Gale Ebooks
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Gale eBooks - Naugatuck Valley Campus This link opens in a new windowProvides critical overviews of the plays, short stories and poetry of all time periods, nations, and cultures. Includes discussions of themes, characters, critical reception, dramatic devices and traditions as well as cultural and historical context.
Start here! Locate Drama, Poetry, or Short Stories for students and click on the book title, and then search for the work or author.
Author, Poet, and Playwright Biographies
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Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886): Topic Page1830–86, American poet, b. Amherst, Mass. She is widely considered one of the greatest poets in American literature.
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Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892): Topic Page
American poet, b. West Hills, N.Y. Considered by many to be the greatest of all American poets, Walt Whitman celebrated the freedom and dignity of the individual and sang the praises of democracy and the brotherhood of man.
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Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849): Topic Page
Poet and writer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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Herman Melville (1819 - 1891): Topic Page1819–91, American author, b. New York City, considered one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896): Topic PagePenned America's most prominent antislavery novel and helped to redefine nineteenth-century authorship with her success as a literary businesswoman
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Topic PageNineteenth century essayist and poet; part of Transcendental movement.
Literary Movements
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Transcendentalism: Topic PageTranscendentalism was a series of new ideas that flourished among writers and philosophers in New England during the 19th century.
Notable Figures
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William Bradford (1590-1657): Topic PageGovernor of Plymouth Colony, b. Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. As a young man he joined the separatist congregation at Scrooby and in 1609 emigrated with others to Holland, where, at Leiden, he acquired a wide acquaintance with theological literature.
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Frederick Douglass (1818-1895): Topic PageUS antislavery campaigner and influential African-American leader; Author of "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass."
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Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790): Topic Page
Scientist, an inventor, an author, a philanthropist, a statesman, and a draftsman of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
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Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826): Topic Page
Statesman and 3rd President of the United States. Author of the Declaration of Independence and "Notes on the State of Virginia."
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John Winthrop (1588-1649): Topic PageGovernor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, b. Edwardstone, near Groton, Suffolk, England. Of a landowning family, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, came into a family fortune, and became a government administrator with strong Puritan leanings.
Topics
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Abolitionism: Topic PageA movement culminating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed first to end the slave trade, and then to abolish the institution of slavery and emancipate slaves.
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American Civil War: Topic PageSometimes called ‘the War Between the States’ or ‘the Second American Revolution’, a conflict in the USA which resolved two great issues: the nature of the Federal Union and the relative power of the states and the central government; and the existence of black slavery.
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Declaration of Independence: Topic PageFull and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into the United States.
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Manifest Destiny: Topic PageIn US history, the belief that Americans had a providential mission to extend both their territory and their democratic processes westwards across the continent.
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Native Americans: Topic PageThe original peoples of North America collectively have been called Native Americans, American Indians , or Amerindians . These terms are European American inventions that obscure the diversity of peoples indigenous to the Americas.
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Pilgrims: Topic PageThe Pilgrims were English settlers, members of a Separatist sect, who emigrated to New England in 1620 in search of the opportunity to practice their religion without persecution.
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Plymouth Colony: Topic PageSettlement made by the Pilgrims on the coast of Massachusetts in 1620.
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Second Great Awakening: Topic PageUS religious evangelical revivalist movement, lasting from about 1800 to 1870
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Slavery: Topic PageSlavery has been found among many groups of low material culture, as in the Malay Peninsula and among some Native Americans; it also has occurred in more highly developed societies, such as the southern United States.
Reference Ebooks - American Literature
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A New Literary History of America
A New Literary History of America contains essays on topics from the first conception of a New World in the sixteenth century to the latest re-envisioning of that world in cartoons, television, science fiction, and hip hop. Literature, music, film, art, history, science, philosophy, political rhetoriccultural creations of every kind appear in relation to each other, and to the time and place that give them shape. Also contains an introduction and index.
Reference Ebooks - American History
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Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
Examines every effort to end slavery in the United States and the transatlantic world. It focuses on massive, broad-based movements, as well as specific incidents, events, and developments, and pulls together in one place information previously available only in a wide variety of sources. -
Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Written by contemporary authorities, the volume features many Native American contributors - including eminent writers, tribal elders, scholars, and activists - with voices as distinct as their subjects, offering a deeper and more informed appreciation of American Indian life, past and present -
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
by
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment is the first reference work on this key subject in early American history. With over 500 original essays on key American Enlightenment figures, it provides a comprehensive account to complement the intense scholarly activity that has recently centered on the European Enlightenment. -
Notable American Women: 1607-1950
Covers the lives of exceptional women throughout three and a half centuries of American history, including artists, lawyers, reformers, educators, entrepreneurs, physicists, writers, pioneers, presidents' ladies, film stars.