Research Guides: History, U.S. & Canada *: Databases & Journals

Try These First:

Search these core American History databases for locating secondary sources:

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The definitive index to articles and other literature (books, dissertations, book reviews, etc.) covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present. Indexes 1,700 journals from 1910 to present.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers history of the world, 1450-present. Indexes more than 3,100 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
Although the focus is not on the U.S. or Canada, there are thousands of articles on topics related to these countries. Especially relevant for those studying colonial, revolutionary and early republic eras.
This database includes key history journals from major countries, as well as relevant journals from the social sciences and humanities. Also includes book reviews and dissertations.
This database provides indexing of historical articles from more than 1,800 journals in over 40 languages back to 1955 and access to the full text of more than 349 journals and more than 120 books.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A growing full text collection of core social science, humanities, and science journals. Some backfiles date back to the early 1800s. Since 2011 JSTOR has begun to add current content for 215 journals in addition to its archival holdings which limit access to current issues.

Core American History Journals (w/online Access), A-Z

American Historical Review -- Oldest scholarly journal of history in the United States.

American Indian Quarterly -- Peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal.

Civil War History -- Foremost scholarly journal of this conflict

Early American Studies -- Sponsored by The McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Journal of American History -- Core US History journal, published by the Organization of American Historians

Journal of Cold War Studies -- Features peer-reviewed articles based on archival research

Journal of the Early Republic -- Early United States history and culture

The Western Historical Quarterly -- The official publication of the Western History Association, WHQ's mission is to promote the study of the American West in its varied aspects and broadest sense.

William and Mary Quarterly -- Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, this is one of the oldest scholarly journals in the US, first published in 1892. WMQ is the leading journal for the study of early American history and culture.

Next Try Some of these Subject Specific Databases

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Bibliography of Native North Americans This link opens in a new window
(BNNA) Covers all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life, including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. BNNA contains more than 141,000 citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada. Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present.
The Bibliography of Native North Americans contains citations to literature about native peoples of North America published from the sixteenth century to the present. Native North Americans include Aleuts; Eskimos or Inuit of Greenland, northern Canada, Alaska, and eastern Siberia; and other native peoples (i.e. "Indians") of Alaska, Canada, the United States, and Mexico north of the northern boundary of Mesoamerica. All citations are to published materials: books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and US and Canadian government documents.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
A cross-searchable gateway to African American Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more. It combines several resources for teaching and research: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP) which indexes over 300 publications; the full text of major black newspapers, and the Black Literature Index, which provides access to over 70,000 bibliographic citations for fiction, poetry and literary reviews published in 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940. Newspapers include: , Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1994), and Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002);

Lastly, Try These Multidisciplinary Databases

Multidisciplinary databases are extremely useful for finding articles published in interdisciplinary journals or in journals outiside a given discipline that may still be relevant to your research topic.

In addition to containing journal articles, many of these database also provide citations for (or full-text access to) books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference proceedings, which allows you to cast a wider net in your effort to find sources.

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 14,000 titles, including more than 9,000 peer-reviewed journals and more than 6,000 in full text. Updated daily
With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
ArticleFirst This link opens in a new window
(1990-present)
An index to the table of contents and holdings information from more than 16,000 journals in the social science, business, the humanities, popular culture, science, and technology. Updated daily.
Arts & Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
It is designed to complement the following indexes: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles freely available on the web.

You first need to add USC as a library link in order to get direct access to USC's full-text subscription content from the Google Scholar results page. This option can be found under the Scholar Settings link option in the upper right hand corner of the home page or results page.
PIO - Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Dates vary by publication. Does not include current content
An index to millions of articles published in over 6000 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, going back over 300 years. It covers 37 key subject areas in the humanities and social sciences and offers a variety within these subject areas.
Periodicals Index Online is unique in combining a broad subject base with deep chronological coverage going back over 300 years. It covers 37 key subject areas in the humanities and social sciences and offers vast variety within these subject areas. Periodicals Index Online currently indexes over 18 million articles going as far back as 1665 and every article in each journal is indexed, from volume 1 issue 1 to recent times. Cataloging in Periodicals Index Online is not limited by language or by date. Over three centuries of scholarly publication in 40 languages and dialects are indexed, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the complete content (including all images) of hundreds of current scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.
As of January 2012, Project Muse has added thousands of University Press ebooks to its collection. However, USC DOES NOT have access to them. If you are interested in one of these titles, please search Homer or Quick Search to see if we have a copy.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database that includes Social Science Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index
OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database providing citations and full text articles, book reviews, and more
With the full text of articles from over 2,500 publications, and indexing and abstracts from nearly 3,600 publications, this database provides invaluable support for research in all core undergraduate subjects and for cross-disciplinary work.

Find out if USC has a Specific Journal

If you are looking for a specific journal, select Journals on the Libraries homepage:

If you have the exact title of the journal, search for the title and on the Results page, select "Sort by: Title":

If we have online access to this publication you'll see one or more results, with the dates available and the name of the database or publisher linking you to the journal. If we have the journal in print or on microfilm you will see location information under the "Availability" section of the item record.