Introduction to Research in American History
- I. Doing Historical Research
- Primary and Secondary Sources
- Primary sources were written or created during the period
are studying. If you are studying the Civil War, the Emancipation
Proclamation is a primary source. An article in a newspaper from the period
commenting on the Emancipation Proclamation is also a primary
- Secondary sources are studies, interpretations or analyses
of primary sources, written or
created in a later period. For example, an article about the Emancipation
Proclamation in a scholarly
journal from 1973 is a secondary source, unless you happen to be studying
the 1970s--then it could be a primary source! Make
- Things to remember when looking for primary sources
- The terms we use to describe people and events change over time. For
example, in primary sources, the Civil War may be described as "The
Rebellion" or simply "the war."
- Events that we now see as extremely important were not always perceived
that way at the time. They may not be "front page news."
- What you can find on the web vs. what you can find in the library
- On the web: digitized primary sources, brief biographies and
summaries of events, on-line discussions. Watch out for inaccurate or
information on the web is often unattributed (no author or
source is given).
- In the library: original primary sources, MORE primary sources,
in-depth secondary sources, subscription-based resources on the
web, on-the-spot help with your research.
- II. Selected Web Sites
- Making of America
Digitized text and images from more than 4000 books and journals,
documenting 19th-century American history.
- American Memory
- From the Library of Congress. A collection of digitized photographs,
documents, manuscripts, sheet music, and collectibles, from colonial
times to the recent past.
- World Wide
Web Virtual Library: History
- A "library" of web pages, organized by chronological period and by
- III. Sources for Journal and Magazine Articles
Academic Search Premier
An electronic index to articles in a
wide range of popular magazines and scholarly journals. Academic Search
Premier offers indexing and abstracts for articles in more than
3000 scholarly journals from 1990 to the present and fulltext of
articles from more than 1000 journals. Most articles not included in
fulltext can be found in paper form in the IU Libraries.
America: History and
Covers the United
States and Canada from 1450 to the present.
Indexes about 2,000 scholarly journals.
Most of the article citations include
abstracts of 75-100 words.
A journal-digitizing project that contains searchable fulltext from twenty
important scholarly journals in history (such as the American Historical
Review) from their first issues to the early 90s.
- Electronic index to the New York Times, 1851-1923 and the London
Locating Online Fulltext Journals and Newspapers
More and more journals are being made available in electronic form.
This web page is a searchable list
of all the electronic journals the IUB Libraries subscribe to, including
journals that are part of large fulltext databases like JSTOR or Academic Search.
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