Research guides: HMU126: Historical Survey II, 1750-present: Social, Political, and Cultural Resources

Social, Political, and Cultural Databases

The UTL has some fantastic databases for finding information on the political, social, and cultural contexts of the music you're studying. These contexts often play a role in shaping the kinds of musics that are produced during a particular historical time period. Here's a short list for you to check out, listed in alphabetical order:

African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window
This collection created by Alexander Street features music and artists in genres from Blues to Country to Bepop and more. Resources listed in this collection include biographies, memoirs, and sholarly works.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I This link opens in a new window
The archive includes newsletters, newspapers, and periodicals by, for and about gays and lesbians; reports; policy statements; and other materials tracing LGBTQ activism throughout the second half of the twentieth century.
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
Covers Native North American culture, history, and life. It contains eBooks, essays, journal, magazine and news articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Website of both historical and current information for research on African Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-ficition writings by major American black leaders - teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures - covering 250 years of history.
Canadian Music Periodical Index (CMPI) This link opens in a new window
The Canadian Music Periodical Index (CMPI) is an index of articles from Canadian music periodicals. You can use this resource to focus your searches, and then look for full texts of the articles at U of T.

The CMPI database includes over 37,000 entries on articles dating from the late-19th century to the present day. Canadian music journals, newsletters and magazines are represented here, almost 200 of which are currently active and continue to be indexed. Since 1999, significant articles published in Canadian periodicals about international music and musicians have been added to the index.
Cold War: a student encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
Entries cover all facets of the Cold War from its origins to its aftermath, including political, diplomatic, military, social, and economic topics, as well as the lives of everyday citizens caught up in the conflict in countries around the world.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Electronic reproduction of material relating to the European colonial period. Empire online is an extensive, interactive digital resource enabling researchers to explore colonial history, politics, religion, culture and society. Material in the collection spans five centuries, charting the rise and fall of colonial empires from the explorations of Columbus and Captain Cook, the missionary movement and the exhibitions of the 19th century, to decolonisation in the second half of the 20th century and debates over American imperialism. A broad selection of letter books, periodicals, travel writings and more have been selected from leading archives around the world, including the British Library, providing valuable insight into the key events and themes of the European colonial period.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 This link opens in a new window
In nearly seven hundred entries, the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 documents the full range of the African American experience during that period—from the arrival of the first slave ship to the death of Frederick Douglass—and shows how all aspects of American culture, history, and national identity have been profoundly influenced by the experience of African Americans.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present This link opens in a new window
This remarkable work traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ascendant influence of African Americans on the American cultural landscape. With coverage up to and including the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the Encyclopedia contains approximately 1,200 fully cross-referenced entries all signed by leading scholars and experts, offering the most reliable and extensive treatment to be found on African American history in this era.
First Nations Information Connection This link opens in a new window
Includes materials from First Nations in the prairies, including Indigenous languages, governance, treaties, media, science, images and news.
Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new window
This database allows users to trace the history of Native Peoples in North America from colonial relations in the 1600s to twentieth-century issues such as civil rights. Includes manuscript collections, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, photos, and some video.
Indigenous Studies Portal This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles, ebooks, theses, and government publications, with a primary focus on Indigenous peoples of Canada and a secondary focus on North American materials and beyond.
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation This link opens in a new window
As the permanent home for all statements, documents, and other materials gathered by the Truth and Reconciliation Centre, the NCTR works to fulfill the shared vision held by those affected by Indian residential schools: to create a place of learning and dialogue where the truths of their experiences are honoured and kept safe for future generations.
Performance Design Archive This link opens in a new window
"With the Performance Design Archive Online, theatre students and researchers can now truly see "behind the scenes" of the world's greatest dramatic performances. Performance Design Archive Online is the first comprehensive, international collection that covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup. Bringing together essential books and periodicals, archival material, and specially commissioned instructional videos, the collection will cover design concepts for a broad range of performance types, including dance, theatre, opera, and music." (Publisher's note)
Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War This link opens in a new window
This database includes documents from four key 20th-century conflicts, with a spotlight on the Second World War. Documents are primarily British secret intelligence.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window
The liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime was one of the major political developments of the 20th century, with far-reaching consequences for people throughout Africa and around the globe. This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
This archive includes a broad range of previously classified federal records from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries including policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports.
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
The Women's Studies Archive analyzes history from the female perspective. Covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this archive presents materials on the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society.
Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires Since 1820 This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820 explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices. With a clear focus on bringing the voices of the colonized to the forefront, this highly-curated archive and database includes documents related to the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States Empires, and settler societies in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. by Magocsi, Paul R.
Provides an overview of people within the geographical and social framework of Canada. Each group entry outlines origins; migration; arrival and settlement; economic life; community life; family and kinship; culture; education; religion; politics; intergroup relations; group maintenance and ethnic commitment; and bibliography. The native peoples, or First Nations, are listed under an entry called Aboriginals which is subdivided into major linguistic groupings. Included are peoples "made" in Canada such as the Acadians, Amish, French Canadians, Metis, and Mormons and groups who no longer exist such as the Basques. World regional identities for Arabs, Caribbean Peoples, and South Asians in Canada are also noted.

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HMU126: Historical Survey II, 1750-present

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