About This Product
Take a quick look at the overview video for American History:
American History is a comprehensive resource that spans our nation’s history, with a user-friendly interface and award-winning content. The home page offers many ways to begin exploring the material, from the videos, slideshow overviews, and Topic Centers to the lists of key content handpicked by our editors to help users find a starting point for their research. By providing the most comprehensive range of information in one complete resource—subject entries, biographies, primary sources, videos and slideshows, images, timelines, and maps and graphs, plus full cross-searchability across all the Infobase history databases—American History offers a virtual library of American history for educators, students, and researchers of all ages.
Highlights:
- Comprehensive Coverage: With American History, users can delve deep into their topics or examine different perspectives through event and topic entries, slideshows, primary sources, images, tablet/mobile-friendly videos, general and topic-specific timelines, biographies of key people, original maps and charts, and more.
- Easy Access to Content: Featured content in American History is handpicked by our editors to inform research and provide guided entryways into the database, plus convenient links to key areas are at the top of every page.
- Editorially Curated Topic Centers: American History features specially selected content on different eras, themes, and milestone events of history—including articles, shareable slideshows, videos, primary sources, and more—that provides a starting point for research.
Subjects and milestone events covered include:
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- American Civil War
- American Women’s History
- Industrial Revolution
- Korean War
- Manifest Destiny
- New Deal
- Revolutionary War Battles
- Spanish-American War
- U.S. Government
- U.S.-Mexican War
- War of 1812.
Eras covered include:
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- The Colonial Era: Beginnings–1776
- The American Revolution: 1775–1783
- The Early National Period and Expansion: 1783–1859
- The Civil War and Reconstruction: 1860–1876
- The Gilded Age: 1870–1900
- The Progressive Era and World War I: 1890–1920
- The Roaring Twenties: 1920–1929
- The Great Depression: 1929–1941
- World War II and the Forties: 1939–1949
- The Fifties: 1950–1959
- The Sixties: 1960–1969
- The Seventies: 1970–1979
- The Eighties: 1980–1989
- The Nineties: 1990–1999
- The 21st Century: 2000–Present.
- Suggested Research Topics: Each Topic Center in American History includes handpicked selections showcasing the best resources for each topic—including in-depth overview essays—and providing guidance for research.
- Primary Sources: American History includes more than 10,000 primary sources, many with introductions that provide context and background.
- Videos, Images, Maps, and Slideshows: American History’s videos, images, original maps, and original slideshows provide a fascinating visual introduction to key topics and themes.
- Biographies: Under “Featured People,” American History includes helpful lists of award-winning writers, U.S. presidents, U.S. vice presidents, early explorers, First Ladies, Chief Justices of the U.S., great military leaders, Supreme Court justices, and Founding Fathers. Each list includes dates of birth and death, a brief descriptor of the person’s achievements, and a link to relevant search results.
- Themes in U.S. History: Especially helpful for students in honors-level and AP-level U.S. history courses, American History‘s Themes in U.S. History section explores 26 major themes in American history century by century. Organized around such critical subjects as agriculture, demographics, economics, daily life, government, religion, science and technology, war, and women, the essays trace the progress of human history since the 1500s in what would become the United States, fostering critical conceptual thinking and allowing students to focus on a particular theme in one era and then examine that theme across the full reach of American history. Discussion questions for each theme encourage students to think critically.
- Controversies in History: Editorially selected pro/con articles on many high-interest controversies in U.S. history can be found in American History, enabling researchers to grasp the essence and importance of every conflict and the reasons Americans debated them.
- Overview Essays: American History includes substantial and thorough overview essays giving extensive background on relevant historical topics and eras.
- Book Chapters: Chapters from authoritative print titles written by noted historians complement the thousands of encyclopedia entries, biographies, definitions, and other resources American History provides. Book Chapters allow for original thinking and are ideal for an in-depth study of a topic.
- Authoritative Source List: American History features a complete inventory, by type, of the extraordinary amount of expertly researched and written content in the database, including articles from a wealth of award-winning proprietary and distinguished print titles (including the new edition of the award-winning Encyclopedia of American History), primary sources, images, videos, timelines, and a list of contributors to the database—information researchers can trust.
