Stewart Library - Weber State University
History 3110-American Ideas and Culture

Resources for weekly topics

 

Week 1:  Religious Belief in Colonial America

Seeing History:  Religion & the Founding of the American Republic, 17th Century Maps, 18th Century Maps, Plimouth Planation Museum,   Virtual Jamestown, John White & Theodor De Bry Images

 

Week 2:  The American Enlightenment

Seeing History:  Benjamin Franklin's Inventions, Monticello, Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley

Week 3:  Liberalism, Republicanism, and the American Revolution

 Seeing History:    Liberty, the American Revolution (PBS), 

 

Week 4:  Evangelical Religion and Democratic Order

 

Week 5:  Romanticism & Transcendentalism; The Search for Utopia

 

Week 6:  Sentimentalism

Week 7:  African- American Culture

 

 Seeing History:    African American Art on the Internet, 19th Century African American Images, Harlem, Underground Railroad,  Powerful Days in Black & White,

 

Week 8:  American Popular Culture

 

  Seeing History:    The Barnum Museum,  The Lost Museum (of PT Barnum), "There's a sucker born every minute",   Hear PT Barnum make the world's first recorded commercial plug, Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine,

 

Week 9:  Genteel Culture


 Seeing History:   Picturing Gentility:  Portraits of Women in American Art,

Week 10:  Capitalism & Working Class Culture

 

Seeing History:     Dime Novels, Labor Arts, Listen to Ragtime (excerpts),

Week 11:  The Secularization of American Culture, the Expansion of Commercial Amusement

 Seeing History:     Battle of Lights/Coney Island, Listen to Vaudeville, American Variety Stage, Bob Hope & American Variety, Vintage Vaudeville & Ragtime Show,

Week 12:  The Development of Mass Culture

Week 13:  The Color Line & American Culture

Week 14:  Culture & Power in Post-War American

Week 15:  The Culture Wars

Resources for Research 

 

Library  Resources

Stewart Library owns or has access to a large number of resources to help in your research.  

Getting Started:  if you're not sure of a topic or need some background information, reference books can be very helpful.  Some good ones to start with are:

Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions in Oxford Reference Online
Dictionary of Political Biography in Oxford Reference Online
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy in Oxford Reference Online
Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature in Oxford Reference Online
Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature in Oxford Reference Online
Grove Dictionary of Art  
Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians  
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation REF   BR 302.8 .O93
Dictionary of the History of Ideas REF   CB 5 .D52 9973
Historiography:  An Annotated Bibliography  of Journal Articles, Books & Dissertations REF   D 13 .H5 1987
Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing REF   D 14 .E53 1999
AHA Guide to Historical Literature REF   D 20 .A4 1995
Oxford Companion to World War II REF   D 740 .094
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust REF   D804.25.E53 2000
Encyclopedia of African History & Culture REF   DT 3 P27  2001
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara REF   DT 351 .E53 1997
Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies REF   E 45 .E53 1993
Native Americans REF   E 77 .P89 1998
Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States REF   E 184 .S75 H365 1993
The African American encyclopedia REF   E185.A253 2001
Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History 1838-1974. REF   Z 6205 .C18

You can find many other reference books on historical topics  by browsing the following call number areas:  

 C     the auxiliary sciences of history  (archaeology, chronology, biography, etc.)

 D    General history and outside the Americas (Wars, Europe, Asia, Gypsies, etc.)
         DT Africa

 E     United States History (includes Native Americans, African Americans, etc.)

 F    U.S. Local history (states, cities, regions) and the Americas outside of the     U.S. (Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean)

You can also find historical works in many other areas.  For example, economic history is in the H's,  the history of Medicine is in R, Diplomatic history is often in the J area (political science).

Finding Books:  

Use the WSU online catalog  to find what books and other materials, such as videos,  the Library owns.  The catalog will provide the location and availability of the resource,  We also have a subscription to Netlibrary, which provides access to electronic books.

Finding Articles:  

The best way to find articles is to use one of the Library's article databases.   These databases provide references to articles in journals.  In many cases, the actual article is available on the computer.

Our  databases are available from home or work.  Just click on the link and enter your ID number when prompted.  Don't know your ID or pin number?  Directions are available on our Off-Campus Access   page.


