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Scholarly journals contain articles written by, and addressed to, experts in a discipline. Scholarly journals present the research of experts in a field, although these journals also often carry opinion pieces or even advertisements unique to the field addressed by the journal.
Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed or juried journals) send submitted articles to one or more experts for review before deciding to publish them. This review process helps ensure that published articles reflect solid scholarship in a field. Most often, the experts reviewing an article make critical comments on the text, comments that the author must incorporate into the article before its publication.
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Below are a list of useful library history databases, which include both secondary and primary sources in a variety of formats (scholarly articles, newspaper articles, ebooks, manuscripts, images...). The content is organized by reference databases (a great place to start), top databases in history, historical newspapers, and databases focusing on specific U.S. based populations (African Americans, Latinx, Indigenous). Additional information on search strategies and terminology are located in the left column of the page. Remember, if you cannot find the article you need in our catalog, use our Interlibrary Loan program to see if another library send us a copy.
This page lists a lot of U.S. historical databases. Start your search here and when you are more familiar with your topic, expand your search to the more subject specific databases below.
Index of over 1500 scholarly journals covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Video tutorials.
Almost 2 million dissertations and theses in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Tutorial.
Reference databases are a great place to start your research, especially in a new field or topic of study. Think of these as the Academic Wikipedia. These encyclopedia and dictionary resources provide peer-reviewed introductory and background information on a topic, where you can learn the language experts in a field use as well as helpful bibliographies.
Primary source database of diaries, letters and memoirs from the Civil War Era. Tutorial.
Over 50,000 primary source documents covering American history from 1493 to 1945 including correspondence, diaries, government documents, business records, books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, photographs, artwork and maps. Tutorial.
Primary material of historical importance including legislative and executive documents, speeches of U.S. presidents and coverage of historical events from 1789-1838. Tutorial.
The Race Relations Institute was a pioneering social science organisation, and its archive includes speeches, statistics, reports and much more, from 1943-1970. Discover a wealth of primary source material on the Civil Rights Movement, segregation, discrimination and racial theory in America during 3 pivotal decades of the 20th century. Tutorial.
Provides coverage of the politics, society and events by the premier U.S newpaper. The Historical New York Times (1851-2020) provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images. NYT Index covers 1851-1993. Tutorial.
This extensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1877 includes over 8000 titles. Video tutorials.
Contains over 1,100 historical American periodicals published between 1740 and 1940. Tutorial.
This primary source database includes records from relevant organizations such as Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the papers of sundry civil rights leaders. Tutorial.
Primary documents of African American history from the following time periods: 1. Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860); 2. The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877); 3. Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932); 4. The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945); 5. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975); 6. The Contemporary Era (1976-2000). Tutorial.
Black Studies Center consists of scholarly journals, commissioned overview essays by top scholars in Black Studies, historic indexes, and The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975. Tutorial.
An interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal focusing on research about the Chicano experience.