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A Literature Research Guide - Historical Context Research: Historical Background

Encyclopedia of American Studies

From Johns Hopkins University - Covers the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States in relation to the world, from pre-colonial days to the present.

Research Librarian & Head of Instruction

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Anne Bledsoe
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Contact:
Tomlinson Library, Office 172
970.248.1805

If you want to learn about an event or person or period

American Contexts

Colonial America 1607-1763
Early Republic 1783-1861
Civil War and Reconstruction 1861-1877
American Renaissance 1861-1877
Gilded Age / Progressive Era 1877-1920's
Modernism 1880s-mid 1900's
Harlem Renaissance 1920's
Great Depression / New Deal 1929-1939
Postwar America 1945-1980

English Contexts

Chaucer 1340's-1400
Global Renaissance 1560's-1690's
Shakespeare 1564-1616
Romanticism 1800-1890
Victorian Era 1837-1901
Modernism and After 1880's-mid-1900's

Author "in Context" sourcebooks can identify key cultural and intellectual influences as well as the social, political, and historical context the author was working in.  These sourcebooks do not usually include primary sources, but they provide references and background information and may mention influential texts. To find author sourcebooks, search the library catalog below using the author's name and "in context".  For example: Emily Dickinson in context

 

Article Databases:

Essays from writers on a particular time or region: