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HISTORY 318: Global Campus

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Navigating this Guide

This library research guide is for students enrolled in History 418, Global Campus. Use the tabs to the left to to access to the various sections of the guide.

Additional library guides that explore topics and resources related to this course are listed below:

United States History: 1914-1945

Soldiers returning to DC by train greeted by family and friends.

US Return of Washington DC Soldiers.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington.

Alvin Sharpe during the Great Depression

Alvin Sharpe; Iredell Company, North Carolina.

Resettlement Administration, Rural Rehabilitation. FDR Presidential Library Collections.

Workers pouring concrete.

Pouring concrete on storage unit. Ogden, Utah, 1936

Works Progress Administration.Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library Collections

National Youth Administration.  Men work at large machines

Men work at large machines, 1938.

National Youth Administration. FDR Presidential Library Collections.

Soldiers training during World War Two

Training Camp maneuvers, 1943.

FDR Presidential Library Collections.

Poster shows a woman dressed in Stars & Stripes, symbolizing America asleep.

Wake up America! Civilization calls every man, woman and child!

Library of Congress World War I Poster Collection. 1917.

Course Texts

Course Texts

Research Databases

Research Databases for History

These databases index many key history journals and are a good place to search for scholarly articles related to your topic.

Note: Historical Abstracts and America History and Life can be searched simultaneously. After logging in to either database, click on the "Choose Databases" link at the top left of the screen to select additional Ebsco databases.

If you are searching for a scholarly article, look for the following attributes in your search results:

  • The article may begin with an abstract
  • The institutional affiliation of the author provided
  • The article includes footnotes, or concludes with a bibliography, references, or a works cited

Identifying Trustworthy Websites

Internet Research : Identifying Trustworthy Sites

Most (probably all) historians in the U.S. use the Internet to access at least some of the sources they utilize in their scholarship and teaching. You are in an online course and will use the Internet in your studies! 
The internet has brought many positive changes for us and fantastic tools for the historian of the 21st century. But, as you know, just about anyone can place anything they want on the internet, which is not necessarily a good thing for those of us doing serious research. Paying even the slightest attention to the news today reveals that some of our great social and political struggles are over internet content and how and whether to regulate it.
This all means that one should approach the internet critically when trying to do legitimate historical research and locate legitimate primary and secondary sources. There are no hard and fast rules other than simply taking time to investigate and assess the websites’ content, asking yourself who has created it, under what auspices it is operated, who is contributing to it, and what is the website's purpose. One helpful STARTING point for determining a site’s legitimacy is by looking at the URL (web address) extension.
Here is a short guide:
  • .gov = is used by the United States federal government. Thus, the Library of Congress, for example, an excellent source for American history, is https://www.loc.gov/
  • .org = usually is for a non-profit. Many historical societies and public libraries use this. In the region of the Pacific Northwest, where WSU is located, the Oregon Historical Society’s URL is https://ohs.org. The Washington State Historical Society’s URL is http://www.washingtonhistory.org/. The Seattle Public Library’s URL is https://www.spl.org/.
On the other hand, Wikipedia also uses .org. As you know, anyone can post anything to Wikipedia, whether true or not. Although the site can be very useful for getting some background and perhaps figuring out where to go next in the pursuit of knowledge (by using the references list at the bottom), it is not considered a legitimate authority for research in History 318.
  • .edu = post-secondary educational institutions. Washington State University uses .edu, for example.
  • .com = generally refers to “commercial,” a website for a business that is for-profit. Generally, one should be wary of using such sites for historical research.
 

Digital Collections and Websites

Digital Collections, Databases and Websites for Primary Source Research

Digital Book Collections

Thematic Primary Source Collections

Thematic Primary Source Collections

Historical Newspapers

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Historical Newspapers

Search It: the WSU Libraries Catalog

Search It

Tips for finding books in Search It:

  • Using quotations around standard phrases, such as "New Deal" can narrow your search to relevant results.
  • When you find a book that is on-topic, take a look at the subject headings assigned to the book; you can use them to identify other relevant titles. Subject headings can be general, or very specific. Some examples of Library of Congress subject headings include:

                    United States History - -1933-1945

                     New Deal, 1933-1945

                     United States - - Social Life and Customs - 1918-1945

                     World War, 1919-1918 - - Participation, African American

 

Books as primary sources

Primary sources often reflect the individual perspective, experience, or viewpoint of a participant or observer. A book that was written during the time period you are researching may be considered a primary source.  Published letters, personal narratives, diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, and documents are some examples of primary sources that are commonly published in book format.

To find primary sources through Search It, use the "advanced search"  feature. Combine your keywords with specific subject terms, such as diaries, sources, memoirs, letters, personal narratives, speeches, correspondence, interviews, etc.

As with secondary sources, Library of Congress subject headings can be useful for identifying additional primary sources. Some examples include:

 

 

 


Database Tutorials and More

Video Tutorials

 

Click here to access library research tips, tutorials and more.

Follow the links below to view brief instructional videos on navigating the research databases:

Project Muse:

JSTOR

America: History and Life

Chicago Style Guide

Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide

Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide - 17th Edition - Notes and Bibliography


Books

One author
Bibliography Entry (at end of paper) Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Full Footnote (first citation in the paper) 1. Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.
Abbreviated Footnote (second and subsequent citations in the paper) 2. Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 3.
Two or three authors
Bibliography Entry Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.
Full Footnote 1. Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945 (New York: Knopf, 2007), 52.
Abbreviated Footnote 2. Ward and Burns, War, 59–61.
Four or more authors

List all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”):

Full Footnote 1. Dana Barnes et al., Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s . . .
Abbreviated Footnote 2. Barnes et al., Plastics . . .
Chapter or other part of a book (reference book entries)
Bibliography Entry Morris, Jake. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Full Footnote 1. Jake Morris, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, ed. John D. Kelly et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 77.
Abbreviated Footnote 2. Morris, “Seeing Red,” 81–82.

 

Book published electronically

If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted. For books consulted online, list a URL or the name of the database. If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.

Bibliography Entry

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

OR

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. ProQuest Ebrary.

Full Footnote

1. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

OR

1. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), ProQuest Ebrary.

Abbreviated Footnote 2. Kurland and Lerner, Founder’s Constitution, chap. 10, doc. 19.

Articles

Article in a print journal

In a note, list the specific page numbers consulted, if any. In the bibliography, list the page range for the whole article.

Bibliography Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.
Full Footnote 1. Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.
Abbreviated Footnote 2. Weinstein, “Plato’s Republic,” 452–53.

Article in an online journal

Include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if the journal lists one. A DOI is a permanent ID that, when appended to - https://doi.org/ - in the address bar of an Internet browser, will lead to the source. If no DOI is available, list a URL, or include the name of the database (e.g., JSTOR) at the end of the citation as a substitute for a DOI or URL.

Bibliography

Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. https://doi.org/10.1086/599247.

OR

Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. JSTOR.

Full Footnote

1. Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 422, https://doi.org/10.1086/599247.

OR

1. Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 422, JSTOR.

Abbreviated Footnote 2. Kossinets and Watts, “Origins of Homophily,” 439.

 

Newspaper or popular magazine articles

If you consulted the article online, include a URL or the name of the database. Page numbers, if any, can be cited in a note but are omitted from the bibliography entry.  If no author is identified, begin the citation with the article title.

Bibliography

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

OR

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. ProQuest Newsstream.

Full Footnote

1. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

OR

1. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, ProQuest Newsstream.

Abbreviated Footnote 2. Stolberg and Pear, “Wary Centrists.”

Website

It is often sufficient simply to describe web pages and other website content in the text (“As of May 1, 2017, Yale’s home page listed . . .”). For a source that does not list a date of publication or revision, include an access date.

Bibliography McDonald’s Corporation. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts.” Last modified March 11, 2008. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.
Full Footnote 1. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, last modified March 11, 2008, http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.
Abbreviated Footnote 2. “Toy Safety Facts.”

 

(All of these examples taken from the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide, consult the guide for more examples)

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