Selected Web Resources
(for the Study of U.S. History) 

RETURN
TO:
GO
TO:
ABOUT THIS SITE:
The web sites listed below were originally organized to assist graduate
students (and advanced undergraduates) seeking to improve their skills
in the teaching of history. Many of these sites are themselves collections
of links to other web sites. Most (though by no means all) have been created
by librarians, historians, museum curators and other members of the historical
community. They are organized by general category, though there is
inevitably much overlap. Many of the sites link to one another, which
may sometimes lend a recursive quality to your search. Moreover,
although the web is growing very rapidly and new information is
constantly appearing; sites also move and sometimes disappear entirely.
Because the web is constantly growing and changing, this particular site
is perpetually "under construction."
New sites are added, old one's deleted, and broken links repaired.
At this point, the annotations are very impressionistic. We hope
in time to improve them. If you have contributions, corrections or
other comments to offer, please let us know at bgriff@american.edu.
Having said this, several additional qualifications
are in order:
-
Don't confuse the web and world.
The web is huge and growing every day. But it represents only a tiny
fraction of human knowledge. Most of what is available
in our libraries and archives has NOT been digitally formatted; and, for
a variety of reasons, is not likely to be in the near future. Thus,
the web can supplement, but not replace traditional libraries and archives.
-
Web based materials must be subject to the same rigorous rules used
for evaluating printed material. Indeed, web based materials
must be scrutinized even more rigorously. After all, information
that you find in a library has already gone through a rigorous selection
process managed by highly trained professional librarians; but literally
anyone
can post material on the web. Thus, you will need to evaluate material
by asking: who "published" the material? when? how credible
is the source? what bias of point of view shapes the selection and
content of the material? etc., etc.
-
Navigating the web can be confusing. Many web links, including
those listed below, list the same sites. Many list one another.
The result is a recursive effect, with many loops doubling back on one
another.
top
of page
Resources for Teaching and Professional
Development(History):
-
The American Historical Association
--the
web site of the largest organization of professional historians, encompassing
the study of all areas of history. Includes other links.
-
The American
Studies Crossroads Project -- an extraordinarily valuable resource
for teaching American history, literature and culture with an emphasis
on new information technologies.
-
The
American Social History Project -- a valuable resource for teaching
social history with new technologies; linked with the American Crossroads
Project.
-
Federal
Resources for Educational Excellence -- Department of Education web
site of teaching resources for all levels.
-
H-Net,
Humanities Social Sciences OnLine: --this very important site provides
information and resources for all those interested in the Humanities and
Social Sciences, and serves as a central information storehouse for H-Net's
extensive network of e-mail lists. Teaching and new technology figure
prominently in several of its discussion areas.
-
History Departments --
a guide to departmental web sites around the world. Some of the most sophisticated
of Departmental web sites include links to major projects, archives
and information on both teaching and scholarship.
-
Journal
of the Association for History and Computing -- a new journal focusing
on computing in the study and teaching of history.
-
National Initiative for a Networked
Cultural Heritage -- a clearinghouse for organizations interested in
networked access to the arts and humanities.
-
National Center for History
in the Schools, see especially the National
Standards for U.S. History -- an electronic version of the standards
produced by a team of historians at UCLA. For an example of the right wing
attacks on the National Standards, see "Politically
Correct History Standards Fight Back," by Phyllis Schlafley.
For a defense of the standards, see Gary Nash et al., History on Trial:
Culture Wars and the Teaching the the Past (1997).
-
The Organization of American
Historians -- the principal professional organization for historians
of the United States. Includes links to additional history sites.
-
Teaching
History-- web site of the journal, Teaching History. See
especially its Links
for History.
-
Utilizing
the World Wide Web in the Historical Profession --this is a web based
introduction to the web for historians, prepared for the 1996 Southern
Historical Association meeting. Although already dated, it is a useful
starting place for novices.
-
Welcome
to EDSITEment!--NEH web site for Resources in the Humanities.
Resources for Teaching and Professional Development(Teaching
- General):
-
Centers for
Teaching and Learning -- maintained by University of Wisconsin School
of Engineering.
-
Links
to Higer Education Resources -- created by the National Center for
Postsecondary Improvement.
