Scholarly Books

Hansom, Paul, ed. Twentieth-Century American Cultural Theorists. 2001.

Menand, Louis. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. 2001.

Watson, Peter. The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century. 2001.

Kadlec, David. Mosaic Modernism: Anarchism, Pragmatism, Culture. 2000.

Pettegrew, John ed. A Pragmatist's Progress? : Richard Rorty and American Intellectual History. 2000.

Intellectual History Newsletter

Journal of American History

Reviews in American History

Encyclopedia of American History. 7th ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Dictionary of the History of Ideas. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.

The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1994.

United States History: A Bibliography of the New Writings on American History. New York: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Handbook for Research in American History. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

American History and Life

Archival Resources- Through Eureka

The Research Process

American Intellectual Historians produce scholarship through the process of library and archival research. As primary sources drive their field, they often must travel to manuscript depositories and archives to obtain unpublished documents. Yet, as historians must acknowledge all of the historiography on any topic, they can accomplish a large portion of research in large university libraries that maintain the published works of renowned historians. These libraries also would have the published works of major philosophers, literary figures and political theorists.

The types and origins of the primary source material that these historians use, are as varied as the field. Scholars engaged in the history of ideas seek philosophical writings and discourse, published or not-published, produced by prominent philosophers. Those writing intellectual history proper also use major philosophical treatises. Political writings and speeches, correspondence, literary works, books, poems, essays, articles in scholarly periodicals and ideological writings by more common individuals also influence their work. Additionally, they use newspaper articles, transcripts of political meetings, interviews and any other materials to capture the ideologies and opinions of Americans. Finally, academics involved in the social history of ideas use newspapers, scholarly monographs and popular books, both scholarly and popular periodical literature, and media, to trace the diffusion of ideas.

These scholars generate scholarly monographs, articles in professional periodicals and books reviews of important Intellectual History works. They may contribute essays to reference tools. Additionally, they present papers at major historical conferences, which may later become published.