Library: History: United States/American

United States History Research Databases

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JSTOR This link opens in a new window Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window Search ALL ProQuest databases at once. Covering more than 160 subject areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database and contains a diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos. Encompasses business, science & technology, health, social sciences, arts & humanities, and news.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window Free resource that brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Includes hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it. In addition, includes every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new window Free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, covering all subjects and many languages.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window Contains over 4,000 in-depth research reports from 1923 to present on the world’s most pressing issues (gay marriage, gun control, Middle East conflicts, etc.) with data, charts, and visuals.

Multidisciplinary eBook databases:

eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary eBooks representing a broad range of subjects.
Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window eBooks on a range of subjects such as business, information technology, education, engineering, health, history, humanities, life & physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.

Learn more about finding and downloading eBooks:

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Alexander Street Videos (American History) "Key themes, events, and historical eras in U.S. History from the colonial period through the 21st Century. A vast collection of documentaries, newsreels, public affairs videos, and archival footage allows students and researchers to compare viewpoints and get personal and expert accounts on key topics such as the American Revolution, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War-and people--presidents, key leaders and activists. Taken together, this rich combination allows students and scholars to study history in new ways, by comparing, for example, the footage, transcript, and tone of government perspectives (United News Newsreel) of the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942 or D-Day in 1944 with the longer-term perspectives of documentaries like After Silence (Bullfrog Films) or D-Day: The Total Story (The History Channel)."

Films On Demand: Master Academic Package This link opens in a new window Full-length streaming videos in the humanities, social sciences, business, health, medicine, sciences, and mathematics fields.
ImageQuest (Britannica) This link opens in a new window Nearly 3 million rights-cleared images from more than 50 collections including Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, and the National Geographic Society.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.

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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window The largest, most authoritative encyclopedia in the world, this database contains articles, maps, images, videos, and yearbooks from 1993 to present. Use it instead of Wikipedia for your research!
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window More than 50 reference eBooks in business, communications, history, law, literature, medicine, nation & world, science, and technology.

OneSearch

Find articles, eBooks, etc.

Using Google Scholar: Finding Peer Reviewed Resources (Transcript)

Selected Resources

American Historical Review Earlier years are available in the JSTOR database
Journal of American History Earlier years are available in the JSTOR database

Sage American History An OER with 30 chronological sections, colonial through modern times.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Explore history from America's libraries and museums by place or date.
Duke University Libraries' Digital Collections Includes images, films and manuscripts with strengths in Southern history, American material culture, and Women's history.
History Engine "An educational tool that gives students the opportunity to learn history by doing the work—researching, writing, and publishing—of an historian."
Making of America Primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
National Archives and Records Administration
NYPL Digital Gallery: History and Geography Contains maps, photographs, historical documents, drawings, and more! Search by collection, such as African & Black History, or by category, such as politicians.
American Social History Project ASHP/CML challenges traditional ways that people learn about the past with its print, visual, and multimedia materials that explore the diverse social and cultural histories of the nation.

Library of Congress: Digital Collections This link opens in a new window Maps, photographs,letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films.

HIS Course Assignment Help

Background Information

Granger Collection. (n.d.). Columbus: West Indies, 1492 [Fine Art].

American Indians A topic page from Credo Reference
American Revolution A topic page from Credo Reference
Christopher Columbus Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Civil War Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Cold War Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Constitution of the United States Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Famous Trials Website created by Professor Douglas O. Linder with original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history.
French and Indian War Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Mayflower Compact Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Reconstruction Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Slavery Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Vietnam War Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
War of 1812 Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!

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