-
The NODE Learning Technologies Network
-- a not-for-profit electronic network in the field of learning technologies
for postsecondary education and training.
-
Online University
Teaching Centers -- mega site with links to University teaching centers
and instructional resources available online. See related site on Online
Teaching Center Resources.
-
Teaching and Learning on
the WWW -- a very good site, extablished by the Maricopa Center for
Teaching and Instruction, a part of the Maricopa Community College System.
This site has many educational links; especially see Web
Hound, the Center's excellent tutorial on navigating the web.
-
Teaching, Learning with Technology Group
-- sponsored by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), the
TLT Group has created a network of TLR Roundtables on campuses around the
country. See especially its highly active listserv, AAHESGIT.
-
Technology Source -- an online
journal on integrating new information technologies into the classroom,
edited at the University of North Carolina.
-
The Web of Asynchronous Learning
Networks (ALN) -- a web site
dedicated to ALN that is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
It includes a scholarly journal; a magazine, conference proceedings, workshops,
etc. dedicated to asynchronous learning.
U.S. History (and Humanities) Web sites
-- General:
-
The American
Studies Web: -- created by the American Crossroads Project, this
is a good link to web sites dealing with American history, literature and
culture.
-
American
University Library U.S. History Pathfinder : Links to a number
of major sites, many with multiple links. Including: African
American Studies Pathfinder; UVA Civil War Project (Valley of the Shadow);
American Civil War Page; Treaties-Texts; Presidential Inaugural Addresses;
History Net ; Repositories; American Antiquarian Society; Social
History Site; Organization of American Historians (with many links
to other sites of interest). The Library's overall history pathfinder
can be found at History
Pathfinder (AU). See alsoThe
AU Library U.S. Politics and Government Pathfinder for links to important
political and government sites, some of which have historical (as opposed
to contemporary) relevance. See also, the general listing
of AU Library Electronic
pathfinders. Also see AU
Library Electronic Resources, a valuable list of electronic resources
available through the Library, many of which are of interest to historians.
These resources include searchable runs of the American Historical Review,
the Journal of American History and other history journals.
At the moment, these can only be accessed on the campus itself via Eaglenet.
-
American
and British History Resources on the Internet -- a very good general
site maintained by the Rutgers University Library.
-
American Arts and Letters Network --
a clearinghouse of electronic resources sponsored by the American Council
of Learned Societies.
-
The Digital Classroom -- an
instructional resources site maintained by the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA)..
-
Digital Librarian:
--an extraordinarily detailed guide to history links.
-
Documents in U.S. History
-- maintained by the Oklahoma University Law School
-
Documents
in American History -- maintained by the University of Kansas.
-
Douglas: An Archive of
American Public Address -- an archive on public rhetoric maintained
by Northwestern University; searchable.
-
The History
Beat -- links to U.S. History, timelines, and world history resources.
-
History Buff's Home Page -- a
searchable grab bag of newspaper accounts of historical events.
-
History
Journals Online -- for online access to the American Historical
Review, the Journal of American History and other journals,
see the JSTOR index, accessible via the Electronic Reference Sources on
the AU Library Home Page. For recent issues of Reviews in
American History and other journals, see the Project Muse database.
-
History
Links -- a collection of history links developed by Professor R. Sutton
-
History
Matters: -- a resource for teaching the U.S. survey, maintained by
the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Still under construction.
-
The History Net -- a commercial
site established by the Cowles group, which publishes the magazine, American
History. Aimed at a broad audience.
-
The History Place --a
nicely designed commercial site.
-
Historical Statistics of the United States
-- the U.S. Census Bureau web site.
-
Historical
Text Archive -- maintained at Mississippi State University, this is
a rich source of documents on topics as diverse as civil rights and the
Gulf War.
-
Hitchhiker's
Guide to History Resources-- maintained as part of Professor
Stanley Shultz's course on U.S. History since 1865.
-
Horus' Web Links to
History Resources -- an excellent site, maintained by the Department
of History at the University of California at Riverside.
-
HyperHistory
Online -- a collection of timelines organized by a Swiss architect.
-
Index
of Resources for History-- maintained at the University of Kansas.
-
Mr. Jenkins' History Links
--a constantly updated list of history links, aimed at high school and
college students.
-
The Making of America
--
a large and growing "digital library" of primary sources on the history
of the United States during the antebellum period through Reconstruction.
Created by the University of Michigan and Cornell University. Some documents
are searchable; most are viewable as scanned images.
-
Political
Science Resources on the Web -- an excellent mega-site maintained by
the University of Michigan, with links to both contemporary and historical
data.
-
Presidential
Elections, 1948-1996 -- a handy guide to recent elections, part of
the "Geocities...Capitol Hill" site.
-
Presidents of the United States
-- handy reference to presidential administrations maintained by the Internet
Public Library(IPO), it includes online biographies, historical documents,
lists of cabinet members, notable events and some additional links.
-
Talking History
-- A radio show about history, produced at the University of Albany and
accessible over the web via RealAudio or similar software.
-
Texts and Documents on U.S.
History -- organized by the Department of History at Hanover
College.
-
U.S. Census Bureau -- official web
site, with pathways to some of the nation's most important statistical
information.
-
U.S. Historical Documents
-- established by the Law School at the University of Oklahoma.
-
U.S.
History Resources by chronological period, maintained as part of the
Library of Congress' American Memory project.
-
U.S.
History Resources -- maintained by the Bobst Library at NYU.
-
U.S. History Since 1877
-- an extensive set of web links on the history of the United States in
the modern era.
-
Yahoo!
- Arts: Humanities: History: Yahoo's History Category. See also
Search Engines.
-
The Voice of the Shuttle (VoS)
-- a very good collection of links to humanities research maintained by
Alan Liu at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It has
good navigational guides and is searchable.
top
of page
References, Study Guides
and Style Manuals: In addition to standard guides to the
study of history available in print, several guides are available on line.
Similarly, many styles books and guides to effective writing are also available
on the web.
-
A Brief Citation
Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities -- based on
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,
5th ed. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987). See also Citing
Electronic Information in History Papers, by Maurice Crouse of Memphis
State University.
-
Barlett's
Quotations -- an online edition housed at Columbia University.
-
The Elements of
Style, by William Strunk Jr. The classic writing guide available
through Columbia University.
-
Fair
Use of Copyrighted Materials -- a useful guide to copyright, put up
by the University of Texas System.
-
The History Guide: A
Student's Guide to the Study of History, prepared by Steven Kreis,
a European history Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, Columbia.
-
LibrarySpot -- a very useful
mega site with links to online encylopedias, dictionaires, maps, phonebooks
and directories, specialized libraries and other information sources.
-
Martindale's:
The Reference Desk -- another huge web site, with links to many,
many online reference sources. Created and maintained by James Martindale,
a consultant for the UC_Irvine College of Medecine.
-
The MLA Style book for Citing
Internet Resources --based on the Modern Language Association's MLA
Style.
-
Reading,
Writing and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students,
prepared by Patrick Rael of the Department of History at Bowdoin College.
-
Research and Documentation
in the Electronic Age -- an online version of Diana Hacker's guide.
-
Turabian
Style Guide -- a handout based on Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers
and The Chicago Style Manual.
-
Writing Help --
links to major university writing centers, including those at Texas, Purdue,
Missouri, Carnegie Mellon and Rensselaer, as well as links to various on-line
guides. The Purdue University
Online Writing Laboratory is especially useful. Also see the
Online
Writing Resources of the University of Pennsylvania Department of English,
and the online References
created by the Colorado English Department.
-
The Writer's
Reference Shelf -- a collection of resources, including on-line editions
of Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus, maintained by Lewis-Clark
State College.
top
of page
Libraries, Museums and Research
Centers:
-
American Association of Museums
-- the professional association for museums and museum professionals, it
contains many valuable links to the museum community.
-
The Balch Institute for Ethnic
Studies -- a museum (and web site) dedicated to issues of ethnicity.
See especially is Resources
on Ethnic Studies and Immigration.
-
The Brookings Institution -- a
source of important research, especially on contemporary topics.
Most other think tanks also have useful web sites; although,
like Brookings, they are mostly focused on contemporary public policy.
For an extensive set of links to such groups, click on Think
Tanks. On foreign affairs, see especially Non-Governmental
Organizations. Both lists are maintained by Professor Vincent Ferraro
of Mt. Holyoke College.
