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American Studies

RESOURCES

Indexes were initially used to search for periodical literature. With the advent of more computer-based information and the explosion in the number of full-text materials, the term “index” has become a bit outdated. Most of the titles included here will list secondary periodical literature (including book reviews). Most will be scholarly. Many have full-text, but this is far from universal. Some exist both in print and in electronic formats. This list also includes some of our full-text/full-image databases of interest to historical scholars. Please note that depending on the research topic, primary source material may be found in each of the categories below.  Due to the inter-disciplinary nature of American Studies, this list should not be considered a complete or comprehensive list of all TAMU Libraries resources that may be applicable.

GENERAL INDEXES TO SCHOLARLY LITERATURE FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (SOME FULL-TEXT):

  • AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE
    Contains articles, book reviews, and select dissertations, from over 2000 scholarly and professional journals in History since 1964. Topics range from culture to politics to pre-historical sites. Covers United States and Canadian historical topics from pre-history to the present.

  • MLA INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: Online 1920s - present  International coverage of literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore indexed from over 4,000 journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies.
  • ANNUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE  An electronic index of critical articles and book reviews on language and literature in English back to 1892. The print index of article citations on English language and literature covers published articles from 1920 to present.
  •  Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts abstracts literature worldwide on linguistics and language behavior for researchers and practitioners in disciplines concerned with the nature and use of language. Coverage is from 1973 to present on descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical issues in linguistics.
  • Film & Television Literature Index
    Film & Television Literature Index is a comprehensive bibliographic database covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing. It has been designed for use by a diverse audience that includes film scholars, college students, and general viewers. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
  • WEB OF SCIENCE
    Electronic version of the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Science Citation Index. Covers only the top journals of the included fields. Contains book reviews. Access to 1966.
  • WILSON PERIODICAL INDEXES
    H. W. Wilson Co. publishes several indexes and databases of interest including: Humanities, Social Sciences, Book Review Digest, for scholarly materials, and the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature for general interest topics. All Wilson databases can be searched individually or in combination (some browsers require the user to scroll down for all options). Electronic access for most Wilson resources only goes back to the 1980s. However, the "Reader's Guide Retrospective" and "Humanities and Social Sciences Retrospective" both index popular and scholarly periodicals from the late 19th century and offer excellent access to primary source material for most of the 20th century.  NOTE: Please be aware that this link goes to the Wilson OmniFile as the default search. To search other Wilson indexes, de-select the OmniFile and select the desired resource(s).
  • PUBLIC AFFAIRS INFORMATION SERVICE: PAIS INTERNATIONAL
    Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) indexes scholarly literature as well as some government reports on national and international topics affecting public policy (including: terrorism, economic policy, immigration, politics, diplomacy, tariff and trade issues, etc.). The electronic access goes back to 1980s (a full retrospective is in the works), but the Library has this index in print since 1915 in the Reference Department.
  • AIR UNIVERSITY LIBRARY INDEX TO MILITARY PERIODICALS
    Indexes scholarly journals and magazines from the military branches back to 1990.
  • PERIODICALS CONTENTS INDEX: PCI
    A general database similar to WilsonWeb. Covers general and scholarly periodicals from 1770-1993. Contains many full-text articles.
  • ACADEMIC SEARCH COMPLETE: EBSCO
    A general database similar to WilsonWeb. Covers general and scholarly periodicals for the past twenty-five years. Contains many full-text articles.
  • DIGITAL DISSERTATIONS AND THESES
    ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) includes records (including some full text) of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations written at most American research universities (and selected international institutions) since the mid-nineteenth century. Most entries are from American universities, but an increasing number of international institutions are being added to this resource.
  • JSTOR
    An electronic full-text archive of the major journals in History as well as other social, behavioral, and physical sciences. While JSTOR has complete retrospective collections of journals, the most current (three to five years, depending on title) will not be available.
  • PROJECT MUSE
    A collection of electronic journals in the humanities and liberal arts. Unlike JSTOR, which has complete retrospective runs, MUSE holds current journal titles. The older issues of selected MUSE journals are electronically available through JSTOR.
  • HISTORY COOPERATIVE
    A collaborative effort between some of the largest and most respected scholarly and professional organizations in History to bring their respective journals into the electronic realm.    This resource contains current full-text material from titles including: American Historical Review, Journal of American History, William & Mary Quarterly, Western Historical Quarterly, Labour History, et al. Access is provided by the Texas A&M University Libraries.