Useful databases for historical research  include:

  • Academic Search Elite  is a general database that allows you to search important journals in many fields, including all areas of history.  It has many full-text articles and is a good place to begin your research.  
  • America: History and Life   Indexes scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada. 1964-Present.
  • Historical Abstracts   Index to scholarly literature in world history, excluding the United States and Canada.  
  • Silverplatter Arts Databases  Access to Art History, Archaeology, Music, Film and TV databases.
  • Art Full Text  Citations and abstracts from 1984 to present, selected fulltext articles from 1997 to the present, covering Art History, Decorative Arts, Folk Art, Industrial Design, Motion Pictures,  & Television.
  • PAIS   citations to information on Public Affairs,  with some abstracts, 1972 - present, updates monthly  --  a good source for information on areas around the world  from an economic or political perspective.
  • Humanities Abstracts   Index to articles and reviews of books, plays, and radio/TV programs in the humanities, including history and archaeology. 1984 - present, updates monthly. 
  • Ethnic NewsWatch    Full text  Articles from minority and ethnic newspapers, magazines, and journals in English and Spanish. 1960-present.
  • GenderWatch Full text  Newspaper, magazine, and journal articles addressing the impact of gender in society.  1990-Present (with selected articles from the 1970's and 1980's)
  • WorldCat    This database represents the OCLC Online Union Catalog, which we use to borrow books from other libraries.  It contains more than 35 million records describing items owned by libraries around the world; each record contains library holdings. ~1000 A.D.-present.
  • Literature Resource Center   a complete literature reference database designed for both the undergraduate and graduate student - a good place to look for basic biographical information and critical analysis.
  • LitFinder   Includes: Poemfinder: over 100,000 fulltext poems with excerpts and citations for 800,000 more. Storyfinder: thousands of fulltext short stories with explanations and biographies. Essayfinder: fulltext essays in the humanities and social sciences with biographical information.
  • Philosopher's Index   indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields. It covers the areas of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language.  1940 - present.
  • Reader's Guide & Reader's Guide Retrospective  Indexes and some abstracts to articles in popular magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Life and many others.  1898 to present.

 

We have several databases that provide access to full-text history journals.  The two most important for history are:

  • JSTOR  A group of full-text journals in general science, history, economics, ecology, literature, mathematics, political science, and population studies. Dates of coverage vary.  This is an archival database.  It does NOT cover the  most recent 3-5 years, back issues only.
  • Project Muse Full-text journals in many fields  

To find out what journals are available in other databases, use:

Serials Solutions is a list of all the full-text journals that are available to WSU library patrons.  You can search the name of the journal by title or title keyword.

If you are doing research on history  in a specific field, such as medicine, science, theater, business, and so on,  it can be helpful to look in a database specific to that field.  For example:  to research medical history,   look in a medical database, to research theater history  look in a performing arts database.  Ask a librarian to help determine which database is best for your topic.

Browsing Current  Periodicals: 

You can also browse through journals and magazines.  This can be helpful when you're looking for a topic.  Current issues are on the 1st floor south, older volumes on the 2nd floor.  Use the call number areas listed under books.   For example:

D 1      General History 

DT 1    African  Studies

E  1       American History


Interlibrary Loan:

If we do not own a particular book or article you need, we will borrow it for you from another library through Interlibrary Loan.

Web Resources

There's a lot of good information out on the web.  Unfortunately, some it's not so good, so be sure to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!  Some interesting places to start looking are:

Primary Documents:

 

Databases & Gateways:

  • Best of History Websites:  US  Great list of good History sites (all periods).
  • Digital History  resource guides, textbook, essays, primary sources, teaching resources, and more from a consortium including the University of Houston, the National Park Service and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
  • History Matters  The U.S. Survey Course on the Web from George Mason U. et al.
  • The WWW-VL  History Central Catalog  - The WWW Virtual Libraries were among the first resources guides on the web and are still among the best.  From Argentina  to Yemen, from  Finding Aids to Scholarly Exchange, this is the place to begin. 
  • The Internet History Source Books  - These are excellent places  to begin looking for history sites on the web.  Quality does vary, but overall excellent.  New areas and topics being added constantly. 
  • "The Hidden Web"  consists of sites that search engines can't find, usually due to the type of files they contain, such as PDF and database files.  Many of these sites are very useful.  The best way to find them is to use directory listings.  The sites listed above all list Hidden Web sites of use to historians.  Other good general directories include:  Librarian's Index to the Internet , the Invisibleweb.com , and The Internet Public Library , as well as the directory features of Google and Yahoo .   Search engines such as Google are just beginning to search some of these sites. 

Useful Guides

There are many other excellent history sites.  Most are listed on one of the sites listed above.  You can also use a search engine to find more specific pages.  I recommend www.google.com.  Other good search engines to try are:  alltheweb.com and teoma.com.  Try kartoo.com if you prefer to use a graphical interface.   And remember:  evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!

Research Tips


Updated January 5, 2005 . Please send comments to Kathy Payne
Weber State University, Stewart Library. Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved.