Guides: Course Guide ~ HIST 216 / History of the American Left: Home

A few useful starting places for finding primary and secondary sources related to contemporary left-wing movements in the United States.

Websites

Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet since 1996. Created by the Internet Archive.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia can be useful for establishing chronologies and identifying additional sources, particularly for topics from this century. Wikipedia's Categories links found at the bottom of many articles can also be useful.

For information on Wikipedia's editorial processes, see:

Sverrir Steinsson, "Rule Ambiguity, Institutional Clashes, and Population Loss: How Wikipedia Became the Last Good Place on the Internet." The American Political Science Review 118, no. 1 (Feb. 2024): 235-251. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055423000138. Link to full text

News & Commentary

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Index of nearly 8,000 scholarly journals and popular magazines in all areas of study. Includes the full text for more than 4,600 titles. Coverage varies by publication.
Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Index of over 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines. Coverage: 1969-present.

New York Times

1981 to present - Full text and image. (NYT Academic Pass)
1851 to 2020 - Full text and image. (ProQuest)
1980 to present - Full article text. No images. (Nexis Uni)

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
More than 11,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
Search Tips

Tips

Select “News."
Select “Advanced Search.”
Select “Headlines and Lead Sections” from the dropdown menu located on the right side of the top search box.
Perform a boolean search connecting your keywords with “AND” (e.g.,mount AND everest AND climb*).
Focus your search using the limiters in the left-hand column.

Books and Scholarly Journals

Hamilton Library Catalog
The library catalog is a one-stop search tool for books, articles, videos, digital media, and more.

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Coverage: 1954-present.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index of 1,700 journals in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy. Coverage: 1975-present.