HIST 373B: Women, Gender & the American Revolution

Reference books are helpful starting places if you need:

1. An overview of topic, person, place, or event.
2. To browse for topic ideas.
3. Help with focusing or narrowing your topic.
4. A list of core resources for your topic. Many reference books provide a short bibliography and/or suggested scholarly readings. These readings usually represent the best scholarship for the topic at hand up to the time the reference work was published.

The following are some good reference sources for topics related to the subject of this course.

• History of Women in the United States: State-by-state Reference
  Seymour Library Reference HQ1410.H58 2004 
• The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution

Biographical sources give basic information about people. Try these:

• Women Patriots of the American Revolution: A biographical dictionary
  Seymour Library Reference E276.C5 1991
• Notable American Women, 1607-1950 A biographical dictionary 
  Seymour Library Reference CT3260.N573

Bibliographies are invaluable for thorough research. Because many bibliographies are classified (works are presented under topic headings) they can save you time because they list the core works, both primary and secondary, on topics.

• The Female Experience in 18th and 19th Century America: A Guide to the History of American Women
  OPEN RESERVE: HQ 1410 C66 1985
• The Published Diaries and Letters of American Women
  OPEN RESERVE CT3260 G66 1987
• women in American History: A Bibliography, Vol. II
  OPEN RESERVE: HQ1410 .H392 1985

Bibliographies are discoverable in Knox Primo and databases by searching with keywords that define a topic together with the term "bibliography" or sometimes "bibliographies" limited to the subject headings field. For example, a search in America: History & Life for "connecticut and bibliographies" yields:

Destler, Chester M.; A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Connecticut History 1975 (16): 7-36 30p.

This bibliography is extremely useful. Find it in the Reference section in Seymour Library, call number E 276 G78. A pdf of the table of contents of volume 1 is here. 

Find a section in the table of contents that applies to your topic, then turn to the pages for that topic. You will see references listed that deal with the topic. The references are all published sources, and some will be primary sources. 

Note: Volume 2 is a subject listing topics about women based on geographical area, for example, women in New Jersey during the period.

After you identify references you would like to see, use Knox Primo to find out if we have access to them. Search for book in Knox Primo by title and search for articles by article title (use the "Everything" search!). If Knox does not provide access to articles, use the Tipasa interlibrary loan to obtain them.