Home - American Studies - Research Guides at Occidental College

Online Reference Sources

Oxford Companion to American Literature
Includes over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors. There are also more than 1,100 full summaries of important American literary works.
Dictionary of American History
Covers all aspects of American history except for Biography.
American Decades
Cross-disciplinary source for researchers who need to document and analyze periods of contemporary American social history.
Worldmark Encyclopedia of the States
Details current geographical, social, and political data, historical narrative, and statistical information on the 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Caribbean and Pacific dependencies of the U.S.
Encyclopedia of Multicultural America
Contains 152 original essays on specific minority and ethnic groups in the U.S.

ISBN: 9780873528085

Call Number: GR101 .A54 1996

Call Number: E169.1 .E624 2001

Call Number: HC103 .E52

Call Number: JK2261 .S218 2007

Call Number: JK1021 .C565 1991

BOOKS (Use this tab to explore):

Using the OASys Catalog to search Oxy's Collection.

Trying other library catalogs to find materials outside of Oxy.

Learning how to locate books on the shelves (called "stacks").

Using subject headings to execute more precise searches.

Finding new American Studies publications owned by Oxy and partner libraries.

ARTICLES (Use this tab to explore):

Using databases to find scholarly article citations and full text.

Identifying major American Studies publications.

Locating online and print journals accessible through Oxy.

MULTIMEDIA (Use this tab to explore):

Finding sound recordings and video related to American history, literature, and culture.

Viewing images related to American Studies (including digitized posters, pamphlets, artifacts, government documents and other resources.)

Topic Finding and Thesis Formation

Follow your interest AND pay particular attention to the assignment you have been given. Make sure you understand what your Professor is asking for before diving into your research.
Note some topics that interest you and then play around with narrowing and broadening these topics. For example, if I liked the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, I could investigate him, the broader topic of Transcendentalism, or the narrower topic of how one of his works - like Society and Solitude - was received.
Look for tensions, anomalies and unanswered questions.
What assumptions have been made in previous scholarship surrounding this topic?
What critical approaches have and haven't been taken with this topic?
Look for ways you can situate an argument within the context of a larger argument, or in opposition to another argument.
Realize that the scope and focus of your topic will change the more information you locate, read, and analyze. Your preliminary research should help you figure out which aspects of your broader topic you are truly interested in focusing on; in later research, you can hone in on this narrow topic.

Initial Exploration

Encyclopedias that focus on history, culture, and literature including the online/print reference sets listed on this page.
Google (Scholar, Web, Images, Books)
OxyWorldCat

Writing and Research Resources

Historical Research and Writing

Writing History: A guide for students by William Kelleher Storey. D16 .S864 2004

Literary Research and Writing

The art of literary research by Richard D. Altick and John J. Fenstermaker. PR56 .A68 1993

General Writing and Research Resources