LibGuides: United States History: Reference

Electronic Reference Shelf

Reference sources are places to get background information (important facts, dates, names, people, concepts, etc.) on your topic. References sources include specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, handbooks, directories, etc.

Hutchinson Dictionary of American History
Very general, one volume dictionary.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
With eight volumes containing over 2,000 A-Z entries, the Encyclopedia provides information about major world developments from 1750 to the present, with close attention to social, economic, cultural, and political topics.

American History in Internet Indexes

American History - St. Ambrose University
From St. Ambrose University Library's "Best Information on the Net" site, which includes resources by major, hot paper topics, and an alphabetical index.
History of North America - from BUBL Link
A catalogue (yes, it is based in the U.K.) of Internet sources organized by the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
Social Sciences and the Humanities - from Infomine
Scholarly Internet resources organized by the libraries at the University of California, Riverside.
United States History - from IPL2
Hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology, and a consortium of colleges and universities, this popular Internet index is the result of a merger of the Internet Public Library (IPL) and the former Librarians' Internet Index (LII).

General United States History in the Reference Section

Dictionary of American history by Stanley I. Kutler, editor in chief
Call Number: REF E174 .D52 2003
ISBN: 0684805332
The third edition of the 1940 classic, last revised in 1976, and completely updated. Changes include 448 revised articles, 1,360 articles replaced, and 841 new entries. Gender, race, and social-history perspectives have been added to many entries for the first time, and maps and illustrations have been added.

Find these useful titles in the reference section on the upper level of the library.

Encyclopedia of New England: the culture and history of an American region by edited by Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters; foreword by Donald Hall
Call Number: REF F4 .E53 2005
ISBN: 0300100272
Contains 1,300 alphabetically arranged entries examining significant people, places, events, ideas, artifacts, anctedotes, as well as more than 500 illustrations and maps. Contributions come from nearly 1,000 distinguished scholars and writers, including journalists, academics, and specialists from museums, industries, and historical societies.
Historical Statistics of the United States by Susan B. Carter ... [et al.], eds.
Call Number: REF HA202.H57 2006
ISBN: 0521817919
The volumes cover, in order: v. 1. Population -- v. 2. Work and welfare -- v. 3. Economic structure and performance -- v. 4. Economic sectors -- v. 5. Governance and international relations.