How to Find Sources

FOR the period covered by this volume there is no comprehensive bibliography, least of all on post-bellum events. The most convenient brief bibliography is, William E. Foster, References to the History of Presidential Administrations; Channing and Hart, Guide to the Study of American History, comes down only to the end of the Civil War. The foot-notes to the four volumes now published of James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States front the Compromise of 1850, are a valuable means of reaching sources from about 1845 to 1864; on the Reconstruction period may be used the foot-notes to W. A. Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction. J. M. Larned’s forthcoming Annotated Bibliography of American History, prepared by the coöperative method, promises to be very helpful. Bowker and Iles, Reader’s Guide, has many references on current economic and social questions; and W. E. Foster’s Bulletins of the Providence Public Library include many serviceable special bibliographies. Poole’s Index is of course the best approach to the abundant periodical material of the last quarter century, much of it first-hand writings. The collections available for school use are named and described in the Report on the Use of Sources, mentioned above.