United States History Resources

Use Library Search to find books owned by Temple University Libraries.

• You can search by author, title, subject, or keyword.
• Select the Books & Media box to see print and ebooks. 
• Use filters at the left to narrow your results (i.e. by Library location, publication date, etc.)
• Once you find a book that seems useful, check the list of Subject links in the item's record. Try these links to find additional books on the same topic. For example the subject: Indians of North America -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775, will take you to other books on Native Americans in Colonial North America.

• BookBot: Place request online and pick up on the first floor, behind the One Stop Assistance Desk
• Stacks (4th floor): On the 4th floor of Charles Library, organized by call number. 
• Remote Storage: Place request online. Typically takes 24 hours to be retrieved. Pick up at One Stop Desk.

If Temple does not own the book, you can request it from another library via E-Z Borrow or ILLiad.

Historiographical essays provide the context within which contemporary historians continue a "conversation" begun by earlier scholars. Tracking down a good historiographical essay is perhaps the most efficient way to identify important works and critical debates on your topic.

Cambridge and Oxford companions online (three TULibraries' databases) are particularly useful in this regard. 

Keep in mind that many important historiographical essays are published in the secondary journal literature, so don't forget to search the most important abstracting and indexing databases in history (listed below) and the journal History Compass:

The core history journal databases —

• America: History & Life for reviews of books written about the Western Hemisphere;
• Historical Abstracts for reviews of books written about the Eastern Hemisphere;
• JSTOR for reviews of history books with an imprint more than a few years old;
• and ProjectMUSE for reviews of books published in the last several years —

All can be useful for finding scholarly book reviews. These databases cover, in addition to book reviews, scholarly journal articles, dissertations, editorials, and speeches, so be sure to limit your search to "Book Review" in both America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts, and to "Reviews" in JSTOR. You might try searching for the keywords "book" AND "review" in separate search boxes, or enter the phrase "review article" into a single search box.

The following are dedicated book review databases: