Today is Presidents’ Day, but just like on Martin Luther King Day, not many of us are going to celebrate by reading a biography of George Washington. This day has come to represent ideals far more than any one person’s life. The idea of liberty, of our national character, is more the spirit of this holiday.
As in the population at large, we’ve had presidents who were perceived as effective or not, and some have dealt well with the challenges that faced them, while others have failed in their tasks. But we can learn from anyone in history, and your library stands ready to connect you with that kind of resource.
Several of our databases are particularly good for finding material on U.S. history. They include:
African American History Online
American Civil War: Letters & Diaries
American Indian History Online
American Women’s History Online
Early Encounters in North America: People, Cultures, and Environment
Gale Virtual Reference Library
And, of course, we have many books on the topic, too, such as:
American History from a Global Perspective : An Interpretive Text by David J. Russo, 2000
Degradation of American History by David Harlan, 1997
Inventing American History by William Hogeland, 2009
Beyond the Revolution : A History of American Thought from Paine to Pragmatism by William H. Goetzmann, 2009
Complete Idiot’s Guide to American History by Alan Axelrod, 2000
The Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History by Adam Selzer, 2009 (JUV E178.3 .S457 2009)
And, if you are interested in the presidency, we have resources for that, too:
Presidents and Political Thought by David J. Siemers, 2010
Presidential Powers by Harold J. Krent, 2005
The American Presidency edited by Christopher Mari and Paul McCaffrey, 2008 (JK516 .A68 2008)
Celebrate the day by studying liberty!