INDEXES TO SCHOLARLY LITERATURE IN GENDER AND RACE & ETHNIC STUDIES

  • BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ASIAN STUDIES
    The online version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS), referencing principally western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia published since 1971.
  • CHICANO DATABASE
    This resource identifies material about Chicanos and provides uniform subject access to this constantly growing body of literature. Incorporates the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Database, a comprehensive resource covering psychological, sociological, and educational literature. Also includes (1992 to the present) the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants.
  • GENDER STUDIES DATABASE
    The Gender Studies Database combines the Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases. GSD includes: several thousand links to freely available and indexed full-text articles and web documents professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations, and other carefully selected and important websites.
  • HISPANIC AMERICAN PERIODICALS INDEX: HAPI
    Hispanic American Periodicals Index - HAPI contains citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works, and other materials appearing in more than 500 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world. The scope is Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States, and topics such as: current political, economic, and social issues to unique coverage of Latin American arts and letters.
  • INDEX ISLAMICUS
    The Index Islamicus database indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world (including the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere). Records include citations in over 3,000 journals, conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews. Journals and books are indexed down to the article and chapter level.
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NATIVE AMERICANS
    Bibliography of Native North Americans (BNNA) is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. BNNA contains more than 80,000 citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada. Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present.

NEWSPAPERS (sometimes classified as "E-Journals"):

  • EARLY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS (1690-1876) from Readex/Newsbank
    The core of this digital collection of newspapers are Clarence Brigham and Isaiah Thomas' collections combined with those from the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Library of Congress, and other university and private collections.
  • DALLAS MORNING NEWS from Readex/Newsbank
    A full-text/full-image electronic version of the Dallas Morning News, 1885-1977.

 ProQuest Historical Newspapers (can be searched individually or with other ProQuest Historical titles):

OTHER PRIMARY SOURCE DATABASES (MOST FULL-TEXT):

  • EEBO
    Early English Books Online is a collection of electronic texts from some of the earliest published books in the English language. The collection is based on Pollard and Redgrave’s “Short Title Catalogue” and Donald Wing’s bibliography; roughly covering a time period from 1475 to 1700. Over 125,000 titles are currently included with more being added regularly.
  • EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COLLECTIONS ONLINE (ECCO)
    This is a massive digitization project that when complete will allow electronic access to circa 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 (predominately in Britain). Segments to be included are: History and Geography; Social Science; Fine Arts, Music, Art & Architecture; Medicine, Science, & Technology; Literature and Language; Religion and Philosophy; and Law.
  • EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINTS, SERIES 1. EVANS (1639-1800)
    Based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography, this digital project contains works published in North America (especially in the colonies that later became the United States) during the 17th- and 18th- centuries. This remarkable undertaking offers a comprehensive look at all aspects of life in Colonial and Early Republic times.
  • EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINTS, SERIES 2. SHAW-SHOEMAKER (1801-1820)
    A continuation of the Evans’ Bibliography by Shaw and Shoemaker. Contains similar types of resources as Evans’ for the first two decades of the 19th century.
  • AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES (APS) ONLINE
    A selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
  • EMPIRE ONLINE
    Bringing together approximately 70,000 images of original manuscript and printed documents from libraries and archives around the world between 1492 and 1969, Empire Online is fully searchable and offers thematic essays by leading scholars, embedded with hypertext links which relate directly to the documentary evidence provided.
  • MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
    Also known as the Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature, this resource provides digital facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
  • ARTFL
    A database of electronic texts from over 2000 classic works of French language and literature from ca. 1300 to the present day.
  • 19th CENTURY MASTERFILE
    Originally an electronic version of W.F. Poole’s Index to Nineteenth Century Literature, this database has expanded to cover a wide variety of sources from the 1800s. Many of the popular periodical titles from the nineteenth century are covered here. This database has recently added selected full-text items.
  • HARPWEEK (1857-1877)
    An electronic version of the famous nineteenth century “Harper’s Weekly” magazine from the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Searchable text includes articles, illustrations, and even advertisements.
  •  DEFINING GENDER
    Five centuries of advice literature for men and women from 1450 to 1910. This new online project brings together approximately 60,000 images of original manuscript and printed material, including a strong core of documents such as ballads, cartoons and pamphlets, diaries, advice literature, medical journals, conduct books and periodicals.
  • EVERYDAY LIFE AND WOMEN IN AMERICA, c1820-1900
    This digital collection comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
  • WOMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE US
    As of June 2006, the website currently includes 67 document projects with 1,900 documents, and 25,000 pages of additional full-text documents. It includes as well book, film and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. On a quarterly basis we will be adding new document projects, book and website reviews, related teaching tools, and more documents.
  • READERS' GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE (WILSON)
    Part of the WilsonWeb, this index (no full text) contains citations to articles in popular magazines and journals from 1890-1982.
  • EIGHTEENTH CENTURY JOURNALS II
    The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center holds one of the finest collections of 17th and 18th century newspapers and periodicals in the world, and it was from here that items for Eighteenth Century Journals II were selected. These holdings were documented in ‘British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1632-1800’, compiled by Powell Stewart in 1950. More recent acquisitions have further enhanced these collections.
  • SABIN AMERICANA DIGITAL ARCHIVE
    Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.
  • BLACK STUDIES CENTER
    Black Studies Center brings together essential historical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases.
  • AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: LETTERS AND DIARIES
    This release contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Particular care has been taken to index this material so it can be searched in a more effective manner.
  • BLACK THOUGHT AND CULTURE
    Black Thought and Culture contains 1297 sources with 1100 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
  • ORAL HISTORY ONLINE
    Oral History Online provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. The collection also provides keyword searching of almost 281,000 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life. It also contains pointers to over 4,100 audio and video files and almost 19,000 bibliographic records.

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT RESOURCES

  • LEXIS/NEXIS (Academic)
    Like WilsonWeb, LEXIS carries a wide range of sources. Full-text (but not page images) from many major U.S. and select international newspapers are included back to the 1980s (varies by title) under its “Academic” heading. LEXIS also allows legal research and includes the full-text of all United States Supreme Court opinions as well as most state supreme courts (start under “Academic” then click on the sub-heading “Legal”). In addition, LEXIS facilitates Congressional research back to 1789 through its “Congressional.” Please note that the Congressional hearings found here are not full-text, but the Library owns most of the microfiche collection (2nd Floor Evans).
  • UNITED STATES SERIAL SET, 1817-1980
    A digital version of the United States Serial Set. Contains Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound volumes for the period 1817-1980.  This is still a work in progress and not all years are currently available.
  • AMERICAN STATE PAPERS
    The American State Papers constitute rich primary source material on many aspects of early American history from 1789 to 1838. A retrospective republication of approximately 6280 numbered publications, largely Congressional but also containing Executive Department materials, the American State Paper volumes, issued from 1832-1861, were published in ten classes in a total of 38 folio volumes. Unlike the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, the publications in the American State Papers are not divided into reports and documents and do not include House and Senate journals. Approximately two-thirds of the publications cover the first 14 Congresses (1789-1817), whereas the remaining third chronologically overlap with the Serial Set from 1817-1838.
  • FBIS, 1975-1996
    A digital index to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service microfiche collection (Evans Library, 2nd Floor). FBIS monitored foreign news media for stories relating to the United States.
  • ANCESTRY LIBRARY
    Genealogy resources, including US census data, birth, marriage, death and military records.
  • HERITAGE QUEST
    This resource has census data, genealogy and local history materials, and more.

OTHER AMERICAN STUDIES RESOURCES

  • Ad*Access  An image database of over 7000 advertisements from US and Canadian printed materials from the 1910s to the 1950s.  Most cover subjects related to travel and transportation, health and beauty, and mass communications.
  • American Memory  A digital museum of some of America’s treasures, as well as images on topics ranging from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) to minorities to sports from the Library of Congress.
  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841-1902 Full text newspaper from Brooklyn, NY.
  • Center for History and New Media  Exciting projects and collections combining the study of the past with the technology of the present.
  • Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers  Project from the Library of Congress to digitize selected issues of US newspapers.  Content is currently limited to just a few issues from a handful of states, but projected to increase.
  • Colonial Williamsburg’s Digital Library Selected digital materials from one of the earliest Anglo settlements.  Includes the newspaper, Virginia Gazette (1736-1780).
  • Documenting the American South  A project to collect and digitize materials, including slave narratives, relating to the history of the southeastern US; from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill.
  • DoHistory  A website related to Laurel Ulrich Thatcher’s prize-winning book, A Midwife’s Tale, based on the diary of Martha Ballard.
  • H-Amstdy The H-Net discussion network for American Studies.
  • Making of America A joint project from the University of Michigan and Cornell University to digitize 19th century American books and periodicals.
  • National Archives and Records Adminstration The site of the official archives of the United States of America, charged with collecting and preserving the important documents of the nation.
  • The American Studies Association (ASA) The professional organization for people interested in American Studies.
  • Theory & Method in American Cultural Studies  An extensive annotated bibliography of many of the definitive works which lay the foundations for studies of American culture.  Compiled by T. V. Reed at Washington State University.
  • Wisconsin Historical Society  An excellent repository of historical materials beyond that state’s borders.
  • Valley of the Shadow  Pioneering digital project at the University of Virginia that examined two communities (one North, the other South) during the Civil War.

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