Secondary Sources
Suggested Library Databases
- America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowUnited States and Canadian history from prehistoric times to the present. The database indexes all key journals in the discipline, state and local history publications. Indexing from 1895, full text from 1935.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A digital collective of books and journals from numerous academic and research libraries around the world.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journals and books. Access begins with the first volume for many journal titles, but usually does not have the newest volumes of each journal. To try out AI tools in JSTOR, login using your personal JSTOR account and visit the FAQs to learn more.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Journals and ebooks from major university presses on literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more.
- 19th Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full page views and text searching of numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life.
What is a Secondary Source?
Secondary sources are historical works written by someone who did not participate in the event or topic. They are documents written to explain and explore historical events and topics, often presenting a particular thesis, or perspective. They comment on, interpret, and discuss primary sources, as well as other secondary sources.
Scholarly sources are secondary sources written by and for people in academia – like you! When a scholar of history writes an article, a book, or a book chapter, their work goes through a rigorous vetting process before publication. Other scholars read and comment on the work, generally making sure the author’s information is correct, and that their interpretation/perspective is valid. On the other hand, popular sources, for a general audience, often do not include such thorough scrutiny, and so we do not consider them to be reliable sources of historical information.
Examples of scholarly secondary sources:
- Articles published in academic journals that focus on history
- Books published by academic presses (university presses)
- Book chapters in books published by academic presses
- Some certain documentary films (check with Dr. Lannon)
What NOT to use as your secondary source:
- Book reviews (even if they are in academic publications!)
- Magazine articles
- Websites (History.com and Wikipedia are expressly forbidden!)
- Newspaper articles (you can use newspaper articles as primary sources, if they come from the time period you are researching)
- Podcasts
- Hollywood movies
- Non-academic books and articles
- Encyclopedia entries