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HST 321: History of Urban and Suburban America: Background Information
City Depictions
- U.S. History (Gale In Context)U.S. History In Context provides a complete overview of our nation’s past that covers the most-studied events, decades, conflicts, wars, political and cultural movements, and people. Includes over 5,000 primary source documents, reference materials, and journal titles.
- American Urban Form: A Representative HistoryCall number: HT123 .W228 2012
- Cities in American Political HistoryAlso in Print
- World History (Gale In Context)Collection of reference materials, full-text articles from scholarly publications, an array of primary sources, and images, maps and charts which provide geographic and chronologic research materials for the study of world history. Coverage of ancient Europe to Latin America and from the Far East to the Renaissance.
- The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World HistoryCall number: HT111 .O94 2013
- Biography (Gale In Context)Combines over 280,000 biographies from sources such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedias of World Biography, Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, etc.
- African American Studies CenterA comprehensive collection of scholarship focusing on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Includes 7,500 articles. The core content includes Africana, which presents an account of the African and African American experience in five volumes.
Starting with background information
Become familiar with the ideas, major concepts and basic vocabulary in your chosen research area. Such background knowledge places your topic in a wider context, deepens your understanding and helps you feel more comfortable with it.
- Encyclopedias are a great place to get an overview of a topic that is new to you.
Encyclopedias often identify narrower areas within the broad subject, which may suggest a focus for your research. Many encyclopedia article entries also provide a list of references that can help you locate further, more in-depth and scholarly information sources. - Work from general to specific.
If a general encyclopedia doesn't provide enough background information, continue your research with focused subject encyclopedias. Wikipedia can be a place to find specific names, dates and events, but use it mainly as a jumping off point. The library has scholarly subject encyclopedias which provide reliable and in depth information. - Subject dictionaries can help define unfamiliar words and specialized terminology when researching a new subject in specific disciplines.
- Remember: Encyclopedias are good starting points, but don’t contain ALL the information you'll need on a subject for college level research.
- Get started: Look up your keywords in the indexes to subject encyclopedias. Read articles in these encyclopedias to set the context for your research. Note any additional keywords and relevant items in the references at the end of the encyclopedia articles.
Search multiple background resources
Search across a variety of encyclopedias in Gale's Virtual Reference Library:
General Background
- Oxford Reference OnlineIndexes the full text of over 100 Oxford subject encyclopedias and dictionaries.
- Gale EbooksGale eBooks is a Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
- Sage Reference OnlineOnline versions of reference titles from Sage Publications.
- U.S. History (Gale In Context)U.S. History In Context provides a complete overview of our nation’s past that covers the most-studied events, decades, conflicts, wars, political and cultural movements, and people. Includes over 5,000 primary source documents, reference materials, and journal titles.
- Chronology of American History4 Volumes- Published 2008
Chronologies
- Chronology of American History4 Volumes- Published 2008
- The American Year BookThe Library owns the Year Books for the years 1910-1947.
It seems almost every possible subject is covered, form International Relations to published works on Greek language and literature, including the year's chronology. - The encyclopedia of American facts and datesYear-by-year events in American History grouped by subject.