- Curriculum Tools: This section of American History features writing and research tips for students and educators, including:
- Advice on analyzing and understanding editorial cartoons, primary sources, and online sources
- Guides for presenting research, including avoiding plagiarism, citing sources, completing a primary source worksheet, summarizing articles, and writing research papers
- Educator tools, including advice on preventing plagiarism and using editorial cartoons in class.
- Full Cross-Searchability: American History is fully cross-searchable with any combination of the other Infobase History Research Center databases to which your institution subscribes.
- Election-Related Content: American History includes rich historical content ideal for election-related studies, allowing users to research past elections, political parties, key figures, and important terms through essays, primary source documents, images, videos, tables, charts, and maps that put the 2016 election into perspective.
Features:
- Search by Common Core, national, state, provincial, International Baccalaureate Organization, C3 Framework for Social Studies, and College Board AP standards to find correlating articles
- Convenient A-to-Z topic lists can be filtered by Topic Center
- Tag “clouds” for all content, linking to related material
- Searchable timelines, including a detailed general timeline, updated monthly, plus numerous subject-specific and era-specific timelines
- Maps and graphs with descriptions
- Real-time, searchable Reuters® newsfeed
- Dynamic citations in MLA, Chicago, APA, and Harvard formats, with EasyBib export functionality
- List of contributors to the database
- Read Aloud tool
- Ability for users to set preferences for default language, citation format, number of search results, and standards set for correlations
- Persistent record links
- Search Assist technology
- Searchable Support Center with valuable help materials, how-to tips, tutorials, and live help chat
- Google Translate for 100+ languages.
Booklist‘s Twenty Best Bets for Student Researchers
Library Journal Best Database
The ComputED Gazette‘s Education Software Review Award (EDDIES)
“The interface is simple and easy to use; the internal and external links are generous…Recommended for school, public, and college libraries.”
Library Journal
“…very useful for students, teachers, and librarians.”
American Reference Books Annual
“…[an] outstanding database…A user-friendly interface, solidly written articles, and a wide range of other features make this source highly recommended…”
Booklist
American History: Topic Centers Expanded
American History‘s Topic Centers have been expanded and reorganized, making the award-winning database an even better starting point for U.S. Read More ›
American History: Topic Centers Expanded
American History‘s Topic Centers have been expanded and reorganized, making the award-winning database an even better starting point for U.S. history research in high-interest, curriculum-related areas. Ten new Topic Centers have been added to the database, bringing the total number of key historical topics covered to an impressive 36. The Topic Centers are now organized into five categories—America at War, Daily Life in America, Decades and Eras, Foreign Affairs and U.S. Government, and Society and Social Issues—for more convenient browsing. The update also features a wealth of new content, including new timelines.
Users can now find Topic Centers on the following subjects in American History:
America at War:
- Revolutionary War Battles
- War of 1812
- U.S.-Mexican War
- American Civil War
- Plains Indian Wars
- Spanish-American War
- World War I
- World War II in Europe and the Pacific
- Korean War
- Vietnam War
- Persian Gulf War
- Iraq War
- Afghanistan War
Daily Life in America:
- Daily Life in the Colonial and Revolutionary Era
- Daily Life in the Early National Period
- Daily Life in the Civil War and Reconstruction Era
- Daily Life in the Gilded Age
- Daily Life in the Age of Reform
- Daily Life in the Roaring Twenties
- Daily Life in the Great Depression and World War II
- Daily Life in Postwar America
- Daily Life in Contemporary America
Decades and Eras:
- The Twenties: 1920–1929
- The Thirties: 1930–1939
- The Forties: 1940–1949
- The Fifties: 1950–1959
- The Sixties: 1960–1969
- The Seventies: 1970–1979
- The Eighties: 1980–1989
- The Nineties: 1990–1999
- The 21st Century: 2000–Present
Foreign Affairs and U.S. Government:
Society and Social Issues:
- American Women’s History
- Industrial Revolution
- Manifest Destiny
American History’s Topic Centers can be accessed via the right rail of the home page or via the “Browse” drop-down menu. Users can also find them on a new Topic Centers landing page under “Browse Resources.”
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History: New Themes in U.S. History Section—Ideal for AP Studies!
Just in time to prepare for the AP U.S. history exam on May 10, a new section has been added to Infobase’s American History database. Themes in U.S. Read More ›
American History: New Themes in U.S. History Section—Ideal for AP Studies!
