This section includes some Best Bets, or databases that have been deemed most relevant for initial or beginning research of American Studies.
Academic Search Ultimate [EBSCO]
This link opens in a new windowFull text for 10,000+ scholarly publications in the social sciences, humanities, arts, and sciences from around the world.
America: History & Life with Full Text [EBSCO] 1953+
This link opens in a new windowExtensive index to 1,700 journals, books, and dissertations on American and Canadian history, popular culture, anthropology, sociology, economics, education, and politics.
Ethnic NewsWatch 1960+ [ProQuest]
This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
JSTOR
This link opens in a new windowComplete full text articles (excluding latest 2-5 years) for more than 1,000 scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Now includes current coverage for several hundred journal titles, plus eBooks. JSTOR’s image search (formerly Artstor) contains more than 2+ million images. It includes Smith College collections developed to meet teaching needs in the arts, humanities, and sciences, as well as images of works from the Smith College Museum.
MLA International Bibliography [EBSCO] 1919+
This link opens in a new windowExtensive index to literature, language, linguistics and folklore in journal articles, books, dissertations, proceedings, and more. From the Modern Language Association of America.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History & Culture Since 1940 [Gale]
This link opens in a new windowPrimary source collections on social, political, health & legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities in the U.S. and internationally. Includes the collections Community and Identity in North America, International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture, LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 Parts I and II, and L'Enfer de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, a collection of French works from the 1800s that were considered to be contrary to the morals of the time.
History Commons: LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture
This link opens in a new windowA collection of blogs, podcasts, videos, zines, and more from over 1,000 organizations representing activist voices from the 1980s to today, with a special focus on content at risk of disappearing, especially in oppressive countries.
Lily: A Temperance and Feminist Newspaper 1849-1856
This link opens in a new window1849-1854, then Mary Birdsall 1855-1856). Initial coverage of temperance issues later expanded to include articles on child-bearing, education, and women’s rights, with many articles by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Ms. Magazine Archive (1972-present) [ProQuest]
This link opens in a new windowDigital access to every issue of the influential feminist magazine, Ms., from its launch in 1972 to the present, including iconic covers, articles, essays, interviews, book reviews, original fiction, and poetry, which document the evolution of feminist thought and social change.
Queer Pasts
This link opens in a new windowA collection of primary source exhibits for students and scholars of queer history and culture.
Women's Studies Archive [Gale]
This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources from the 19th & 20th centuries, including diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records & journals; documents the issues that have affected women's societal contributions & social status and the women's movement.
American Periodicals [ProQuest] 18th-early 20th Century
This link opens in a new windowCombines American Periodical Series (APS) and American Periodicals from the Center for Research Libraries, offering full text access to 18th-early 20th century American magazines and journals.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 [AM Digital]
This link opens in a new windowLetters, telegrams, reports, treaties, etc. generated by the British Foreign and Colonial offices. US materials: Prohibition, World War II, Lend Lease, Communism, the Ku Klux Klan, desegration, etc. Canadian materials: Railroads, fisheries, border disputes, the Hudson’s Bay Company, Native Americans, etc. Caribbean materials: Slavery, trade, agiculture, boundary disputes, health & disease, etc.
History Vault (All collections) [ProQuest]
This link opens in a new windowDigitized primary source collections of unique manuscript and archival materials, spanning organizational records, declassified government documents, diaries, official correspondence, personal letters, business ledgers and more.
New York Amsterdam News Historical 1922-1993 [ProQuest]
This link opens in a new windowA leading African American newspaper of the 20th century. Full page and article images with searchable full text from the New York Amsterdam news (1922-1938), New York Amsterdam news (1938-1941 : City ed.), New York Amsterdam news (1943-1961 : City ed.), New York Amsterdam news (1962-1993), New York Amsterdam star-news (1941-1943), and the New York star & Amsterdam news (1941-1941). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format.
Smithsonian I: Worlds Fairs and Expositions [Gale] 1840-1940
This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents on major expositions. Covers architecture, fine & decorative arts, technology, industrial design, science, entertainment, urban planning, manufacturing, cultural history, etc.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Coverage varies by title)
This link opens in a new windowFull text articles from The Christian Recorder, The Colored American/Weekly Advocate, Frederick Douglass Paper, Freedom's Journal, The National Era, The North Star, Provincial Freeman, and Douglass Monthly.
Chicago Defender Historical [ProQuest] 1905-1975
This link opens in a new windowOnline archive of articles, editorial cartoons, photographs, advertisements, etc. from this important African-American newspaper.
Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents
This link opens in a new windowFull-text collection of local, regional & national newspapers published by Ku Klux Klan organizations and sympathetic publishers across the U.S. during the 1920's; also includes several anti-Klan newspapers. Formerly called Understanding Hate in America.
HAPI : Hispanic American Periodicals Index 1970+
This link opens in a new windowCitations to articles and other materials from 400+ journals, on Central & South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, U.S.-Mexico border & U.S. Hispanics.
History Vault: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle [ProQuest]
This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents focused on the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century. Includes records from the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, as well as federal records on the Black Freedom Struggle.
Independent Voices: A Collection of an Alternative Press
This link opens in a new windowAlternative press newspapers, magazines & journals from the latter half of the 20th century, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries.
Indigenous Peoples: North America [Gale]
This link opens in a new windowPrimary source materials (manuscripts, books, newspapers, photos & images) documenting the historical experience, cultural traditions, and political status of indigenous peoples of North America.
Native American Indians, 1645-1819
This link opens in a new window"Every Major Book Printed in North America about Native Peoples" - More than 1,600 publications about the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers, featuring text exploration tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery.
ProQuest Black Studies
This link opens in a new windowThis database combines primary and secondary sources, including leading historical Black newspapers, archival documents and collections, key government materials, videos, writings by major Black intellectuals and leaders, scholarly journals, and essays by top scholars in Black Studies. Includes former database "Black Studies Center".
Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive [Gale]
This link opens in a new windowContains primary source documents from the United States & Europe, as well as other parts of the world; formats include antebellum books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, images, and extensive archival material.
Tribal Treaties Database
This link opens in a new window
This database includes agreements between tribal nations and the United States (1778-1886) published in the 1904 work “Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties” (Volume II), compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. As you view the treaties in this database, editorial margin notes are included. Links to Kappler’s original text and digitized treaties held at the National Archives can also be found throughout the site. Finally, a recently updated, comprehensive index complements this work.
Notable Journals
Below you will find a short list of journals that may be relevant to the study of American Studies.
African American Review
African American Review is a scholarly aggregation of insightful essays on African American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews.
Amerasia Journal
Since 1971, Amerasia Journal has been the leading interdisciplinary journal in Asian American and Pacific Islander studies. For almost five decades, Amerasia Journal has played an indispensable role in establishing Asian American studies as a viable and relevant field of scholarship, teaching, community service, and public discourse. According to founding publisher Don T. Nakanishi, Amerasia Journal “has benefited from and reflected a wide array of profound social changes that have occurred among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—be it their unprecedented growth and diversification, or their ever-increasing levels of access, representation, and achievement in American society’s institutions and sectors that had long excluded, marginalized, or demonized them.”
American Indian Culture and Research Journal
The premier journal in Native American and Indigenous studies, it publishes original scholarly papers and book reviews on a wide range of issues in fields ranging from history to anthropology to cultural studies to education and more.
American Indian Quarterly
American Indian Quarterly has earned its reputation as one of the dominant journals in American Indian studies by presenting the best and most thought-provoking scholarship in the field.
American Quarterly
American Quarterly has been the preeminent guide to American studies since 1949. With a broad, humanistic understanding of American culture, the journal encourages cross-disciplinary work.
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies
Providing a much-needed forum for interdisciplinary discussion, GLQ publishes scholarship, criticism, and commentary in areas as diverse as law, science studies, religion, political science, and literary studies. Its aim is to offer queer perspectives on all issues touching on sex and sexuality. In an effort to achieve the widest possible historical, geographic, and cultural scope, GLQ particularly seeks out new research into historical periods before the twentieth century, into non-Anglophone cultures, and into the experience of those who have been marginalized by race, ethnicity, age, social class, body morphology, or sexual practice.
Journal of American Studies
Journal of American Studies seeks to critique and interrogate the notion of "America", pursuing this through international perspectives on the history, literature, politics and culture of the United States.
Journal of Asian American Studies
Journal of Asian American Studies (JAAS) explores all aspects of Asian American experiences through original articles detailing new theoretical developments, research results, methodological innovations, public policy concerns, and pedagogical issues. The Journal also publishes book, media, and exhibition reviews. As a much-needed outlet for the increasing volume of scholarship in the field, JAAS provides an avenue for a quick and lively exchange of ideas.
Journal of Black Studies
The Journal of Black Studies is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the fields of social sciences and ethnic studies concerning African and African diaspora culture, with particular interest in African-American culture.
Journal of Popular Culture
The Journal of Popular Culture continues to break down the barriers between so-called “low” and “high” culture and focuses on filling in the gaps that a neglect of popular culture has left in our understanding of the workings of society.
Latino Studies
This journal explores the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric realities that influence the Latina and Latino presence in the United States.
Studies in Popular Culture
Studies in Popular Culture publishes articles on popular culture however mediated: through film, literature, radio, television, music, graphics, print, practices, associations, events--any of the material or conceptual conditions of life.