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History (American)

Welcome!

Welcome to the Research Guide for American History! Use this Guide to discover and explore research and information related to topics in American History. 

Start Here!

  1. Explore links and resources along the left panel to identify and access secondary and primary sources. 
  2. Check out the DIY Research Support Guide and the BruKnow Research Guide for refreshers on Library Orientation and Tutorials
  3. Explore related Research Guides: 
  4. Schedule a one-on-one appointment with Leo to discuss your research plans

New Faculty Publications in American History

Consent in the Presence of Force: Sexual Violence and Black Women's Survival in Antebellum New Orleans by Emily A. Owens

In histories of enslavement and in Black women's history, coercion looms large in any discussion of sex and sexuality. At a time when sexual violence against Black women was virtually unregulated—even normalized—a vast economy developed specifically to sell the sexual labor of Black women. In this vividly rendered book, Emily A. Owens wrestles with the question of why white men paid notoriously high prices to gain sexual access to the bodies of enslaved women to whom they already had legal and social access.

UNTIL I AM FREE: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain

A blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, Until I Am Free is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice.

Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe.

Intimate States Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern US History, Edited by Margot Canaday, Nancy F. Cott, and Robert O. Self

Fourteen essays examine the unexpected relationships between government power and intimate life in the last 150 years of United States history.