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HIST 414/514 The Constitution and U.S. History

Professor, Scholarly Communications & OER Librarian

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Susan Beck
Contact:
Room 117 Zuhl Library
575-646-2869

Finding Background Information

  1. Wikipedia is an OK place to start but you cannot stop there with your research. The summary gives you key points about your case, but, by all means, read and use the References. These lead you to other, good resources. Here is the Reference section from the entry on Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47. 

 

and don't forget to look through the Further Reading for more leads. 

These references and other readings are a mix of books, book chapters, journal articles, and magazine articles. We should have most of these. Check the catalog and ask for assistance if you cannot find them. 

 

2. Landmark Cases: Historic Supreme Court Cases (C-SPAN)
C-SPAN profiles approximately 24 very important SCOTUS cases. Each video is about an hour and a half and provides analysis and commentary by experts. 

 

3. Credo Reference 
Credo is a huge reference shelf of authoritative encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and other reference sources. Search it by either your case name (EX: Miranda v. Arizona) or a specific area of constitutional law (EX: civil rights and constitution)

 

4. Reference books/Print & Online

The books in this list go into a lot more detail than Wikipedia and they provide good references to other books and articles written about specific SCOTUS cases.