-
Library
of Congress-- links to many LC sources, including especially The
American Memory Project. Accessible through LC are numerous important
finding aids, including the National Union Catalog of Manuscript
Collections, which may be found via the Library's home page by clicking
on "N" under "Browse the Index."
-
Louisiana State University
-- see especially their History "webliography."
-
National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) -- the web site of the National
Archives. For instructional resources, see especially its Digital
Classroom. The Archives provides a gateway to the Presidential
Libraries-- such as the Harry
S. Truman Library or the Lyndon
Baines Johnson Library.
-
National Civil Rights Museum
--web site of a new museum, dedicated to the struggle for civil rights.
-
National
Register of Historic Places-- an important guide to material culture,
maintained by the National Park Service
(itself a valuable source of information).
-
San Francisco Museum -- museum web
site with exhibits that include Sinclair
Lewis's EPIC campaign in the 1930s, and a sketch of Linda McCartney
and rock music in the S.F. area.
-
The
Smithsonian Institution-- this is the front door to all of the museums,
galleries research centers and other activities that constitute the Smithsonian
Institution. The National
Museum of American History is one of the most important of these for
historians. See also the National
Portrait Gallery, the American
Folklife Center Home and SI's many other divisions.
-
U.S.
Air Force Museum -- includes an extensive collection on the role of
the airforce following WWII.
-
U.S. Holocaust Museum -- the web site
includes, among other things, a catalogue of the Museum's holdings, information
on conferences and current issues.
-
Virginia State Historical Society
-- includes the Societies online catalogue.
top
of page
Higher Education Associations:
many of the associations of higher education have valuable web sites, in
addition to newsletters, journals and other more traditional publications.
While access to some parts of their sites may require either institutional
or individual membership, much is also available without membership or
charge. See especially the following:
top
of page
Publishers:
top
of page
Television and Radio Based Resources:
top
of page
Technical Resources: Search
Engines, Web Development Tools, Help:
top
of page
U.S. History Resources by
Topic or Period (this is a highly selective, highly incomplete
and constantly changing list; for additional links, see individual (fall,
1998) class assignments, as well as sites listed above):
Politics and Government:
War and Diplomacy:
-
American Diplomacy --
an electronic journal devoted to issues of diplomacy, focuses primarily
on the foreign service officer community.
-
Department of State FOIA Reading Room --web
site provides access to recently declassified documents, guides to obtaining
FOIA access to others, as well as links to other sources.
-
CIA FOIA Web site -- declassified
CIA documents released under the provisions of the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). See also its extensive Links
to other government sources.
-
Cold
War International History --CWIP, an extremely valuable site for recently
declassified materials and lively discussion.
-
Cold War Links
-- an excellent list of links to documents and sites dealing with the Cold
War, maintained by D. Price of St. Martin's College. For additional
links, on the origins of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the
War in Vietnam, see Assignments for the course
America and the Cold War (Fall, 1998).
-
Cold War Outline
-- established at the University of San Diego, with many useful links.
-
Diplomatic History
Links -- from H-Net.
-
Documents
on Diplomatic History -- an extensive online collection, assembled
by Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mt. Holyoke College. Part of
an outstanding web site.
-
The Foreign Policy Project
-- a collection of studies and documents on future U.S. foreign policy,
developed under the auspices of the nonprofit Henry L. Stimson Center.
See especially its collection of Foreign
Policy/International Relations Web Sites.
-
Foreign Affairs -- web site of
the distinguished publication. See especially its unparalleled collection
of Web Links.
See also, Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) -- a premier, public policy think tank; see especially
its project on the U.S. and the New
Global Economy.
-
Foreign Policy in Focus
- a web site jointly maintained by the Interhemispheric Resource Center
(IRC) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
-
A
History of Anti Imperialism: An excellent site on the Spanish-American
War, the Philippine insurrection, U.S. imperialism and opposition to imperialism,
set up by Professor Jim Zwick of Syracuse University. For additional links,
see Assignments for the course, U.S. From Emancipation
Through World War II.
-
Office
of the Historian, U.S. State Department--an important source for the
study of U.S. foreign affairs.
