LibGuides: ENG 230: Reading and Writing About Literature (Huff): Secondary, scholarly sources

Demonstrated in class

These databases contain articles about history. They will help you find information about the historical periods, cultural issues, and social conditions depicted in the story you have chosen. Most of the articles are scholarly, though some are from magazines that appeal to history buffs.

America: History & Life with Full Text
Focused on the United States and Canada. Looks almost identical to Historical Abstracts.
Description: Key database for research in American and Canadian history. Indexes journals from the 1914 to the present, containing articles on all eras of American history.
Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,500 academic journals with the full text of more than 180 titles.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, History, Humanities, Mobile, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Books/e-books, Citations, Conference Papers, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles
Number of Simultaneous Users: 6
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
More useful for world history or the history of other nations. Looks almost identical to America: History & Life.
Description: Historical Abstracts indexes articles that cover world history from the 15th century forward, including military history, women's history, and the history of education. The database includes some linked full text and searches can be limited to articles about a specified historical period.
Time Period: 1914 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals and provides the full text for more than 475 journal titles.
Subject Headings: History, Mobile, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Reviews
Number of Simultaneous Users: 6
JSTOR
Covers many subjects, but is great for history research. Deep back issue access to some journals, but the most recent content is often unavailable.
Description: JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.

Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.

Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Provides the full text for approximately 2,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Mobile, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews

Not demonstrated in class

These databases might also be useful, depending on the historical, social, or cultural issues you're researching.

Project MUSE
A humanities database that often proves useful for history, literature, and gender studies topics.
Description: Project Muse is a full text database of journals in disciplines such as art, literature, history, political science, and economics. Some full text will come from JSTOR, in PDF format.
Time Period: 1993 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 300 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, English & Linguistics, History, Humanities, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Citations, Journal Articles
Sociological Abstracts
A sociology database that might be useful for researching issues relating to race and gender. Not many PDFs, but MultiLink might lead you to full text.
Description: Sociological Abstracts provides access to U.S. and international literature on sociology and related disciplines and may be useful for research in social work and women and gender studies.
Time Period: 1952 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals.
Subject Headings: Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences (Sociology)
Primary Materials: Journal Articles, Dissertations and Theses, Books, Conference Papers
Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
A database covering the social sciences somewhat broadly.
Description: Social Sciences Full Text covers the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences, this full-text resource provides access to the most important English-language social science journals. Indexes more than 700 peer reviewed journals.
Time Period: 1972 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 770 periodicals and provides full text for more than 330.
Subject Headings: Business, Education, History, Psychology, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Academic Search Complete
A multi-subject database with a lot of full text, and a mix of scholarly and non-scholarly sources.
Description: Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text and peer reviewed articles.
Time Period: 1909 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 20,000 Academic and peer reviewed journals and magazines and provides full text for more than 5,700.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Images, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Reviews
APA PsycInfo
A psychology database primarily containing scholarly articles.
Description: PsycInfo is a key database in the field of psychology. Includes information of use to psychologists, students, and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, and education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
Time Period: 1887 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 2,500 journals.
Subject Headings: Education, Mobile, Psychology, Social Sciences (Psychology)
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Information Included: Abstracts, Citations, Linked Full Text