Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Two trends have characterized historical scholarship since 1950. The first is the ever-increasing rate at which new monographs and articles appear. It now requires heroic efforts just to keep abreast of every publication in topical fields like religious or political history, much less of every significant book and article across the broad spectrum of the American past. This explosion of new literature has produced the second trend: increasing specialization among scholars. Few academics define themselves so specifically as the newly minted Ph.D., whose résumé I once read, who described himself as an historian of the Michigan frontier from 1820 to 1840, but all scholars have been forced to sacrifice breadth of knowledge for depth in order to keep up to date with their primary research and teaching areas. This Dictionary of American History has accordingly been conceived as a reference tool for college professors or secondary-school teachers investigating topics outside their individual specializations, students pursuing history degrees, participants in high-school advanced placement programs, and members of the general public needing a convenient, easy-to-use, and up-to-date compendium of historical facts. Such a single-volume work has particular usefulness at a time when professional and amateur historians find themselves in a state of information-overload. It provides essential ... log in or subscribe to read full text