Finding Background Information and Context
Reference Sources with Entries on Culture:
- The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Popular Culture.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.
6 volumes.
Olin Reference HM 621 .G74 2007. Print only. - The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History.Articles explore U.S.values, aspirations, anxieties, and beliefs as expressed in both everyday life and formal bodies of thought.
Online. Also available in 2 print volumes: https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/8054136. - The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History.Scholarly articles "on the way automobiles shaped American lives, the westward movement of settlers and farmers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the transformation of work over time, the women's suffrage movement, counterculture, leisure activities, consumption patterns, voting habits, population movements, racial divides, and many more." -- Publisher's description.
Online. Also available in 2 print volumes: https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/7717484. - Oxford English DictionaryFind examples of the earliest uses of English words in Anglo-American culture and definitions of words.
Reference Databases
- Sage Reference OnlineA searchable, full-text database of reference works that focuses on the applied social sciences.
- Gale Virtual Reference LibraryYou can search for reliable background articles on social sciences and humanities topics in this full-text database of reference encyclopedias.
- Oxford ReferenceAnother full-text database of reliable information from reference works (encyclopedias and dictionaries) published by Oxford University Press.