Guides: HIST 204: History of the American Peoples: Home

Welcome to the library guide for HIST 2044! On this guide, you will find information to help you explore the complex world of American history. If you ever have any questions, need help using a library or online resource, or want personalized assistance researching a topic, please reach out to me directly through email (nicholas.dandrea@pepperdine.edu) or by scheduling an appointment.

Research Starting Points

Picking a topic: Start by figuring out what interests you. Think about what you've learned in class, skim course readings and internet sources, and talk to others about ideas. As you're brainstorming and searching for information in this stage, take time to focus your topic so it's not too broad and not too narrow. I recommend looking here (after you search, check the unlocked and free boxes on the left) and here when you start.
Turn your topic into a research question: Start by saying to yourself, "I am studying [TOPIC]" and then ask yourself why? What do you want to know more about? Then ask yourself, why is it important to study this? Taking time to think through these questions will help you formulate your research question. Having a clear research question will help you guide your learning and writing.
Know how to read your sources: As you start looking for sources, it's important you know how to read them. Go this page from the University of Iowa to learn about methods to read primary and secondary sources.

Historical Documents (Primary Sources)

A primary source is any source of information created at the time we're studying. Studying documents of the past is critical to historical research. Below are several major collections of historical documents covering a broad range of American history. For more specific requests, or help searching these resources, please contact me.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
An expansive, fully digitized collections of resources from the US Library of Congress.
Digital Public Library of America
Over 20 million images, texts, videos, and sounds from "America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions"
New York Public Library: Digital Collections
More than 800,000 historic photographs, posters, maps, and other images from the collections of the New York Public Library
National Archives: Milestone Documents
The primary source documents on this page highlight pivotal moments in the course of American history or government. They are some of the most-viewed and sought-out documents in the holdings of the National Archives.
Primary Sources Library Guide
A more comprehensive list of primary sources curated by Pepperdine Librarians.

Secondary Sources (Academic Articles & Books)

Secondary sources, which are sources that interpret and analyze primary sources, are used by historians to help understand the time they're studying. Below are links to places to search for both academic articles and books.

Historical Abstracts
Annotated bibliographic citations to articles and book reviews plus index of journals on history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding U.S. and Canada).
JSTOR

Archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering the Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.

Below you'll be able to search for books at Pepperdine Libraries and beyond. Here are some useful tips for searching our library:

Use the filters to improve your results. I recommend using the library filter (shows you what we have) and the format filter (choose between ebooks, print books, articles, etc).
Use quotation marks around phrases to enhance your results. For example "Pepperdine University" will produce only results that contain those two words together and in that order
Use TI: before your search words to search just the titles of things and use AU: before an author's name to see their works

Need a book or article we don't own? Use our interlibrary loan service!