U.S. History

The online catalog provides bibliographic information on the majority of holdings in the Duke University Libraries. Materials in the online catalog are cataloged using Library of Congress Subject headings. A listing of these headings is available through the multi-volume Library of Congress Subject Headings (commonly referred to as the "big red books"). Sets are available in both the Perkins Reference Department and Lilly Library. With subject searching, a good place to begin is with variations on the heading that begins with United States -- history. For example,

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Caricatures and cartoons
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 – Bibliography

What about books that aren’t in the Duke Libraries’ collections?

To identify books that are held at other libraries, you can check the following catalogs:

• WorldCat provides access to millions of records of materials held by libraries throughout the United States and the world.
• Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery.