Research Guides: #History: Overviews &amp; Starting Points

Background Information

Issues & Controversies in History
Explores debates and conflicts in US and world history, as seen by key players or as interpreted by historians. Balanced articles provide pro and con arguments on hundreds of controversies, and each article is centered on original documents (primary sources).
American History (Infobase)
Provides topic pages and overviews for historical events, daily life in different eras, historical controversies, and multimedia supplements as well as primary sources. Covers the colonial/revolutionary period and forward.

Provides a comprehensive range of information: topic introductions, biographies, primary sources, videos and slideshows, images, timelines, and maps and graphs.
Modern World History (access ends July 31, 2026)
Explore articles from encyclopedias, primary sources, and multimedia on world history from the mid-15th century to today. Includes biographies, maps, timelines, videos, and topic centers for key eras and regions.

Available for the 2025-26 academic year as a pilot, so explore the resource and share your thoughts; fill out the feedback form.
Biography Reference Ultimate
Search 1.2 million biographies and 375+ e-books on influential people in business, film, history, music, politics, sports, arts and more. Sources include Britannica, Salem Press, Biography Today, Current Biography and other trusted reference sources.

Explore the trial database and share your thoughts; fill out the feedback form.

US History Scene
U.S. History Scene is a multimedia education website composed of historians and educators at over fifty universities dedicated to teaching the American past in a global context.
Making Sense of Evidence
“Making Sense of Documents” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis.
eHistory
Browse by era, topic, and region to locate biographies, articles, oral histories, images, and more. Run by The Ohio State University.