English 244 & 245 - U.S. Literature I & II: Reference Sources

General Reference Sources

These online subject encyclopedias and books can be used to explore your topic and get background information. Many sources will have extensive bibliographies; you can use those to find additional sources!

Gale Ebooks
Full text encyclopedias in all subject areas
Oxford Reference Online
Full text dictionaries, encyclopedias, and subject reference works from Oxford University Press.

Literature Reference Sources

These sources offer great background information on literary genres or eras in addition to definitions of literary terms and biographical information on authors or key literary figures:

Gale Literature Resource Center
Comprehensive database of poetry, drama and prose, literature journals, author biographies, topic overviews, and critical essays.

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
This award-winning Encyclopedia surveys American literature in 350 essays from leading scholars, covering American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. The Encyclopedia includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes. The Encyclopedia's articles offer historical perspective and social context.

U.S. History Reference Sources

These sources offer great background information on a variety of U.S. History topics and eras in addition to biographical information on key historical figures:

American Decades
Includes interdisciplinary articles analyzing periods of contemporary American social history (1900-1999).
American Decades Primary Sources (1900-1999)
Includes full or excerpted primary sources representing the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decades of the 20th Century. Includes oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, newspaper articles, cartoons, and more.
Dictionary of American History
Covers a wide range of topics in American history, from the well studied and familiar to the obscure.

Daily Life Through History
Off-campus access temporarily requires use of Husky OnNet. Primary documents, essays, images, maps, and timelines depicting daily life around the world and throughout history

Datapedia of the United States: American History in Numbers
Presents data on several hundred indicators of social, economic, political, and cultural developments within the nation 1790 to 2007, and includes select data projections through 2050.
Oxford Companion to U.S. History
1,400 articles on America's political, diplomatic, and military history; social, cultural, and intellectual trends; science, technology, and medicine; the arts; and religion.

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Multicultural Perspectives

Cambridge History of African American Literature
Offers a comprehensive overview of the oral and print literary traditions of African-descended peoples in the United States.
American Indian Literature : an encyclopedia for students
Introduces readers to the key historical and contemporary figures and themes in American Indian literature.
Cambridge History of Native American Literature
Outlines significant periods of literary and cultural development for Native Amercan literature.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture
Essays on the history, foundations, and new directions in Asian American literature and culture.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature
Offers a nuanced introduction to the historical circumstances and critical approaches to a variety of genres and themes in Latino literature.
Historical Dictionary of U.S. Latino Literature
Contains entries on U.S. Latino/a authors, and terms relevant to the nature of U.S. Latino literature.
Cambridge Companion to American Gay and Lesbian ilterature
Examines the connections between LGBTQ populations and American literature from the late eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.