LibGuides: American Studies: Reference and Background

General Reference Sources Online

American Studies: A User's Guide by Philip J. Deloria; Alexander I. Olson
Publication Date: 2017
American Studies: A User's Guide offers readers a critical introduction to the history and methods of the field as well as useful strategies for interpretation, curation, analysis, and theory.
Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Third Edition by Bruce Burgett, Glenn Hendler (Editors)
Publication Date: 2020
Introduces key terms, research traditions, debates, and histories for American Studies and Cultural Studies
The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies by Wilfried Raussert (Editor) An essential overview of this blossoming field, The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies is the first collection to draw together the diverse approaches and perspectives on the field, highlighting the importance of Inter-American Studies as it is practiced today. Including contributions from canonical figures in the field as well as a younger generation of scholars, reflecting the foundation and emergence of the field and establishing links between older and newer methodologies, this Companion covers: Theoretical reflections Colonial and historical perspectives Cultural and political intersections Border discourses Sites and mobilities Literary and linguistic perspectives Area studies, global studies, and postnational studies Phenomena of transfer, interconnectedness, power asymmetry, and transversality within the Americas.
Publication Date: 2017

Encyclopedia of American Studies
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press for the American Studies Association (ASA), the Encyclopedia of American Studies covers the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States in relation to the world, from pre-colonial days to the present, from various perspectives and the global American Studies movement.

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Most current edition. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. Fully searchable across all files.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

Select Reference Sources Online

American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History by Gina Misiroglu
Publication Date: 2015
The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History by Carolyn Merchant
Publication Date: 2005
Encyclopedia of American Social Movements by Immanuel Ness
Publication Date: 2015
Encyclopedia of US Labor and Working-Class History by Eric Arnesen (Editor)
Publication Date: 2006
The Grove Dictionary of American Music by Charles Hiroshi Garrett (Editor)
Publication Date: 2013
Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia by Carlos Eliseo Cortés
Publication Date: 2013
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion in America by John Corrigan (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Queer Cinema in America: An Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Films, Characters, and Stories by Aubrey Malone
Publication Date: 2019
Surveillance in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and the Law by Pam Dixon
Publication Date: 2016

Select Reference Databases

Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
These bibliographies provide an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, expert recs and authoritative commentary on the best works available in the discipline covered, making them particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
These Bibliographies provide an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, expert recommendations and authoritative commentary on the best works available in the discipline covered, making them particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
UT Austin has access to the all bibliographies in all subject areas.
African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference works and over 6,000 biographies.
Updated regularly. A comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with sophisticated technology permitting precise search and browse capabilities. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's authoritative reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
Some of the titles included in this access are:
- African American Artists before the Twentieth Century
- African American National Biography
- Africana
- Black Women in America, Second Edition
- Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
- Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895
- Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
1855 - 1875. More than 1,000 biographies enhance the use of the database.
Updated regularly (until completed). Includes approximately 100,000 pages of published memoirs, letters and diaries from individuals plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 1,000 sources, the collection provides in-depth coverage of all aspects of the war. More than 1,000 biographies will enhance the use of the database.
Asian American Drama This link opens in a new window
1891 - present. Documents the Asian American experience as dramatized in works by writers from the 18th century to the present. Brings together biographies, a performance database, production details, and associated visual resources.
Documents the Asian American experience as dramatized in works by writers from the 18th century to the present. Brings together biographies, a performance database, production details, and associated visual resources, including photos, playbills, and manuscript images. Brings together more than 250 plays, beginning with the works of Sadakichi Hartmann in the late nineteenth century and progresses to the writings of contemporary playwrights, such as Philip Kan Gotanda, Elizabeth Wong, and Jeannie Barroga. Along with many works by writers of Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese descent, includes plays by writers of Hawaiian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Persian, and Malaysian ancestry.
Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) This link opens in a new window
Documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another across the United States.
Documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another across the United States. DARE is based on face-to-face interviews carried out in all 50 states between 1965 and 1970, and on a comprehensive collection of written materials including diaries, letters, novels, histories, biographies, newspapers, and more, from the colonial period to the present day.
The entries in DARE include regional pronunciations, variant forms, some etymologies, and regional and social distributions of the words and phrases.
Selected maps show where words were found in the 1,002 communities investigated during the fieldwork.
Some entries include audio recordings of the original DARE field interviews.
For a written or oral word to be included in DARE it must be a regional or folk term. Words from a standard dictionary are not included.
The DARE database can help with research along the lines of the well-cited “Pop vs Soda” debate.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
1677 - present. A collection of biographical material of American Indians and Canadian First Peoples in their own words and through the words of others.
A collection of biographical material of American Indians and Canadian First Peoples in their own words and through the words of others. Includes biographies, autobiographies, personal narratives, speeches, diaries, letters, oral histories, reference works, manuscripts, photographs and audio files.Sources include rare books and biographies from more than 100 Indian publications, such as The Arrow, the Cherokee Phoenix, and the Chickasaw Intelligencer. The collection includes 2,000 oral histories presented in audio and transcript form and at least 20,000 photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Edward Curtis, and many rare collections.
Texas Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Includes 80+ full text journals and books about Texas history, ethnic & cultural diversity, gender studies, literature, public health, business, garden, sports & leisure. Contains biographies portraying famous historical and contemporary Texans.
Updated weekly. Includes more than 80 full text journals and books about Texas history, ethnic & cultural diversity, gender studies, literature, public health, business as well as home & garden and sports & leisure. The database contains biographies portraying famous historical and contemporary Texans. Also available in the Texas Reference Center is the Spanish-language newspaper El Sol de Texas with Texas and national news coverage.