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Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life

Historical Abstracts: Bibliography of the World's Periodical Literature. Vol. 1 (1954) to vol. 44 (1993). Part A. Modern History Abstracts, 1450-1914. Part B: Twentieth Century Abstracts, 1914 to date. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press, 1955-1993. Quarterly. (REFB D 299 .H513). Also available on CD-ROM.

This comprehensive abstract service for historians summarizes in English articles on all aspects of history (excluding material on the United States and Canada) from about 2,000 standard and peripheral history journals in all languages. Arrangement is alphabetical by author within classified sections. A combined author, biographical, geographical, and subject index in each issue is cumulated annually and at five-year intervals. Library holdings of volume 1 through 12 are incomplete.

Simpson Library stopped its paper subscription in 1993; the index is now available in the Library on CD-ROM.

America: History and Life. A Guide to Periodical Literature. Vol. 1 (1964) to vol. 30 (1993). Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press, 1964-1993. Quarterly. (REFB E 171 .A43x). Also available on CD-ROM.

This companion service to Historical Abstracts covers United States and Canadian history from earliest times to the present. About 3,000 citations annually are abstracted from 700 United States and Canadian periodicals and from 1,500 foreign titles. Prior to 1974, abstracts, in English, appear in three issues, with the fourth issue being the annual cumulated index. Beginning in 1974, the work is published in four parts: A, abstracts; B, book reviews; C, bibliography (of articles cited in part A, books in part B, and dissertations); D, annual index. Cumulative indexes are issued every five years.

Simpson Library stopped its paper subscription in 1993; the index is now available in the Library on CD-ROM.

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An Example from America: History and Life

The Scopes trial, more popularly known as the "Monkey Trial," took place in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. Biology teacher John T. Scopes was tried for teaching evolution rather than creationism, the literal interpretation of the Bible, as dictated by Tennessee law.

Looking up "Scopes, John Thomas" in one of America: History and Life's five-year indexes (the first section, below), the user is given several citation numbers. The first refers to the volume number of the reference set, the letter signifies that the citation is in a particular section (A = Abstracts section, for example), and the last number is the citation number. Thus, in the marked citation, "18A:7437" stands for volume 18, abstract section (section A), citation number 7437.

Terms following Scopes's name are descriptors, or keywords relating to the content of the article. The date refers to the time period covered. The abstracts section of volume 18 provides an article summary and full bibliographic information.

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From cumulative index:

Scoball (vessel). Accidents. Erie, Lake. Ohio (Cleveland). Personal Narratives, Baker, Richard F. ca 1931. 17A:7842 18C:10360

Scopes, John Thomas. Bible. Evolution. Tennessee. Trials. 1925. 18A:4951 19C:4299

  • Evolution. Tennessee (Dayton). Trials. 1925. 18A:7437 18C:4194
  • California. Evolution. Lawsuits. Seegroves, John. Tennessee v. John Scopes (Tennessee, 1925). 1925. 19A:1496 19C:5638

From abstracts section of volume 18:

18A:7436. Henick, Henjie. ELMER D. OWEN AND HIS DIPLOMATIC WORK. Jones, Stephen, ed. U.S. Diplomats in Germany, 1918-1940 (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1980): 34-59. Elmer D. Owen (1873-1961) served as a quasi-official American businessmen and diplomat.

18A:7437. Applewhite, Rivers. THEIR TRIAL DREW THE WHOLE WORLD: A LOOK AT THE MONKEY TRIAL. Tennessee Hist. Q. 1982 41(3): 128-144. The 1925 trial in Dayton Ohio of John Thomas Scopes was one of the most famous court battles in American history. To most people in America it illustrated a basic struggle between fundamentalists and evolutionists...

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