History Pathfinder: U.S. Late 20th Century History

Indexes

An index is a specialized database that organizes information about the locations of articles in journals/magazines, reports and newspapers; and book chapters, papers in conference proceedings, and book reviews. Indexes provide the complete bibliographic citation of an article, including the title of the article, author, name of the journal, volume number, the pages of the journal in which the article can be found, and a short summary, or abstract, of the article. Some indexes are in book form, and some are electronic databases. Some eletronic databases, including America: History & Life, do NOT provide the complete text of articles. For tips on how to effectively search databases, and how to find journals that are not available on-line, contact your librarian, or consult How to Find Materials on History in the Waidner-Spahr Library.


America: History and Life
Covers scholarly literature on United States and Canadian history. Materials treating all aspects of history from prehistoric times to the present. The rest of modern world history is covered in a companion database, Historical Abstracts.

Humanities Full Text
Covers journal articles in the humanities, archaeology, art, classics, film, folklore, history, journalism and communications, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, and religion.

Humanities and Social Sciences Retrospective
A bibliographic database that cites articles from English-language periodicals. Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals.

JSTOR
An interdisciplinary archive of over 600 journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Lexis-Nexis
Lexis Nexis will provide you with full-text from newspapers around the world, for up to the past ten years.

Project Muse
Project Muse covers numerous subject fields in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, including history. Journals covered by Project Muse are scholarly and peer-reviewed, published by a not-for-profit press or scholarly society, and be a sensible fit with titles in the humanities, the social sciences and the arts.

ProQuest
ProQuest is a good index to use in the beginning stages of your research project. It is an index that covers major journals in English and many other subjects in which Dickinson College offers a major. It offers access to thousands of periodicals and newspapers, many of which are supplied full-text. ProQuest supplies both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. See your librarian for tips on how to narrow to scholarly topics.

WorldCat
A catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide. You can use this database to find out what libraries own material you might need.

 

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Dictionaries and encyclopedias are helpful in finding basic information about your topic area. They may also serve as sources of inspiration to you as you search for new topics to research. The following list is not comprehensive. Search the library catalog for more encyclopedias and dictionaries. Refer to How to Find Materials on English in the Waidner-Spahr Library for tips on how to best perform a search, or contact your librarian for assistance.


Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century
REF E740.7 .E53 1996

The Annals of America
REF E173 .A793

A Dictionary of American History
REF E174 .P87 1995

The Reader's Companion to American History
REF E174 .R43 1991

History in Dispute: American Social and Political Movements, 1945-2000
REF D20 .H56 2000

The Vietnam War: Handbook of the Literature and Research
REF DS558 .V58 1993

History in Dispute: The Cold War: First Series
REF D20 .H56 2000

Historical Dictionary of the 1970s
REF E839 .H57 1999

The Sixties in America
REF E841 .S55 1999

The Columbia Guide to the Cold War
REF E744 .K696 1998

Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement
REF E185.61 .L84 1997

American Culture After World War II
REF E169.12 .A418 1994

 

Biographies

Print:

Who's Who in America
REF E176 .W642 1899

Who's Who in the 21st Century
REF CT121 .W46 2003


Electronic:

Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) is the best place to begin a search for information about people. It is an index of reference sources containing biographical information on individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world. This index is not full-text, but Dickinson College owns many of the materials referenced in the database. A librarian can help you locate any materials you are having trouble locating.

American National Biography (ANB)
Nearly 20,000 biographies, revised three times per year.

 

Atlases/Maps

Atlas of the United States
REF G1201 .G1 A76X 1986

 

Statistics

Population Abstract of the United States
REF HA202 .A686 1983

Statistical Abstract of the United States
REF HA202. A2

Primary Resources

100 Key Documents in American Democracy
REF E173 .A15 1994

Additionally, the Library owns the entire run of the New York Times from its inception in 1851.

Foreign Relations Series
The official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, includes the Truman through Nixon administrations.

Public Papers of the Presidents
The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, began in 1957 in response to a recommendation of the National Historical Publications Commission. Noting the lack of uniform compilations of messages and papers of the Presidents before this time, the Commission recommended the establishment of an official series in which Presidential writings, addresses, and remarks of a public nature could be made available. Volumes covering the administrations of Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush are included in the Public Papers series.

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Documents in law, history and diplomacy. From B.C. through the 21st century.

 

Websites

AmericanPresident.org
A non-partisan resource on the history and function of the American presidency. Brought to you by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, the nation's leading research institute for the study of the American presidency.

Presidential Speeches
Miller Center for Public Affairs

Presidential Recordings
From the University of Virginia. Franklin Roosevelt through Nixon.