Research Guides: American Studies: Finding Articles & Data

Recommended Databases

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
This database is the definitive index of scholarship covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, with an index of 1,700 journals and a breadth from prehistory to present. From EBSCO.
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Includes 2,009 authors, approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs, and 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive bibliography of the sources in the database.
American Indian Experience: The American Mosaic This link opens in a new window
The American Indian Experience from ABC-CLIO is an invaluable digital resource that provides in-depth historical accounts and contemporary cultural information about the indigenous peoples of North America.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
A landmark collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full-text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Designed to provide the "other side of the story," ENW titles offer additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. From ProQuest.
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Film & Television Literature Index is designed for use by film scholars, college students, and general viewers. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. From EBSCO.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
Full-text database of articles, reports, pamphlets, papers and conference proceedings devoted to women's and gender issues. From ProQuest.
HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
Includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, providing a personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives.
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.
Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints is a cross-curricular research database for topics involving social issues, particularly if your project has an argumentative or position component. The goal is to provide a pro/con discussion of subjects using articles, book chapters, government reports, news transcripts, and more.
Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements in the United States is a database resource for students of U.S. women's history. The collection has a vast array of primary documents from over 2,300 authors, including multimedia and full-text archives.

Public Policy Research

The American Enterprise Institute
AEI is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise.
The Brookings Institute
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. with a mission to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan educational institute dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action.
Center for Economic Policy Research
CEPR is Europe’s leading network of Economic Policy Researchers. Over 1700 Fellows and Affiliates, based in institutions throughout Europe and beyond, contribute to our research, events and publications.
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Policy research on children and families. 1979-Current.

CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy - Data This link opens in a new window
CLASP conducts analysis of national, state, and local data to accurately document racial disparities and disparate policy impacts by race to inform our policy recommendations and advocacy.

Institute for Research on Poverty
IRP researches the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. We bring together social scientists from across research disciplines such as economics, sociology, social work, and demography. The result is a well-rounded understanding of poverty issues.
Measure of America-SSRC Project
Measure of America provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and stimulating fact-based dialogue about issues we all care about: health, education, and living standards.

Pew Research Center This link opens in a new window
A nonpartisan fact tank that publishes public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.

RAND Corporation
Economic and social policy with a historical focus on military research.
Southern Poverty Law Center
A nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.
Urban Institute
"At Urban, we believe that data and evidence are essential to shaping a more inclusive, equitable, and just society."

Historical Newspapers

Accessible Archives: 18th & 19th Century Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search several historic American newspaper and periodical databases, including archives of the Liberator (1831-1865), Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1885), the Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800), and many more.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1770-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Gale NewsVault This link opens in a new window
Access newspaper content from the 17th century forward on this platform which allows you to cross search multiple newspaper sources at one time. Search over 10 million page images.
Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Sentinel (1934 - 2005) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of the Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1999). View results as page images.
Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2019) This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of the New York Times (1851 - 2019). View results as page images.

Literature Databases for American Studies Research

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Full-text biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers.
Women Writers Online This link opens in a new window
Women Writers Online is the database of the Women Writers Project (WWP). It contains full-text editions of more than 100 texts by English and American women published between 1500 and 1830, and includes introductory essays written by contemporary scholars.
MLA Modern Language Association International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to scholarly materials published worldwide in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. From EBSCO.

Open Access American Studies Journals

Some open access publications may not be included in the article databases listed on this page. Searching for American Studies in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access journals) can lead you to these open access resources. A few are listed below.