LibGuides: United States History: America to 1876

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[Section 1]

Cooke, Jacob Ernest. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. C. Scribner's Sons, 1993.
E 45 .E53 1993 Fl. 1

[Section 2]

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
A great place to start your research with access to the world's best citable information, wherever you are. Easy access to trusted content from over 70 of the world's leading academic publishers. Access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.

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Ethnic Newswatch covers full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press. Ethnic categories included are: African, American/Caribbean/African, Arab/Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, European/Eastern European, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native People.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is our most comprehensive interdisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles. For each journal included in JSTOR, it includes the full-run of the journal, from its beginning up until the most recent 3-5 years. Covers a wide variety of subjects such as history, literature, biology, business, and African-American studies.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Premier is an excellent multidisciplinary research database that contains scholarly journals as well as magazines, newspapers, and trade publications. Much of the content is full text.

Google Magazine Search
(by Bret Heim and Lauren Jensen)

Vital Speeches of the Day

The Southern Courier (Weekly newspaper covering Civil Rights in the South

[Recommended Scholarly Journals]

[Recommended Magazines]

[Films and Video]

Freedom Riders from Let Freedom Ring: Moments from the Civil Rights Movement,
1954–1965. Films Media Group, 2008.

Freedom Riders: Threatened. Attacked. Jailed. (PBS)

Features firsthand accounts from the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and
journalists who witnessed the Rides.

Click the blue links for sample sources

[Section 1 Writings]

Malcolm X

sample: X, Malcolm. February 1965: The Final Speeches. New York: Pathfinder, 1992. Print.

Eldridge Cleaver

sample: Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Groups

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

sample: Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Black Panther Party

Nation of Islam

Search also for: Black nationalism

Civil rights workers / activists

College Students and Civil Rights

[Section 2 - Events]

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Selma-Montgomery Rights March, 1965

Sit ins

[Section 3]

College integration Mississippi

University of [name of school here] + [History]

University of Georgia History

[Section 1] By Geography [see also "Start Here"]
Click the blue links for sample sources

[Type 1a] State + [Race relations]

subject: Alabama Race relations

sample: Gaillard, Frye. Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed
America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004. E185.93 .A3 G35 2004 Fl. 2

[Type 1b] Civil rights movements + [State]

subject: Civil rights movements Mississippi

[Type 2] City + [Race relations]

subject: Birmingham Race relations

subject: Selma Race relations

sample: Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1978. JK1929.A2 G37 Fl. 2

[Section 2] Social Conditions (sample searches)

subject: African-Americans Civil rights

subject: African-Americans Alabama

subject: African-Americans Segregation

subject: African Americans Civil Rights Religion

University of [ ] + [History]

su:University of Georgia History

College integration

su:College integration Mississippi

African American Religion and Civil Rights

[Section 3 as needed]

Documenting America’s Struggle for Racial Equality (University of Georgia)

Georgia Civil Rights Digital Library

Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive (University of Southern Mississippi)

Civil Rights in Mississippi

Civil Rights Archive (University of Mississippi)

Civil Rights in Mississippi

Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina)

Oral Histories of the American South

Civil Rights Digital Library

Library of Congress

Civil Rights External Web Sites Resource Guide

Voices of Civil Rights Online Exhibition

Organizations

Southern Freedom Movement Documents 1951-1968

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

CORE - Lator

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

The Student Voice and SNCC Internal Newsletters

Freedom Rides

University of Mississippi

Freedom Riders’ Oral Histories

General Sources

Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
CT213 .A68 Fl.1

Dictionary of American History. New York: Scribner, 1976.
E174 .D52 Fl.1

Library online catalog of digital and print sources

Primary Sources

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
(American Memory Project-Library of Congress)

The Avalon Project (Yale University)

The 18th Century

The 19th Century

Founders Online (National Archives and Records Administration) Searchable by author, recipient, and time period

The Writings of George Washington (University of California, digitized by Hathi Trust)

