Reference Sources
Reference works like these -- known as subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, companions, introductions, or handbooks -- can be invaluable for providing an overview of a topic, as well as summarizing the scholarly conversation and pointing to key resources for further research.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America These four volumes analyze the diverse whole of American experience, examining the domestic, economic, intellectual, material, political, recreational, and religious life of the American people between 1763 and 2005. Each volume includes a selection of primary documents, a timeline of important events during the period, images illustrating the text, and extensive bibliography of further information resources--both print and electronic--and a detailed subject index.
Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in America Highlights include numerous entries on developments in transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, mass production, the labor movement, big government, and the key inventions that changed the American economy. Each entry is placed in economic, political or social context to show how it contributed to the great changes that were occurring in the United States, such as how the development of new technologies altered agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and even patterns of immigration.
World of a Slave: Encyclopedia of the Material Life of Slaves in the United States
Harvard's copy is currently checked out; use Borrow Direct to obtain this from another library.Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia A comprehensive, contextual presentation of slavery in the United States, from the first colonization through Reconstruction. Ten major essays and 300 A-Z entries cover all aspects of slavery. A collection of 150 original documents illustrates both popular and official attitudes toward slavery.