African American Biography
African American National Biography by Call Number: E185.96 .A4466 2008ISBN: 9780195160192Publication Date: 2008-02-18This reference work ranks along with American National Biography among the best for African American biography. Its readable, signed entries include persons from all walks of life including literary and other creative figures. Entries conclude with a helpful further reading section.
American National Biography by Call Number: CT213 .A68 1999ISBN: 0195206355Publication Date: 1999-01-21The ANB is the go-to reference work for finding credible information about the lives of significant persons in American history. Locate Americans by "occupations and realms of renown" such as Animal Rights Activists, Black Nationalists, Civil Rights Leaders, Gay Rights Activists, Social Reformers, Suffragists, and many other occupations. Brief but highly useful bibliographic essays accompany each entry. These point researchers to the most important secondary biographies but also to repositories of collected papers and other primary source ephemera.
Selected Reference Works
Question: What value has a reference book? Why, for example, consult a scholarly history encyclopedia?
Answer: Encyclopedias are two steps removed from the primary historical evidence, that is from the letters, diaries, oral histories, and other first-hand accounts of history. For that reason encyclopedias belong to a class of information librarians call reference or tertiary sources.
- Encyclopedias help researchers to contextualize their topics, situating the primary source evidence within broader scholarly (or historiographical) debates. Context is critical, not least because researchers cannot elicit relevant search results from library databases such as JSTOR if they do not know which keywords (or search terms) to employ.
- Obtain from encyclopedias background information about your historical topic. Easily track down additional sources for further reading.
- Browsing a history encyclopedia can even help you to choose and/or refine your research topic. The Gitenstein Library reference works listed on this page, in short, are a great way to begin any history-related research project.
African American Women:
African American Women: An Annotated Bibliography by Call Number: E185.86 .T43 2001ISBN: 031331263XPublication Date: 2000-11-30
All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave by Call Number: E185.86 .A4 2015ISBN: 9781558618985Publication Date: 2015-09-01 (2nd ed.)1st ed. (1982) available as free e-book on Internet Archive
- Black Women and Suffrage in the U.S.: A Centennial Resource Guideopen access bibliography (2018)
Karla J. Strand, Gender and Women's Studies Librarian, University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia by Call Number: E185.86 .B542 2005ISBN: 0195156773Publication Date: 2005-05-19 (2nd ed.)1st ed. (1993) is available as free e-book on Internet Archive
see also the main History libguide > Reference Shelf page > African Americans tab
Online:
Civil Rights Chronicle: The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0785349243Publication Date: 2005-01-01also available in print, Reference Collection (1st floor), call # E185.61 .C5918 2003
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present by Call Number: E185 .E5453 2009ISBN: 9780195167795Publication Date: 2009-02-02Internet Archive e-books (all 5 vols.) available:
vol. 1. A-C
vol. 2. D-I
vol. 3. J-N
vol. 4. O-T
vol. 5. U-Y
Print only:
The Cambridge Guide to African American History by Call Number: E185 .G33 2016ISBN: 9781107103399Publication Date: 2016-02-15
A Companion to African American History by Call Number: E185 .C66 2008ISBN: 9781405179935Publication Date: 2008-06-16
A Companion to African-American Studies by Call Number: E184.7 .C65 2006ISBN: 0631235167Publication Date: 2006-02-10