Print version E312.7 1834 vols. 1-12 Fl. 2

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

Benjamin Franklin

Alexander Hamilton

John Jay

Copeland, David A. Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers: Primary Documents on Events of the Period. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. E-Book

Subject: United States AND Colonial Period and Sources

Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention

Journals of the Continental Congress

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789
JK 1033 .L47 26 vols. Fl. 2

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
J 10 .A5 30 vols. Fl. 2

Subject: Continental Congress AND Sources

American State Papers

Debates of Congress

Annals of Congress

Congressional Globe

Sample Special Presentations

Timeline: American History as Seen in Congressional Documents, 1774-1873

Religion and the Founding of the American Republic

Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America

The Debate on the Constitution : Federalist and Antifederalist speeches, articles, and letters.
JK 155 .D33 1993 Fl. 2

Subject: United States AND Politics and government AND 1783-1789

Sturgis, Amy H. Presidents from Washington Through Monroe, 1789-1825: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Coker, Jeffrey W. Presidents from Taylor Through Grant, 1849-1877: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Rozema, Vicki. Voices from the Trail of Tears. Winston-Salem, NC: J.F. Blair, 2003.

Subject: United States 1783-1865 Sources

Civil War: Antebellum Period to Reconstruction
A major digital collection of essential books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America from 1840-1877.

The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
E464 .U6 Fl. 2

Werner, Emmy E. Reluctant Witnesses: Children's Voices from the Civil War. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.
E 468.9 Fl. 2

Perman, Michael. Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction: Documents and Essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. E464 .M22 1998 Fl. 2

Subject: United States AND Civil War AND Sources

Subject: Reconstruction Sources

Time Period subject tags and Topic knowledge

Cooke, Jacob Ernest. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1993.
E45 .E53 1993 Fl. 1

Subject: United States AND Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

Blanco, Richard L., and Paul J. Sanborn. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1993. E208 .A433 Fl.1

Subject: United States AND Revolution AND 1775-1783

Subject: United States AND Foreign relations AND 1775-1783

Rutland, Robert Allen. James Madison and the American Nation, 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. E342 .J36 Fl.1

Subject: United States AND Constitutional period AND 1789-1809

Subject: United States and Foreign relations AND 1783-1815

Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler. Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997.

Lamar, Howard Roberts. The New Encyclopedia of the American West. New Haven: Yale, 1998. F591 .N46 Fl.1

Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. E169.1 .E626 Fl.1 [click here for E-Book version]

Subject: United States History War of 1812

Subject: United States AND Territorial expansion

Subject: Lewis and Clark expedition

Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767-1821. New York: Harper and Row, 1977. E382 .R43 1977 vol. 1 Fl. 2

Subject: United States AND 1815-1861

Subject: United States AND Civilization AND 1783-1865

Subject: United States AND 1829-1837

Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. E468 .E53 Fl.1

Current, Richard Nelson. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. E487 .E55 1993 Fl. 1

Woodworth, Steven E. The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. E456 .A47 Fl.1

Subject: United States AND Civil War, 1861-1865 AND Causes

Subject: United States AND Civil War AND Bibliography

Zuczek, Richard. Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
E668 .E53 2006 Fl. 1

Subject: Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)

Presidents

Levy, Leonard W., and Louis Fisher. Encyclopedia of the American Presidency. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. JK511 .E53 4 vols. Fl.1

Hamilton, Neil A. Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Facts On File, 2001. E176.1 .H215 Fl.1

American National Biography. CT213 .A68 28 vols. Fl.1

Search tip #1:

Generally, invert the president's name, i.e. Polk, James
To find materials about a president search by subject
To find speeches, letters, diaries, etc. search by president name as author

Search tip #2:

Time period subdivisions for US History generally tend to coincide with presidential administrations.
For example, you can find materials for Abraham Lincoln using Lincoln, Abraham.

But you can learn much, much more about various aspects of American life by using the dates he was president.

Subject: United States AND Politics and Government AND 1861-1865

Subject: United States AND Civil War AND Economic aspects

Subject: United States AND History AND 1861-1865