Just in time to prepare for the AP U.S. history exam on May 10, a new section has been added to Infobase’s American History database. Themes in U.S. History explores 26 major themes in American history century by century. This conceptual approach is especially helpful for students in honors-level and AP-level U.S. history courses, who are encouraged to think about themes, or unifying threads, that drove historical change over time.
The new Themes in U.S. History section allows students to focus on a particular theme in one era and then examine that theme across the full reach of American history. Discussion questions for each theme encourage students to think critically and practice for the AP test.
Themes in U.S. History covers the following critical subjects:
- African Americans
- Agriculture
- Art, Literature, and Popular Culture
- Business, Economy, and Trade
- Cities, Towns, and Settlements
- Communication and Media
- Daily Life and Material Culture
- Education
- Environment
- Exploration and Discovery
- Foreign Affairs
- Government, Law, and Politics
- Health and Medicine
- Immigration
- Labor and Livelihood
- Native Americans
- Population Trends and Migration
- Protest and Political Violence
- Race Relations
- Religion
- Rights and Liberties
- Science and Technology
- Sectionalism and Regionalism
- Transportation
- Wars and Warfare
- Women and Gender
American History users can find Themes in U.S. History on the “Browse” menu under the “Resources” heading as well as on the home page right rail “Browse Resources” menu.
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History: Check Out the New Overview Video
With a user-friendly interface and powerful functionality, American History provides the most comprehensive range of American history information in one complete resource—but don’t just take our word for it! Our brand-new overview video gives you an up-close look at the depth and breadth of the award-winning database, including: The authoritative Sources page listing the expertly researched and written content in the database The easy access to the extensive range of books, primary sources, images, videos, timelines, and other content types The easy-to-use Search and Browse options, including the filters to narrow down the results The editorially curated Topic Centers, featuring specially selected content on different eras, themes, and milestone events of history The comprehensive, convenient A-to-Z topic lists. Read More ›
American History: Check Out the New Overview Video
With a user-friendly interface and powerful functionality, American History provides the most comprehensive range of American history information in one complete resource—but don’t just take our word for it! Our brand-new overview video gives you an up-close look at the depth and breadth of the award-winning database, including:
- The authoritative Sources page listing the expertly researched and written content in the database
- The easy access to the extensive range of books, primary sources, images, videos, timelines, and other content types
- The easy-to-use Search and Browse options, including the filters to narrow down the results
- The editorially curated Topic Centers, featuring specially selected content on different eras, themes, and milestone events of history
- The comprehensive, convenient A-to-Z topic lists.
Check out the overview video below!
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History: New Topic Centers on Milestone Events
Nine new Topic Centers have just been added to the American History database, offering specially selected content on milestone events and subjects throughout American history and complementing the Topic Centers on historical eras. Read More ›
American History: New Topic Centers on Milestone Events
Nine new Topic Centers have just been added to the American History database, offering specially selected content on milestone events and subjects throughout American history and complementing the Topic Centers on historical eras. These new, more focused Topic Centers cover the key, high-interest historical topics that students and researchers are most frequently searching for and studying.
Newly added Topic Centers include:
- American Civil War
- Industrial Revolution
- Korean War
- Manifest Destiny
- New Deal
- Revolutionary War Battles
- Spanish-American War
- U.S.-Mexican War
- War of 1812.
American History’s Topic Centers—now 26 in all, organized “by subject” and “by era”—can easily be accessed from the right rail of the home page or under the “Browse” drop-down. The targeted content in each Topic Center is handpicked by our editors to help users find a starting point for their research, with in-depth articles, videos and shareable slideshows, primary source documents, maps and charts, timelines, and suggested research topics.
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History: 2018 Updates
American History is continuously updated and enhanced, increasing the educational value of this award-winning resource. Here is a recap of some of the content updates made so far this year. Read More ›
American History: 2018 Updates
American History is continuously updated and enhanced, increasing the educational value of this award-winning resource. Here is a recap of some of the content updates made so far this year.
- Images: Added more than 1,000 new images, many on important topics such as daily life, city and urban living, entertainment, religion, and education, to name just a few.
