Library Guides: American Studies: Background Information

Overview of American Studies

Welcome to the research guide for American Studies. Here you will find print and online resources that will help you in your research. It will also offer suggestions for how to search for print and electronic holdings at Hesburgh Libraries. Although not possibly comprehensive, it serves as a place to begin your research.

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Here you will find dictionaries and encyclopedias that cover American Studies in general. For topical dictionaries and encyclopedias (on race and ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, environmental history, and religion and irreligion) see Resources by Topic.

American History through Literature (1820- 1870) This link opens in a new window
"New historicist" in its approach to literary criticism, this resource endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history.
American History through Literature (1870- 1920) This link opens in a new window
"New historicist" in its approach to literary criticism, this resource endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history.

American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change Change
This reference work traces the scope of U.S. immigration from the earliest settlements to the present, providing a multidisciplinary approach.

Civil Rights Movement in America by Peter Levy (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015

Encyclopedia of American Studies This link opens in a new window
Brings together a large range of disciplines related to the history and cultures of the United States, from pre-colonial days to the present. Features articles covering areas such as history, literature, art, photography, film, architecture, urban studies, ethnicity, race, gender, economics, politics, wars, consumer culture, and global America.

Encyclopedia of Community from the Village to the Virtual World
Interdisciplinary in scope, it explores the great variety of social networks that human beings create and participate in.

Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health This link opens in a new window
Adopts a biopsychosocial-historical approach to immigrant health, with a focus on immigrant populations in, and immigration to, magnet countries. Extensive references to worldwide trends and global issues are made throughout entries. Covers a broad array of medical and social science topics related to immigrant health.
Encyclopedia of U.S. political history This link opens in a new window
Focusing on both government and history, this encyclopedia brings exceptional breadth and depth to the topic with more than 100 essays for each of the critical time periods covered. Each volume covers one of seven time periods that correspond to key eras in American history.

Encyclopedia of War and American Society
A multidisciplinary encyclopedia that examines the numerous ways war affects culture and society.

The Making of Modern Immigration by Patrick J. Hayes (Editor)
Call Number: Reference, Collection [1st Floor] - JV 6450 .M364 2012 [In-Library Use Only]

Oxford companion to United States history This link opens in a new window
With over 1,400 entries written by some 900 historians and other scholars, it illuminates not only America's political, diplomatic, and military history, but also social, cultural, and intellectual trends; science, technology, and medicine; the arts; and religion.
Oxford encyclopedia of American political and legal history This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of political and legal history in the United States covering the key events, historical actors, presidential elections, court cases, and larger political and legal trends throughout American history.

Oxford Research Encyclopedias: American History
Peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, this online resource covers the entire history of America and the United States. NOTE: although most of the content is open, some essays are not accessible.

U.S. immigration and migration reference library This link opens in a new window
Chronicles immigration to the United States from 1820 to present day.

News and Popular Press

Popular press resources (like newspapers and magazines) listed here are non-scholarly sources that describe contemporary events and offer opinion. For historical news sources, see "Primary Sources--Historical Newspapers"

Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text information and perspectives from hundreds of U.S. and international news sources. Web-only content and images are available. Coverage varies with individual newspapers, but in general coverage is recent and / or current.
Alt-PressWatch This link opens in a new window
Full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals from alternative and independent presses.

Alternative Press Index

This index points users to content in nearly 300 alternative, left, and radical newspapers, periodicals, and magazines from the 1980s to the present.

CQ researcher This link opens in a new window
Covers the most current and controversial issues of the day with summaries, pros and cons, bibliographies and more, with a United States focus. Includes news covered in print issues of: Editorial research reports (1924-1986), Congressional quarterly's editorial research reports (1987-1991) and CQ researcher (1991-).
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority and native press in the U.S.
Gale in context. Global issues (formerly Global issues in context) This link opens in a new window
It spans continents and cultures to bring information to researchers across academic disciplines. Integrating news, global viewpoints, reference, country information, primary source documents, videos, statistics in a single search.

Global Sport Matters
GlobalSport Matters is a multimedia content hub that delivers information on issues affecting sport. It is a joint initiative between Arizona State University’s Global Sport Institute and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni offers print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, as well as local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives.

National Security Archive
The National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents.

Newspaper source plus This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for more than 40 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc. Selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, etc. Full text television and radio news transcripts are also provided.

UN WIre
Daily newsletter from the UN Foundation on news stories that touch on UN activities.

World news connection This link opens in a new window
Provides English translations of news sources prepared by the U.S. government from around the world. Successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

Bibliographies and Guides

Bibliographies collect publication information for books, articles, and other resources on a particular subject. Some include annotations with additional details about the publications' contents. They have a narrower focus, covering a topic, movement, person, geographic location, or era.

Oxford bibliographies online. American literature This link opens in a new window
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on American literature and the American literary tradition over the past 500 years.

The Cambridge Guide to African American History by Raymond Gavins
Call Number: General Collection - E 185 .G33 2015
The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American South by Sharon Monteith (Editor)
Call Number: General Collection - PS 261 .C336 2013
Critical and Comparative Perspectives on American Studies by Ksenija Kondali [editor] and Faruk Bajraktarević [editor]
Call Number: General Collection - E 169.12 .C75 2016
The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century American Literature by Russ Castronovo (Editor)
Call Number: General Collection - PS 201 .O94 2012

Cambridge companions complete collection This link opens in a new window
Offers full-text, cross-searchable access to Cambridge Companions, authoritative guides, written by leading experts, offering introductions to major topics and periods. Suggested search: "American Studies."

Cambridge Histories--American History
Provides full text online access to the volumes on American History in the Cambridge Histories reference series. Covers political, economic and social history.

Biography

Biography provides a description of a person's life, detailing the basic facts like birth and death, education, family background, etc. but also portraying the individual subject's experience of those life events.

African American National Biography by Henry Louis Gates (Contribution by); Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Contribution by)
Call Number: 10th Floor Reading Room - E 185.96 .A4466 2013 [In-Library Use Only]

American national biography This link opens in a new window
A standard biographical resource for more than 17,000 notable people in American history.
Ancestry library edition This link opens in a new window
Searchable genealogical information on billions of names across thousands of census and related collections.
Biography and genealogy master index This link opens in a new window
Indexes hundreds of biographical sources covering individuals, living and dead, from every field of activity worldwide.
Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Offers a collection of full-text biographies, including the complete run of Biography Today and Biography.
Black women in America, 2nd ed. This link opens in a new window
The second edition of Black Women in America, edited by Darlene Clark Hine, provides expanded coverage of the achievements and contributions of African American women.
Contemporary Hispanic Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of Latinos and Latinas in the international Hispanic community.

Dictionary of Political Biography
It covers all the major figures in world politics of the twentieth century.

The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography by Donald A. Grinde; Bruce E. Johansen; Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Call Number: 10th Floor Reading Room - E 89 .J69 1997 [In-Library Use Only]

Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library
Library in Fort Wayne that offers databases with biographical information about people in Indiana and the nation.

Latinas in the United States by Vicki Ruíz; Virginia Sánchez Korrol
An historical encyclopedia that covers the full range of Latina economic, political, and cultural life in the United States.

Notable American Women
Access the 1607-1950 volumes (published, 1971);
Access the Modern Period volume (published 1980):
Access the volume that completed the twentieth century (published 2004).
Oxford companion to American literature (6 ed.)
There are over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their style, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. There are more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories.
Who's Who in the Twentieth Century
It provides biographies of men and women from different countries and cultures who have contributed to the thought as well as the action of the twentieth century.

Who's who on the web This link opens in a new window
Biographies of over a million people of note, world wide. All Marquis' Who's Who biographies published since 1985 are included. Usage info: Licensed for 1 simultaneous user.

World's Who's Who
It offers current biographical information on about 70,000 of the most influential men and women in all fields.

Data and Statistics

General

Ancestry library edition This link opens in a new window
Searchable genealogical information on billions of names across thousands of census and related collections.

Census Online
A directory of links to online census records.

CQ Press Political reference suite of online editions This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable, full-text access to reference titles on government and politics. Includes: Congress and the Nation, Encyclopedia of Political Science, Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, Guide to Congress, Guide to Political Campaigns in America, Guide to the Presidency, Guide to U.S. Elections, Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, Historic Documents Series, Political Handbook of the World, [CQ's] Politics in America, Supreme Court Yearbook, Vital Statistics on American Politics, and Washington Information Directory.
Encyclopedia of population This link opens in a new window
Demographic information for topics including: rapid demographic expansion in poor countries; low fertility rates and problems of old-age support; the environmental impact of a dense population; the press for expanded reproductive rights; and much more.

Pew Research Center
Nonpartisan think tank conducting public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
More than 12,000 national, state, local and special surveys, conducted by 700 polling organizations in the United States and 70 other countries from 1986 through the present. Usage info: Licensed for 4 simultaneous users.

World Bank Open Date
The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development.

US Government Sources

Census Data This link opens in a new window
Data from the decennial Census and the American Community Survey about U.S. population, business, housing, economics, and more.

CensusScope
Created by the Social Science Data Analysis Network, this source makes US census data accessible.
Demographic Trends in the 20th Century
A US Census Bureau summary of the last 100 years.

Historical Statistics of the United States (ebook) This link opens in a new window
This Millennial Edition Online is an expanded and rev. ed. of the Bicentennial Edition of Historical Statistics of the United States, colonial times to 1970, Washington : U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1975.

Statistical Abstract of the United States
A comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States.