Guide to America: History & Life
and Historical Abstracts

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America: History and Life (AHL) and Historical Abstracts (HA) are indexes to scholarly material in the field of history, including journal articles, monographs, and doctoral dissertations. AHL indexes materials relevant to the study of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. HA indexes materials relevant to the study of the history of the rest of the world since 1450. Both AHL and HA index materials relevant to, among other topics, political history, military history, economic history, cultural history, and intellectual history. In addition, materials from related fields in the social sciences and humanities are indexed, if the subject matter has been considered from an historical perspective. AHL has been published since 1964 and includes nearly half-a-million references to the literature in the field. HA has been published since 1954 and currently indexes over 2,000 journals from around the globe in the field of world history (electronic database coverage for HA begins in 1969).

Beginning a Search

Open AHL or HA by making your choice from the database menu available on the library Website. Then select "click here to access your subscription," and continue by selecting either AHL or HA.

Reminder: You can only search one of these databases at a time, so be sure that you are in the correct database (e.g., if you are interested in the history of Anglo-Native American relations in the United States, you should be conducting your search in America: History and Life, but if you are interested in the rise of fascism in Italy, you should be conducting your search in Historical Abstracts).

Entering a Search

Note: Both AHL and HA use the same search system. To avoid confusion, all examples in this guide will be taken from America: History and Life, but remember that the instructions are valid for both databases.

The main search screen allows you to enter words or phrases in a number of standard categories, including Keyword, Title, Author, Subject Terms, and Journal Name. Enter your search terms in one or more of the pre-defined search fields and then select "Search."

Note: From the Advanced Search Screen, if you wish to see a listing of all valid terms in a search field (e.g., "subject terms"), leave the text box blank and select the "magnifying glass" icon to the right of the text box. You may then select terms for searching by checking the box provided next to each search term (e.g., "watergate scandal"). If you wish to find a specific term in the list, enter your search term in the text box provided at the top of the page and select "Find Term." Once you have chosen a term for use in your search, select "Paste Terms" and the term will be entered into the correct search field text box on the main search screen.

Search Hints

1. You can always select more than one term for searching from the lists you see when you select the magnifying glass icon ("browse") on the main search screen. If you "browse" the list of document types and see more than one relevant term, for example, "article" and "dissertation," both can be selected using the check box next to each term, and both will be entered into the appropriate text box when you select "Paste Terms," as described above.

2. Use general terms when searching the "keyword" fields, but use the "browse" feature whenever you are searching one of the "controlled" fields (e.g., journal name or subject terms).

3. Be careful when using the "time period" field as part of your search. Even if you know when a particular event occurred, you cannot be certain that the event has been categorized historically in the way you expect. For example, if you are searching for material on the World War II era, you might enter "1940-1945" in the "time period" field, but this would actually retrieve all records that include a "time period" heading that encompass either of those dates (e.g., 1940's, 20c, 1850-1970, 1890's-1984, 1948-89, 1945-80, 1900-50 -- all of which are separate "time period" headings in AHL and HA). For this reason, the "time period" field should only be used in conjunction with information entered in another search field (e.g., "keyword," "subject terms").

   New! The "time period" field has been made easier to use in a search. Depending on your interests, you may now define a time period either by "decade" (D), or by "century" (H) (for "hundreds"). Entering "1950D" in the "time period" field, therefore, will limit your search to information concerning events that occurred from 1950-1959; entering "1900H" will limit your search to information concerning events that occurred from 1900-1999 (periods may be combined for a broader search, e.g., "1820D 1830D 1840D," which would retrieve records relevant to the period "1820-1849.")

4. If you retrieve too many records with a general search, you can refine your search by selecting the "Modify Search" option from the navigation bar that appears on your search results screen. Selecting this option will return you to the main search screen, where you can enter additional terms useful for narrowing your set of retrievals.

Sample Search

To find journal articles relevant to a study of the labor movement during the early twentieth century, enter "labor movement" in the keyword text box, "article" in the document type text box, and "1890-1920" in the time period text box. Try again, but this time "browse" the subject terms field and select a term like "labor and labor movements" to use along with your document type and time period terms (instead of the keyword phrase).

Reminder: There is usually more than one way to search for any historical event or movement. Be creative in your use of keyword and subject search terms. In the above search, using "labor movement" as a keyword may be a start, but you might also consider more specific terms like "American Federation of Labor," "Industrial Workers of the World" or "strike" (each of which is actually a separate subject term).

Viewing Search Results

After you select "Search" on the main search screen, the database will display a list of records that match your search request. Each record will contain "Short Entry" information, but a full citation and abstract for each record can be viewed by selecting the "Full Entry" option listed above each record. There are no full-text records available in either AHL or HA.

Mark entries for downloading by selecting the check box in the top-left corner of each entry.

Select "Output Options" from the navigation bar to the left of the screen. Select your desired "entry format" and "output type" and then click the "Submit" button to the right of the screen. Entries may be saved to a local disk, emailed, or sent to the browser window for printing (using the "print" button on your browser).

Help Options

Select the "Help" button on the navigation bar that appears on the search screens to receive context-sensitive online help.

For further assistance, please contact the Miller Nichols Library Reference Desk: (816) 235-1534