LibGuides: HS 330 The Civil War & Reconstruction: Articles/ Primary Sources

Introduction

Databases, listed on the right, will lead you to peer-reviewed journals appropriate for academic research. Please note that articles published in peer-reviewed journals are reviewed by experts and rigorously vetted before publication. Non-peer reviewed journals (also known as popular sources), such as the ones found on magazine racks of large booksellers or published on Google, are not peer-reviewed.

Google Scholar

Journal Locator

Use to check the Library's holdings for the journal you want. It is possible that the article you want is not available in a database, but is available in print. Print holdings of journals can be found on the Library's lower level. These are shelved alphabetically according to title.

Popular Civil War Magazine

America's Civil War
Available via Academic Search Complete

Spotlighted Scholarly Journal

Civil War History
Civil War History is the foremost scholarly journal of the sectional conflict in the United States, focusing on social, cultural, economic, political, and military issues from antebellum America through Reconstruction. Articles have featured research on slavery, abolitionism, women and war, Abraham Lincoln, fiction, national identity, and various aspects of the Northern and Southern military. Available via Project Muse

Databases

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window General database recommended for finding scholarly articles in most disciplines. Hosted on the EBSCOhost platform.
America: History & Life This link opens in a new window Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Hosted on the EBSCOhost platform.
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window Created by the Alexander Street Press, this Web site showcases letters and diaries from the American Civil War. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies, and there are over 2,000 authors in the collection.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window As of 8/1/2024, the ARTstor website is retired. ARTstor content is now available on JSTOR's "images" tab. Searchable database of more than 300,000 digital images and associated catalog data. JSTOR images covers many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, and download images.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window Non-fiction works by African-American leaders and others who have dealt substantially with issues of race in America. Includes books, essays, articles, speeches, letters, interviews, and other materials, some of which have not previously been published.
HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future. There are more than fifty partners in HathiTrust, and membership is open to institutions worldwide.
New York Times Historical: 1851-2019 This link opens in a new window This database offers full-page digital reproductions of every page (images and articles) from every issue, cover to cover, from the New York Times in downloadable PDF files.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal literature. 1878 + Last several years not included.
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window The largest historical newspaper database online, contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1759 to present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy for you to quickly explore historical content.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. The materials have been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies, supplemented by customer requests and more than 7,000 pages of previously unpublished material. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
Oral History Online This link opens in a new window This database provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. In some cases the full text is available.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Full text database of many scholarly journals in history, political science and literature. 1993+

Research Minutes: How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles

What are primary sources?

A primary source is a document or other historical evidence written or created during or near the period under study. Because of their close relation to the subject, primary sources usually offer special insight about their topic. The person, organization, or body under study often generates them. There are many examples of primary sources; each varies according to the nature of your topic. Primary sources generally are:

• Original Documents: Diaries, manuscripts, speeches, letters, minutes, interviews, news or film footage, autobiographies, and official records and documents. Note: Translations and excerpts are acceptable.

• Creative Works: Poetry, drama, novels, short stories, music, photos, and art

• Relics or Artifacts: Jewelry, pottery, furniture, clothing, and buildings