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Research Databases & Resources
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20th Century History Resources (all) 
 
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Articles (from journals)
America: History and Life (EBSCO)
An index with abstracts to history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
An index with abstracts to more than 2000 periodicals on world history from 1450 to the present ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (HW Wilson)
Indexes articles in the subjects of gerontology, history, international relations, journalism, law, linguistics... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Index Islamicus (CSA)
Indexes journal articles, conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews on Islam... [more info]
Campus/Remote
JSTOR
Full online text and images for back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics... [more info]
Campus/Remote
WilsonWeb OmniFile (HW Wilson)
An index with abstracts and some full text covering all subjects, including humanities and social sciences... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Articles (from magazines)
American Periodical Series (ProQuest)
Digitized page images from American magazines and journals of all types. Titles range from some of the first... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (HW Wilson)
Indexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Time Archive 1923 to present
Time magazine backfiles 1923 to present. [more info]
Audio (Music, Spoken word , etc.)
African American Song (Alexander Street Press)
African American Song has merged with American Song. Please begin accessing this information through American Song or Music Online. This access point will expire. 16,000 tracks of historical blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narrative recordings from the first half of the 20th century. [more info]
Campus/Remote
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Digitized collections of primary source materials at the Library of Congress on American history and culture... [more info]
Internet
American Song (Alexander Street Press)
American Song is a history database with music from America's past... [more info]
Internet
Books / Book Chapters
America: History and Life (EBSCO)
An index with abstracts to history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present... [more info]
Campus/Remote
American Decades (Gale)
Online reference book chronicles American events, people, and places for each decade [more info]
Campus/Remote
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
An index with abstracts to more than 2000 periodicals on world history from 1450 to the present ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Index Islamicus (CSA)
Indexes journal articles, conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews on Islam... [more info]
Campus/Remote
WorldCat (OCLC)
Catalog of over 62 million titles cataloged by libraries worldwide ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Government Information
Congressional Masterfile 1 (CIS)
Note that JMU has access to the full text of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Edition, which will eventually cover 1789 to 1980. See the listing for that Research Database for more information. [more info]
Reference Desk
Images
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Digitized collections of primary source materials at the Library of Congress on American history and culture... [more info]
Internet
American Periodical Series (ProQuest)
Digitized page images from American magazines and journals of all types. Titles range from some of the first... [more info]
Campus/Remote
ARTstor
Image database containing images of architecture, painting, sculpture... [more info]
Campus/Remote
LIFE Photo Archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. [more info]
Internet
Legislative & Congressional Information
Congressional Masterfile 1 (CIS)
Note that JMU has access to the full text of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Edition, which will eventually cover 1789 to 1980. See the listing for that Research Database for more information. [more info]
Reference Desk
CQ Press Electronic Library (CQ Press)
Searches CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, and CQ Historic Documents, all in one... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Researcher Plus Archive (CQ Press)
Full text reports on current and controversial issues in U.S. politics, health care, education, economics... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Weekly (CQ Press)
In-depth reports on current issues facing the U.S. Congress, Senate, and House of Representatives. A complete wrap up on the week’s news... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Letters & Diaries
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press)
Primary source database offering women's diaries and letters... [more info]
Campus/Remote
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (Alexander Street Press)
Collection of primary sources written by North American immigrants from 1800 to 1950 ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press)
Collection of letters and diaries reflecting on the immediate experiences of 1,017 women ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online (Alexander Street Press)
Experience the past through thousands of private writings and personal narratives... [more info]
Campus/Remote
News Articles
Access World News (Readex)
Provides full-text for over 600 U.S. and over 700 international news sources. [more info]
Campus/Remote
America's Historical Newspapers: 1690-1922 (Readex)
Cover-to-cover digital facsimiles of 1,000 historic newspapers from every state... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Library of Congress)
Collection of digitized American newspapers from 1900 to 1910, as well as a directory of non-digitized newspapers from 1690 to the present.  [more info]
Internet
Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)
Full text and indexing for ethnic, minority, and international newspapers and magazines... [more info]
Campus/Remote
LexisNexis Academic
This resource's interface will be updated in late December. To view the changes, please click here. Contains several full-text databases: current news, laws and legislation, business and company information and more... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Nation Digital Archive (Nation Publishing Company)
Index with full-text of the Nation... [more info]
Campus/Remote
New York Times: Historical (ProQuest)
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue to about 3 years ago... [more info]
Campus/Remote
U.S. Newspaper Program
The United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national effort . . .
[more info]
Internet
Washington Post: Historical (ProQuest)
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue to about 15 years ago... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Primary Sources
African American Song (Alexander Street Press)
African American Song has merged with American Song. Please begin accessing this information through American Song or Music Online. This access point will expire. 16,000 tracks of historical blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narrative recordings from the first half of the 20th century. [more info]
Campus/Remote
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Digitized collections of primary source materials at the Library of Congress on American history and culture... [more info]
Internet
American Periodical Series (ProQuest)
Digitized page images from American magazines and journals of all types. Titles range from some of the first... [more info]
Campus/Remote
American Social History Online
A web tool for finding and using digital content from over 175 American Social History research collections.  A project of the Digital Library Federation. [more info]
American Song (Alexander Street Press)
American Song is a history database with music from America's past... [more info]
Internet
ARTFL: American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language
Provides the complete text of nearly 2,000 French works including classic works of French literature, non-fiction prose, and technical writing. [more info]
Black Thought and Culture (Alexander Street Press)
Collection of non-fiction published works of leading African Americans... [more info]
Campus/Remote
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press)
Primary source database offering women's diaries and letters... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Electronic Library (CQ Press)
Searches CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, and CQ Historic Documents, all in one... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Historic Documents Online Library (CQ Press)
A full-text database of primary source documents. Each volume contains approximately one hundred documents highlighting the year's most important events and issues... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Digital National Security Archive (Chadwyck-Healey)
This database is the most comprehensive collection available of significant primary documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945 ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (Alexander Street Press)
Collection of primary sources written by North American immigrants from 1800 to 1950 ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press)
Collection of letters and diaries reflecting on the immediate experiences of 1,017 women ... [more info]
Campus/Remote
OAIster Database
OAIster contains thousands of multidisciplinary resources from more than 1,000 contributors worldwide... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Oral History Online (Alexander Street Press)
This full-text material includes Ellis Island oral history narratives and rare Black Panther Party interviews... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (HW Wilson)
Indexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Time Archive 1923 to present
Time magazine backfiles 1923 to present. [more info]
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Streaming video of news from CBS (1968 to date) and CNN (1995 to date) plus indexing of television network news from all the major networks, 1968 to date. [more info]
Campus/Remote
Reference Information
American Decades (Gale)
Online reference book chronicles American events, people, and places for each decade [more info]
Campus/Remote
Armed Conflict Database
Full-text and statistics for international and internal conflicts... [more info]
Internet
Blackwell Reference Online - History (Blackwell)
A collection of full-text reference books in history. [more info]
Campus/Remote
Cambridge Histories Online (Cambridge University Press)
Cambridge Histories Online provides political, economic and social history, philosophy and literature... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Electronic Library (CQ Press)
Searches CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, and CQ Historic Documents, all in one... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Researcher Plus Archive (CQ Press)
Full text reports on current and controversial issues in U.S. politics, health care, education, economics... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Weekly (CQ Press)
In-depth reports on current issues facing the U.S. Congress, Senate, and House of Representatives. A complete wrap up on the week’s news... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Guide to Reference (ALA)
A selective guide of reference sources, organized by academic discipline... [more info]
Campus/Remote
History Resource Center: World (Gale)
A comprehensive collection of reference, full-text articles from leading scholarly publications, primary sources, and images, maps and charts... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection (Oxford University Press)
Database of full-text scholarly reference books on all subjects... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Reports & Proceedings
Armed Conflict Database
Full-text and statistics for international and internal conflicts... [more info]
Internet
Congressional Masterfile 1 (CIS)
Note that JMU has access to the full text of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Edition, which will eventually cover 1789 to 1980. See the listing for that Research Database for more information. [more info]
Reference Desk
CQ Press Electronic Library (CQ Press)
Searches CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, and CQ Historic Documents, all in one... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Press Researcher Plus Archive (CQ Press)
Full text reports on current and controversial issues in U.S. politics, health care, education, economics... [more info]
Campus/Remote
CQ Weekly (CQ Press)
In-depth reports on current issues facing the U.S. Congress, Senate, and House of Representatives. A complete wrap up on the week’s news... [more info]
Campus/Remote
Statistics & Datasets
Armed Conflict Database
Full-text and statistics for international and internal conflicts... [more info]
Internet
County and City Data Book (University of Virginia. Geospatial & Statistical Data Center)
Statistical database offering demographic, economic, and government information... [more info]
Internet
Historical Census Browser (University of Virginia. Geospatial & Statistical Data Center)
Detailed U.S. census information by state and county from 1790-1960. [more info]
Internet
Historical Statistics of the United States (Cambridge University Press)
Historical Statistics of the United States from 1790 to 2000. [more info]
Campus/Remote
  
See more 20th Century History Resources by type of information:
Articles (from journals)
Articles (from magazines)
Audio (Music, Spoken word , etc.)
Books / Book Chapters
Government Information
Images
Legislative & Congressional Information
Letters & Diaries
News Articles
Primary Sources
Reference Information
Reports & Proceedings
Statistics & Datasets
Contact the 20th Century History Librarian:
Patricia Hardesty