Research Guides: HIST 152: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Meanings of Equality: Getting Started

Getting Started with Research and Biography

How you use a source determines whether it is a primary source or secondary source.

Primary sources are first-hand accounts by participants of a particular event or materials produced at the same historical time period. Primary sources act as a form of evidence of life or thought.

Secondary sources interpret or analyze primary sources. They are a step removed from the event or original text, and act as a form of insight, context

If you are analyzing a magazine article from the 1940s to talk about what life was like during that time period, it is a primary source. However, if you are citing information from that magazine article for it's commentary on something contemporary, then it is a secondary source.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

WEX: Legal Encyclopedia and Dictionary
free legal dictionary and encyclopedia sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School

Black's Law Dictionary, Ninth Edition
Call Number: SAWYER REFERENCE KF156 .B53 2009
The standard source for legal definitions.
The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions
Written by eminent legal scholars, each entry provides the United States Reports citation, the date the case was argued and decided, the vote of the Justices, who wrote the opinion for the Court, who concurred, and who dissented. The entries feature an informative account of the particulars of the case, the legal and social background, the reasoning behind the Court's decision, and the case's impact on American society.

Biographies

Dictionary of American Biography - Supreme Court Justices
DAB is a scholarly biographical source with extensive signed articles and bibliographies. Information about where the person's personal and work papers are deposited is included. This link contains biographies of Supreme Court Justices only who died prior to 1980. For justices who are still living or died after 1980, see the Biography (Gale in Context) database.

Biography (Gale in Context)
Includes biographical profiles from reference sources, newspapers, magazines, and journals. Covers all time periods and areas of the world.

American National Biography
Call Number: SAWYER REFERENCE & CHAPIN LIBRARY E176 .A447 1999
Contains biographical profiles of people who died prior to 1996. Includes people whose significant actions took place while living in what is today the United States or whose life/career had a direct influence on the course of American history.