Smith College Libraries Class Guides - AMS555: American Society and Culture

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Biographical Sources

American National Biography. 24 v.
Call Number: ref CT 213 .A68 1999
Dictionary of Literary Biography
Call Number: ref PN 451 .D53
Use the cumulative index in the most recent volume; your author may be covered in more than one volume of this set.
Notable American Women, 1607-1950. 3 v.
Call Number: ref CT 3260 .N57 1971
Notable American Women: The Modern Period.
Call Number: ref CT 3260 .N573 1980
Biography and Genealogy Master Index.
Call Number: ref CT 214 .B57 & supplements

General

Use these exploration encyclopedias for an overview of your topic, for definitions and explanations, and for lists of suggested readings. Ask at the reference desk for other suggestions. All are shelved in Reference, Neilson Level 1 North.

Dictionary of American History -10 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref E 174 .D52 2003
Encyclopedia of American Social History - 3 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref HN 57 E58 1993
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History - 3 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref E 169.1 E624 2001
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century - 3 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref E 169.1 .E626 2001
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century -5 vols.
Call Number: ref E 740.7 .E53 1996

Special topics

African American Music Reference
Biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner note & discographies. Coverage includes blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm & blues, gospel, etc.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. 6 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref E 185 .E54 2006
Covers all aspects of the African-American experience from 1619 to the present; includes biographies, historical essays, and thematic pieces.
International Encyclopedia of Dance (Oxford)
Covers cultural dance plus entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performance, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.
Modern American Poetry (Univ. of Illinois)
Offers historical background and analyses of American poems; constantly growing, with input from poets, scholars, and readers.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Includes all articles from these core reference works: African American National Biography; Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; and Black Women in America.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. 2 vols.
Call Number: Josten ref PN 2035 .O94 2003
Covers theater performance from ancient to modern times; also covers dance, radio, film, television, and popular performance.
Oxford Music Online
Includes New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; New Grove Dictionary of Opera; New Grove Dictionary of Jazz; Encyclopedia of Popular Music; The Oxford Dictionary of Music; and The Oxford Companion to Music.
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols.
Call Number: Neilson ref E 169.1 .S764 2000
Consult the better predecessor, too: Handbook of American Popular Culture (3 vols.) - Neilson stacks E 169.1 .H2643 1989