-
Nuclear
Weapons: ATOMIC BOMB --a collection of key documents relating to the
decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. See, also, Enola
Gay Perspectives --web site developed by U.of Maryland graduate students
in Library Science, on the controversy involving the proposed exhibit at
the National Air and Space Museum. For additional references, see
Project
One in the course "America and the Cold War (Fall, 1998)".
-
McCarthyism:
A Bibliographic Essay -- by Ellen Schrecker, author of Many are
the Crimes (1998).
-
The
Sixties (Links) -- Many sixties era links, including extensive Vietnam
War links, maintained as part of The Sixties Project at the University
of Virginia.
-
Vietnam
war -- an extensive set of resources on the Vietnam War, maintained
as part of a course on the Vietnam War at Virginia Tech. See also,
Vietnam
War Bibliography --an extensive list maintained by Professor E. Moises
at Clemson. See also, cites listed for Project
Five, in America and the Cold War.
Social, Cultural and Intellectual:
-
American Women's
History: A Research Guide -- very useful web site maintained by librarian
at Middle Tennesee.
-
Documents from the Women's
Liberation Movement, 1969-74. -- from the Duke University Scriptorium.
-
Feminism and Women's
Resources -- includes extensive links to women's studies issues.
-
H-Women -- H-Net's web site
on women's history.
-
National Women's History Project --
see especially its valuable collection of Links
to resources for the study of women's history.
-
Women's Resources Project
-- UNC web site includes listing of Women's Studies programs and other
links. See especially links under Women's
History.
-
Internet
Women's History Sourcebook - North America: --maitained at Fordham,
this is part of a larger series of guides to sites in history.
-
The Cleveland Encyclopedia -- a remarkably
comphrehensive guide to the city's history.
-
The WWW Virtual Library
on Migration and Ethnicity -- a very large, international site, it
includes much information on both current and historical immigration.
-
Immigration History --maintained
by an organization seeking to restrict immigration (FAIR), this site nevertheless
contains useful information on immigration legislation, especially for
the recent era.
-
AAAMC - Archives
of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University, with links
to other internet sites.
-
The African
American Civil War Experience -- this site, developed by the
National Archives to support teaching of the civil war and reconstruction,
focuses on the African American military experience.
-
African
American History Sites --compiled by Patrick Rael of Bowdoin College.
-
African
American History Links -- an excellent list of links, maintained as
part of the Voice of the Shuttle project.
-
African-American History
-- a part of the large site maitained by the History Department at UC Riverside.
-
African
American Perspectives -- a pamphlet collection on African-American
history, this is part of the Library of Congress' American Memory Project.
-
The Black History
Museum -- a virtual musem focusing on the African-American experience.
-
"Breaking Racial Barriers -
African Americans in the Harmon Foundation Collection -- an online
exhibit on the Harlem Renaissance, created by the Smithsonian's National
Portrait Gallery.
-
A Deeper Shade
of History -- data base on black history.
-
Freedmen
and Southern Society Project -- web site of project publishing
the letters of newly freed slaves.
-
The Martin Luther
King Papers --web site at Stanford; excellent source on MLK.
-
Selma - a webpage
on the the civil rights struggle in Selma in the 1960s, with many links
to other web sites on the civil rights movement.
-
Valley
of the Shadows Project (Civil War) -- a major research and teaching
resource, based on extensive collections of information on two Civil War
counties in Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively.
The Guilded Age and Progressive Era
The Great Depression and the New Deal
The United States since 1945
The
1950s in America --an excellent web site for a University of Pennsylvania
course on Literature and Culture of the 1950s.
Free
Speech Movement Archives - created and maintained as part of a project
on the 1960s at UC-Berkeley.
The
Psychedelic '60s Home Page-- a virtual exhibition of sixties images
and other information, created by the the special collections folks at
the University of Virginia Library.
The
Sixties Project --the web site of a collective of humanities scholars
studying the sixties; includes a list serve, L-Sixties.
top
of page
Misc. Web Based Courses and Syllabi:
(this is a highly selective, highly incomplete and constantly changing
list):
Return
to:
Web site created by Robert Griffith
Last Updated: August, 1998
For comments, e-mail bgriff@american.edu