In This Guide:

• By Americanists, For Americanists
• History and Culture
• Society, Government, Demographics, and Opinion
  
• News
• Literature
• Finding Books
  

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By Americanists, For Americanists

Reference Works

• Encyclopedia of American Studies
  Ref E169.1 .E625 2001
  Published by the American Studies Association, this work has signed articles with bibliographies. Index in volume 4.

Journals to Browse

• American Quarterly
  Available (1949-current) in the library and online
• American Studies
  Available (1971-current) in the library
  
• American Studies International
  Available (1990-current) online
• Journal of American Studies
  Available (1967-current) in the library

Finding Americanists' Journal Articles

• Academic Search Premier
  Indexes all the major journals written by and for Americanists, most of which are available in full text.
• ProQuest
  Access to thousands of newspapers, popular magazines, and trade publications, as well as scholarly journals important to American Studies. Much of this is available in full text.
• Periodicals Archive Online
  Older issues are indexed here as far back as the 1800s. For example, the Journal of American Studies is indexed all the way back to 1956 (its first issue). However, there's no full text available from this database, so you'll have to use the Journals List to see if we have access to the full text of the journals listed here elsewhere either in print or online.

Web Sites

• New American Studies Web (you may have to get and confirm a web "certificate" before using this site)
  Sponsored by the American Studies Association Crossroads Project, this incredibly rich site provides access to thousands of evaluated and selected web resources in American Studies. The sites are arranged topically, so you begin with a broad subject and then narrow it down to something very specific.

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History and Culture

You can learn a lot about history and culture by looking at newspapers, too.

Reference Works

• The Guide to United States Popular Culture
  Ref E169.1 .D399 2001
  Signed articles on a wide range of topics. Bibliographical references are included with each article, and the volume is indexed.
• Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History
  Ref E169.1 .E624 2001
  Organized chronologically by topic, this encyclopedia is composed of substantial articles on braod topics. All articles include substantial bibliographies. Use the table of contents or the index to find the articles relevant to your research.
• The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture
  Ref E169.1 .G7555 2002
  Lengthy articles on more general subjects such as "Westerns." The four volumes are paged continuously, and the table of contents (given in each volume) refers to all four volumes. All articles have full bibliographies, and there is an index in volume 4.
• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
  Ref E169.1 .S764 2000
  Signed articles with references for further reading. Indexed.

Articles

Look here for tips on finding the full text of an article.

• Periodicals Index Online
  An electronic index to millions of articles published in the humanities and social sciences..
• America: History and Life
  The index to scholarly literature on the history of the U.S. and Canada.
• Historical Abstracts
  The index to scholarly literature on the history of the world (including South and Central America).
• Humanities International Complete
  Includes hundreds of full text articles and book chapters on all aspects of Humanities.
• American Periodicals Series (APS) Online, 1741-1900
  A digitized collection of periodicals published in the U.S. from 1741-1900. the entire collection is not yet completely digitized, although it is indexed online. However, Carleton own the entire collection on microfilm (APS Series, in the Microfilm Periodicals area on 3rd floor).

Journals to Browse

• Journal of American Culture
  Available (1993-current) online.
• South Atlantic Quarterly
  Available (1964-current) in print and online.

Web Sites

• American Memory Project--Library of Congress
  A gateway materials pertaining to the history and culture of the United States, American Memory offers access to more than seven milliong digital items.
• Making of America at the University of Michigan
  A digital library of primary resources from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.

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Society, Government, Demographics, and Opinion

• Sociological Abstracts
  Indexes scholarly literature in sociology, but can also be used for finding scholarly work on cultural studies.
• iPoll
  US public opinion poll data from 1935 forward, organized by question. NOTE: You will need to register with your Carleton email address to begin using this database.

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News

• Poole's Index to Periodical Literature
  AI3 .P72 1802/81
  Indexes periodical literature from 1802-1881. Five supplements bring the coverage up to 1906.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers
  Indexing and full text for the Chicago Defender, New York Times, L.A. Sentinel, L.A. Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Each is available from it's first issue.
• Alternative Press Index (API)
  Provides indexing to left, radical, and alternative periodicals.
• Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) Complete
  Full text database of newspapers and periodicals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.

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Literature

• MLA International Bibliography
  Indexes scholarly writing on literature and film. International in scope.
• Humanities International Complete
  Includes hundreds of full text articles and book chapters on all aspects of Humanities.
• Periodicals Archive Online--(1770-1995)
  Indexing for a wide range of periodicals for the dates given.

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Finding Books

There are many ways to locate books that are relevant to your research topic.

• One strategy for finding useful books is to do a simple keyword search Bridge and browse your results to find a few books that look relevant. Open up the record for these books and scroll down the page to look at the "Subjects." These are standardized terms which you can then use in an advanced search. Enter the terms into the search box and select "Subject contains" from the drop-down menu. This will gather together books that are about the same topic. Some useful subjects include:
  • United States--Civilization
  • Popular culture--Civilization
  • National characteristics, American
• A second strategy is to locate reference books in your area. Look up your topic to see what terms they use (these could make good keyword searches) and scan their bibliographies.
• Another way to find relevant books is to browse the shelves near the useful books you've already identified because books are arranged on the shelf in subject order.
• A fourth strategy is to look at the bibliography of books you have already identified as useful. Authors may cite other useful books on similar topics to yours.

Remember, American Studies draws from the expertise of many other disciplines, so try looking at subject guides for other majors as well. For example, the guides for U.S. History and African-American Studies may be particularly useful.

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