- Articles: Added 101 famous trials in history, including such significant cases as:
- The Salem witch trials
- Trials of Anne Hutchinson
- Trial of John Peter Zenger
- Boston Massacre trials
- Trial of the Amistad mutineers
- Trial of John Brown
- Haymarket trials
- Sacco-Vanzetti trials
- John Scopes trial
- Scottsboro Boys’ trials
- And many more.
- Topic Centers: Updated the U.S. Government Topic Center with the latest political biographies, speeches, and events from:
- American Political Leaders, Second Edition, which features biographical profiles of present and past leaders in U.S. politics
- Presidential Profiles: Biographical Dictionaries, including the biographies of key political figures in the administrations of the modern presidency.
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History: 2017 Year in Review—Updates and More
American History has been updated and enhanced throughout the past year, increasing the educational value of this award-winning resource. Recent Updates and Additions: Primary sources: Added more than 5,000 new, original primary documents covering all aspects of American history, with special focus on such core areas as daily life, slavery, immigration, women, and more. Read More ›
American History: 2017 Year in Review—Updates and More
American History has been updated and enhanced throughout the past year, increasing the educational value of this award-winning resource.
Recent Updates and Additions:
- Primary sources: Added more than 5,000 new, original primary documents covering all aspects of American history, with special focus on such core areas as daily life, slavery, immigration, women, and more.
- Images: Added more than 1,100 new images, many on important topics like the Oregon Trail, the Alamo, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Underground Railroad, the Prohibition Era, and more.
- Maps: Added more than 200 new maps on curricular subjects such as World War II, Colonial America, and Hispanic-American history.
- Articles: Added more than 1,000 articles on landmark Supreme Court cases.
- Book chapters: Added more than 400 chapters from 45 titles licensed from esteemed university presses such as University of California Press, University of North Carolina Press, Indiana University Press, and University of Virginia Press.
- Authoritative sources: Updated and revised the following key titles, which appear in American History‘s source list:
- Encyclopedia of American History, Third Edition (now in 10 individual volumes)
- Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics, Second Edition
- Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, Third Edition
- Multicultural America (7 volumes)
- Milestones in American History (38 volumes), including such core topics as:
- The Prohibition Era
- The Louisiana Purchase
- The California Gold Rush
- The Erie Canal
- The Treaty of Paris
- The Great Depression and the New Deal
- The Cuban Missile Crisis
- The Transcontinental Railroad
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964
- The Stock Market Crash of 1929
- The McCarthy Era
- The Monroe Doctrine
- The Panama Canal
- Apollo 13
- And many more.
Click on the links below for more information about American History:
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American History Online: Thousands of New Primary Sources
Infobase’s latest update to its American History Online database adds more than 5,000 new primary source documents, providing insight and firsthand looks into historical topics from the past several hundred years—perfect for document-based learning and strengthening critical-thinking skills. Read More ›
American History Online: Thousands of New Primary Sources
Infobase’s latest update to its American History Online database adds more than 5,000 new primary source documents, providing insight and firsthand looks into historical topics from the past several hundred years—perfect for document-based learning and strengthening critical-thinking skills. The new primary sources—ranging in format from letters and speeches to testimony, peace treaties, diary entries, reports, proclamations, and more—add great value by making history more immediate and real. Students and researchers can consult the Curriculum Tools menu for helpful tips on analyzing primary sources and completing a primary source worksheet.
Newly added primary sources include:
- Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, 2017
- Alexander Hamilton’s Report on a National Bank
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (excerpts)
- Article on the U.S. Senate Censure of Joseph McCarthy (excerpt)
- Proclamation of Refusal to Drink Tea
- and more.
Click on the links below for more information about American History Online:
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American History Online: Help Students Understand the 2016 Election
The 2016 election was unprecedented and unpredictable. Students are still struggling to understand the electoral process that led to the hotly debated win as well as the issues surrounding the incoming administration, the president-elect’s appointments, and past and future Supreme Court decisions. Read More ›
American History Online: Help Students Understand the 2016 Election
The 2016 election was unprecedented and unpredictable. Students are still struggling to understand the electoral process that led to the hotly debated win as well as the issues surrounding the incoming administration, the president-elect’s appointments, and past and future Supreme Court decisions. American History Online can help.
Students can turn to American History Online for comprehensive, unparalleled reference content on all aspects of the presidency, elections, and government. American History Online includes rich historical content ideal for post-election-related studies, lectures, and lesson plans. The U.S. Government Topic Center—a virtual study guide on elections and the electoral process, the Constitution, key figures, legislation, and much more—includes articles, essays, primary source documents, images, videos, charts, and maps.
Click on the links below for more information about American History Online:
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Additional Databases Added to Infobase Search API
With the abundance of electronic resources available today, many schools prefer to access their educational assets in one place. Federated search engines and other discovery tools allow libraries to do just that—easily search through multiple content sources in their catalog at the same time. Read More ›
Additional Databases Added to Infobase Search API
With the abundance of electronic resources available today, many schools prefer to access their educational assets in one place. Federated search engines and other discovery tools allow libraries to do just that—easily search through multiple content sources in their catalog at the same time.
The Infobase Search API (XML Gateway) allows our discovery tool partners to easily integrate the data from Infobase products into their federated search solutions for our shared customers. It provides a much-needed “communication bridge” between Infobase content and those discovery tools.
The databases that are currently part of the Infobase API include:
- Health Reference Center
- American History Online
- Modern World History Online
- African-American History Online
- American Indian History Online
- Ancient and Medieval History Online
- Science Online.
More Infobase products will continue to be added to the Infobase API.
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History Research Center: Exciting New Content Added
We are delighted to announce our latest update to our five Infobase history databases (History Research Center)—valuable new entries, articles, and videos. Read More ›
History Research Center: Exciting New Content Added
We are delighted to announce our latest update to our five Infobase history databases (History Research Center)—valuable new entries, articles, and videos.
More Than 3,300 New and Updated Entries and More Than 770 New Videos (9,500+ Clips)
History Research Center now features a wealth of new content on both timely and evergreen subjects from critically acclaimed Facts On File, Chelsea House, and Wiley-Blackwell series, along with videos from some of the most recognized and trusted film producers in the world. The new scholarly articles and video titles cover topics from immigration, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and Latin American history to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Roman Republic, the medieval world, and many more. The updated content on American presidents, first ladies, vice presidents, and Supreme Court justices is ideal for providing background and context to support election-year studies!
New entries include:
- Immigration and Race Relations in America
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: The 1936–1944 Campaigns
- Political History of the Ancient World
- The Idea of a “Middle Ages”
- Syrian Civil War.
New videos include:
- The Constitution and Foundations of Government
- What Kennedy Didn’t Know: The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited
- Inside the Medieval Mind
- Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers His “I Have a Dream” Speech ca. 1963
- The Explorers: Five Europeans Who Redrew the Map of the World.
History Research Center includes five history databases, all fully cross-searchable and seamlessly integrated for a complete, single history resource. The databases included with History Research Center are American History Online, African-American History Online, American Indian History Online, Ancient & Medieval History Online, and Modern World History Online.
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American History Online: Spotlight on Valuable Election-Related Content
Primary season has begun, political campaigns are in full gear, and the U.S. presidential election is only nine months away. Turn to American History Online for rich historical content ideal for election-related studies and lesson plans. Read More ›
American History Online: Spotlight on Valuable Election-Related Content
Primary season has begun, political campaigns are in full gear, and the U.S. presidential election is only nine months away. Turn to American History Online for rich historical content ideal for election-related studies and lesson plans. Research past elections, political parties, key figures, and important terms through essays, primary source documents, images and videos, and tables, charts, and maps, and put the 2016 election in helpful perspective.
Here are just a few of the fascinating and helpful election-related items you can find on American History Online:
- Elections and Political Parties (slideshow overview)
Captivating, SMART Board-friendly images and photographs, with informative captions, illustrate key moments in the history of elections and political parties.
- Presidential Campaigns (video)
Learn about the origin of presidential campaigns, and follow the links on the right-hand side to videos covering the origin of political parties, elections and voting, the electoral college, and other key election-related topics.
- Presidential Inaugural Addresses (primary sources)
Read the inaugural addresses of every U.S. president, from George Washington (1789) all the way to Barack Obama (2013), each set in context by a brief introduction. Notice differences and similarities between the inaugural addresses of different presidents and from different time periods.
- Biographies of U.S. Presidents (biography entries)
Discover the lives and political careers of U.S. presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, Founding Fathers, and other key figures, including Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and many more.
American History Online‘s extensive range of content provides an essential resource for background and context to the 2016 election as well as for further exploration of timely topics.
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