Social and Cultural History

Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history.
 

Painstakingly assembled from hundreds of sources, Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. The project brings coherence to a wide range of published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.

Illustrated Civil War Newspapers and Magazines is the definitive online Civil War media resource. The database contains 65,000 pages drawn from 49 periodicals, including 15 campaign newspapers, most of them illustrated—3,720 issues published from 1860 to 1865.  Originally printed in 16 different cities, many of the publications are now rare and hard to find, with an item sometimes extant only in a single archive.

Images of the American Civil War is a richly indexed collection of more than 50,000 photographs, prints, and other visual materials that illustrate the experience of Americans in a time of national crisis. Collectively, these items offer a vivid glimpse of American popular culture in the 1850s and 1860s—reflecting attitudes toward national heroes and villains, revealing evolving definitions of patriotism and just dissent, and providing invaluable information on prevailing forms of popular education and entertainment. Part of The American Civil War Online series.

High-quality images of original manuscripts, covering 200 years, extensively indexed and online for the first time comprise this collection. In many cases, we also include the replies, from both men and women, placing the letters in their full context. Alexander Street is excited to offer this collection from the American Antiquarian Society, extensively indexed and online for the first time. Part of the Letters and Diaries Online package.

North American Indian Thought and Culture contains more than 100,000 pages of personal stories, many of which are previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find. The collection presents the entire spectrum of Indian and Canadian First People experiences from their own point of view. Firsthand accounts reveal how Indians lived, thought, and fought to protect their interests; how the tribes interacted with each other and the white invaders; and how they reacted to the constantly changing and challenging situations they faced.

Oral histories are the voices of the disenfranchised—the famous and the lesser known. Artists, musicians, laborers, survivors, immigrants, and students are just a few of the silent people to whom oral histories give voice. Groups whose stories otherwise might remain unnoticed—the illiterate, common people, minorities, and others who rarely see their stories published—can finally be heard through oral histories.

Social Theory is a new undertaking to provide comprehensive coverage of major social thinkers together with seminal texts from lesser figures. For many writers, the project represents the first availability of a major scholarly edition of their collected works.

The American Civil War Online is the most comprehensive series of electronic collections available for research in perhaps the most extensively studied subject in American history.

The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries knits together more than 400 sources of diaries, letters, and memoirs, to provide fast access to thousands of views on almost every aspect of the war. This extraordinary electronic collection includes 100,000 pages of re-keyed and indexed text, including 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscript material. Scholars can read close to 200 intimate letters written by Amos Wood, his wife Clara, and their three-year-old son, Freddie, illustrating what life was like for a Massachusetts family separated by the war.

For the first time, the groundbreaking series The March of Time^® will be available in online streaming video in a single, cross-searchable collection designed specifically to meet the needs of researchers, teaching faculty, and students.

From 1935, when it first appeared in American movie theatres as newsreels, through 1967, when the last television segment aired, The March of Time^® awed journalists, filmmakers, and audiences alike with its controversial topics and unique approach. Today, the collection presents an unmatched reflection of American values and culture for students and scholars.

Rapid and drastic changes in cultural values and behaviors touched nearly every aspect of American life in the twentieth century. Conduct, behavioral, advice, and etiquette literature reveal how society grappled with these changes. Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Sex, Gender, and the Family will contain more than 150,000 pages of text focusing on gender roles and relations, views of democratic citizenship, character development for children, class relations, and adjustments to new technology.