADIN
Covers scholarly journal literature in the arts and humanities. Provides
citations only; includes some links to full-text. This unique database
allows researchers to track relationships between articles by cited
references. Coverage is from 1978 to the present.
JSTOR
Location: ALADIN
An archival database providing page-image articles from scholarly journals
in a number of disciplines, including history. Article coverage is not
current; it generally extends from the journal’s first date of publication
to 3-5 years from the present (varies by publication).
Proquest
Research Library Plus
Location: ALADIN
This multi-subject database covers general and academic periodicals.
Full-text is available for many articles. Coverage is from 1971 to the
present. Searches may be limited to “scholarly journals” only.
Use to find journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, and other primary
materials, contemporaneous to the time period researched. See also:
“Archival Directories”
American Decades Primary Sources. 10 vols. Detroit,
Gale, c2004
Location: REF E169.1 .A471977 2004
A hardcopy set that offers primary documents related to events of the
20th century.
American
Periodical Series
Location: ALADIN
Page-image articles from more than 1,100 historic American periodicals.
Coverage is from 1741 – 1940.
Civil
War: A Newspaper Perspective
Location: ALADIN
Contains the full-text of articles gleaned from issues of The New York
Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published
between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.
CQ
Historic Documents
Location: ALADIN
Offers full-text documents, including presidential speeches, international
agreements, Supreme Court decisions, and more, covering significant
historical events from 1972 to the present.
Declassified
Documents
Location: ALADIN
Provides full-text access to declassified U.S. government documents
drawn from Presidential libraries. 1940’s – 1970’s.
Early
American Newspapers
Location: ALADIN
Features images and full-text articles from newspapers across the country
from 1690 to 1877 (strongest before 1820).
HarpWeek
Location: ALADIN
Page-image articles from Harper's Weekly magazine from 1857 to 1877.
National
Security Archive
Location: ALADIN
Contains declassified documents regarding critical U.S. foreign policy
decisions organized into 24 thematic collections. Includes full-text.
From 1945 to the present.
New
York Times (Historical)
Location: ALADIN
Searchable, page-image articles in The New York Times from 1851 to 2002.
North
American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
Location: ALADIN
Provides more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives related to American
and Canadian immigration. From 1840 to the present.
Washington
Post (Historical)
Location: ALADIN
Searchable, page-image articles in The Washington Post from 1877 to
1990.
Women
and Social Movements in the United States
Location: ALADIN
A collection of full-text primary materials documenting various movements
and events in the history of women's social reform activities. Coverage
is from 1600 to 2000.
Also available:
Primary
Sources
Location: http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/researchguides/primarysources.html
A Gelman Library research guide for finding, identifying, and using
primary sources.
Use to locate materials in archives and other primary source repositories.
ArchiveGrid
Location: ALADIN
Contains the descriptions for nearly one million archival collections
held in archives around the world, including the U.S.
National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA)
Location: http://www.archives.gov/
A sizable portion of NARA’s holding’s may be searched online in the
Archival Research Catalog (ARC), http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/.
Specialized
Collections at Gelman Library
Location: http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/collections.html
Links to primary source collections available at Gelman Library.
WorldCat
Location: ALADIN
Contains records of library holdings from across the United States and
around the world. Searches may be limited by type to “archival materials.”
Historical
Statistics of the United States
Location: ALADIN
Also available in hardcopy: REF HA202 .H57 2006
Contains over 37,000 statistical time series from the earliest dates
of United States history to the most recent available in 2006.
Statistical Abstract of the United States / Bureau of Statistics,
Treasury Department.
Location: HA202 Latest edition in Ready Ref, earlier eds. in Stacks.
(Also at Mt. Vernon Campus Ready Ref and Stacks)
An annual compilation that provides “an authoritative and comprehensive
summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization
of the United States.” Gelman Library has annual editions (with some
gaps) from 1885.
U.S.
Historical Census Browser
Location: http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/
Enables one to examine state and county topics for individual census
years.
Masterplots.
Location: Workstations on Gelman's first floor.
The database can be searched by author or title and provides plot summaries of works as well as information on authors.
Magill's Literary Annual.
Location: REF PN 44 .M332
Annual updates to Masterplots.
AMDOCS: Documents for the
Study of American History
Location: http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/
Gives links to full-text, primary documents in American history from
1000 AD to the present. United States documents are organized by presidential
administration.
Avalon
Project at Yale Law School
Location: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
Offers the full-text of documents in law, history, and diplomacy, organized
by century – 18th C. to 21st C.
Librarians’ Internet Index
Location: http://lii.org/
To find websites related to American History, click on “Arts and Humanities”
- “History” - “United States History”.
Library of
Congress - American Memory
Location: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
American Memory presents digitized page-images from various Library
of Congress collections in American history. Collections include the
George Washington Papers; The Chinese in California, 1850 – 1925; and
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project,
1936 – 1938.
Making of America
Location: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
A digital library of primary sources in American social history from
the antebellum period through reconstruction.
WWW-VL: HISTORY:
UNITED STATES
Location: http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/
Virtual Library’s directory to websites in American history.
For more information, call the Reference Desk at 202-994-6048 or use
the E-mail Reference Form. This page
is maintained by David Killian.
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