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American History MA - Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman : Find Secondary Sources

Resource guide for students enrolled in the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA in American History.

Core Research Tools for Secondary Sources

MUSCAT Plus, our library's catalog, is a great place to find sources that will build the foundation of any research project. This database is designed to show you all the resources we have available on the subject you search for, including books, articles, reviews, archival materials, and more. Since it pulls directly from many of our subscriptions, you will be able to see content from a vast array of databases all in one place. 

Some tips for using MUSCAT Plus as an online masters student: 

  • Remember to sign in to your account using your campus credentials before you get started with your searching. This will allow you to view all online content, save resources for later, and place interlibrary loan requests.
  • Take advantage of the filters. In particular, the "Online Resources" filter is extremely helpful for narrowing the results down to resources that are available to you wherever you are working from. You can access this from the search bar dropdown, as well as the filter bar that appears after you've submitted a search.

                                                     

                                                                         

Want to learn more about MUSCAT Plus? View this tutorial for a quick overview of how to sign into your account, take advantage of your search options, and access eBooks and journal articles.

If you are not able to find enough sources on MUSCAT Plus, it can be helpful to search directly on other library databases. We recommend these core resources for scholars of history:

Haven't used this database before? Watch America History and Life: Basic Searches (3 min video)

Listed below are some digital repositories that might be helpful for finding freely available online copies of the materials you're searching for, especially if they were published before 1928 (meaning they are now in the public domain). 

                               

Background Information

Book Reviews

Reading book reviews can be a very helpful part of identifying sources for your historiography. Databases will index reviews that appear in scholarly journals or other publications. The process below for Muscat Plus and JSTOR will be similar in other databases.

Haven't searched for book reviews before? Watch our 1-minute video on limiting your search to book reviews.
 
MUSCAT Plus
  1. In the "everything" search of Muscat Plus, search for the book title, author, or topic.
  2. Once you have a set of search results, expand the Source Types menu on the left side of your screen and select Reviews.
  3. The remaining results should all be reviews. Select one results and scroll down to the full text availability. Click a resource listed in this section to download the PDF.
JSTOR
  1. When in JSTOR, click Advanced Search to the right of the search box.
  2. Enter your terms, searching for the book title, author, or topic.
  3. Under Narrow Results, mark Review in Item Types. Click Submit Advanced Search to run your search.

Dissertations and Theses

While dissertations and theses may be a part of your historiography, they can be challenging to access since print copies are often only held by the library at the degree-granting institution. Some recent dissertations may be available online, but it depends on the university.

As a result, we are unable to complete requests for digital scans of sections of a print dissertation or thesis via interlibrary loan.

If you're seeking a copy of a PhD dissertation or MA thesis:

  1. Search to see if it is available via Google Scholar. Some authors, especially if they completed their PhD in the last ten years, will have made their dissertation or thesis freely available through their university's online institutional repository or via their personal website. Google Scholar searches these and will connect you to the record or PDF if available.
  2. Search in Muscat Plus to see if the author published a book or article based upon the research for their PhD or MA.
  3. Contact the author directly via email. The author may be willing to send you a PDF of their dissertation or thesis if they have it in that format.
Subjects: History