Asian Americans

Asian American society : an encyclopedia, ed. by Mary Yu Danico, editor, Anthony C. Ocampo. Los Angeles, California : SAGE Publications, 2014, 4 volumes.
HOLLIS Record

Asian American history and culture : an encyclopedia, ed. by Huping Ling and Allan Austin. Armonk, N.Y. : Sharpe Reference, 2010. 2 v
HOLLIS Record

Asian American religious cultures, ed. by Jonathan H.X. Lee, Fumitaka Matsuoka, Edmond Yee, and Ronald Y. Nakasone. Santa Barbara, California : ABC-CLIO, 2015, 2 volumes.
HOLLIS Record

Encyclopedia of Asian American issues today, ed. by Edith Wen-Chu Chen and Grace J. Yoo. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Greenwood Press,2010. 2 v
HOLLIS Record

Encyclopedia of Asian-American literature, by Seiwoong Oh. Published: New York : Facts On File, 2007, 384 p.
HOLLIS Record

The Asian American encyclopedia, ed. by Franklin Ng. New York : Marshall Cavendish, 1995. 6 v.
HOLLIS Record

Encyclopedia of Japanese American history : an A-to-Z reference from 1868 to the present, ed. by Brian Niiya. Updated ed. New York : Facts on File, 2001, 446 p.
HOLLIS Record

What other things were happening at that time?

The following books offer historical overviews of particular eras of American history

American eras:
Development of a nation, 1783-1815 FindIt@Harvard
Westward expansion, 1800-1860  FindIt@Harvard
The reform era and eastern U.S. development, 1815-1850 FindIt@Harvard
Civil war and reconstruction, 1850-1877 FindIt@Harvard
Development of the industrial United States, 1878-1899 FindIt@Harvard

American decades 11 volumes. Covers, decade by decade, 1900-2009 FindIt@Harvard

Almanacs of American life:
Civil War America, 1850 to 1875 FindIt@Harvard
Victorian America, 1876 to 1913 FindIt@Harvard
Modern America, 1914 to 1945 FindIt@Harvard
Cold War America, 1946 to 1990 FindIt@Harvard

Notable Asian Americans, ed by Helen Zia and Susan B. Gall. New York : Gale Research, 1995, 468 p.
HOLLIS Record

Distinguished Asian Americans : a biographical dictionary, ed. by Hyung-chan Kim. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999, 430 p.
HOLLIS Record

Who's who among Asian Americans. Detroit : Gale Research Inc., 1994. 1 v. 
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Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, ed. by Gary Y. Okihiro. Ispwich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2013. 3 v.
HOLLIS Record

General Sources

American National Biography is the standard American source for biographies of major figures. Can do searches of occupations and limit by date.

World Biographical Information System includes full text of thousands of biographical dictionaries accessible by name of biographee.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) indexes thousands of English-language biographical dictionaries and other compendia. Not full text; one must do HOLLIS searches for retrieved sources.

Biography in Context includes full text of many reference books, including Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Black Biography, Directory of American Scholars (10th (2002) ed.), Dictionary of American Biography, Marquis Who’s Who on the Web since 1985. The Biographical Facts Search allows search by occupation, nationality, ethnicity (African-American, Asian- American, Hispanic- American, Native- American only), gender, birth/death year, and place.

Additional sources in Finding Biographical Information.