Guides: EN 2232: American Literature: Twain to World War I: Background Sources

Find Background Information

Look for background information in encyclopedias and biographies. Use these sources to find research topics or to narrow down a research topic. Background sources can also help you learn the vocabulary used to describe your topic. This new vocabulary will help you with your keyword searches.

Sources for Background Information

Oxford English Dictionary
Electronic version of the twenty-volume The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition and three-volume Additions Series.

Coverage: Current
Full Text: Yes
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Biography (Gale in Context: Biography)
Biographical information on people from throughout history.

Coverage: Current
Full Text: Yes
Titles Included
Oxford Reference
Contains 100+ dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works full text and searchable.

Coverage: Varies
Full Text: Yes

The Oxford Companion to American Literature
The Oxford Companion to American Literature has over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their style, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. It also has more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories.
The Oxford Companion to United States History
With over 1,400 entries written by some 900 historians and other scholars, The Oxford Companion to United States History illuminates not only America's political, diplomatic, and military history, but also social, cultural, and intellectual trends; science, technology, and medicine; the arts; and religion.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History offers a record of the nation’s values, aspirations, anxieties, and beliefs as expressed in both everyday life and formal bodies of thought.