HIST424: Sexuality, Culture, and the Law: Home
From the Syllabus
This course will examine sexuality in American history. We will pursue two interrelated themes. First, we will focus on how changes in the broader culture—such as new technology, the Cold War, consumer society, new medical knowledge—influenced sexual beliefs and practices, and conversely, how sexuality influenced these broader cultural developments. Second, the course will examine how broad developments in sexuality relate to the law, in letter and practice. How has the legal system attempted to regulate sexuality, while at the same time charting out the emerging notion of “sexual rights”—laws protecting the right to life, the right to choice, or gay rights, for example? Over the semester, we will examine both primary and secondary readings on topics like rape, eugenic sterilization, controversies over abortion, and the development of the pill. We will analyze the relationship between daily life and government regulation of sexuality through law, politics, and policing.
Primary Sources
In the study of history, primary sources are documents, photographs, recordings, and artifacts created by contemporary historical actors or witnesses to historical events. Primary sources necessarily form the foundation of historical research. In the resources below you can find rich and multidimensional collections of primary sources from every era and reflecting every facet of American history.
- Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new windowA vast trove of primary source material from libraries, archives, and museums around the U.S. and related to every country and era.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowPrimary source material from five centuries of modern world history.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowA vast digital repository of books derived from the collections of leading research libraries.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowAlongside contemporary scholarly books and journals, JSTOR's collections contain historical material appropriate for use as primary sources.
- ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new windowMillions of primary source, cross-searchable, full-text/full-image documents on the most widely studied topics in 19th and 20th-century American history.
- Digital Collections - University at Buffalo Libraries This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources, documents, and media relevant to historical research in multiple unique collections.
- History Matters: Making Sense of EvidenceAn excellent guide to how to interpret different types of primary-source evidence in advancing a historical argument.
Primary Sources: Newspapers & Magazines
- Gale OneFile: News This link opens in a new windowCollection of more than 1000 English language news sources. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender (1910-1975) This link opens in a new windowHistorical local, regional and national news. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2013) with Index (1851-1993) This link opens in a new windowsee New York Times (1851-2012) with Index (1851-1993). More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowArchive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new windowCovers all subject areas; use for coverage as far back as 1770 and up to 1995. More InfoPartial Full-Text UB ONLY
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowLesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender information. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new windowFull-text newspapers, newswires, TV/radio transcripts. More InfoFull-Text UB ONLY
- Readers Guide Retrospective, 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowDetailed account of U.S. culture and history through the lens of middle America. More InfoPartial Full-Text UB ONLY
- UNZ.orgMillions of pages of 20th century, chiefly Anglo-American journals in current events, literature, and the arts, searchable by author, period, topic, or keyword. Full text or citations.
- The Magazine RackA huge and invaluable collection of digitized popular magazines and monthlies offered by the Internet Archive.
- Newspaper Research in the UB LibrariesA guide to performing historical research with newspapers as primary sources.
- Old Magazine ArticlesA goldmine for early-mid 20th century primary source material in popular magazines.
Primary & Secondary Sources: Top Focused Databases
These resources offer rich mixtures of primary and secondary sources focused on the central topics of this course: gender, sexuality, and the law in American history.
- Daily Life through History This link opens in a new windowArticles and overviews of every facet of daily life in civilizations of the past and present.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowPrimary and secondary full-text and archival material, from 1970 to the present, on all issues related to sexuality, religion, societal roles, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, day care, and the workplace.
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowLeading full-text database for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature and research material including periodicals, books, journals, and publications.
- Women Working, 1800-1930 This link opens in a new windowPrimary source material related to women's roles in the U.S. economy in the 19th and early 20th century.
Librarian
Secondary Sources: Top General History Databases
In these resources you can find abstracts, citations, or the full text of articles published in scholarly and popular journals on topics in history.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowResearch database for world history exclusive of U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present, extending to related disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, and sociology.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text of the most important journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as thousands of books and copious primary source material.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowMajor full-text archive of journals in the humanities and social sciences.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowArchive of hundreds of journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, offering full-text access to more and more of the journals indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online.
- Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new windowIndex of major journals in the humanities and social sciences, from as far back as 1660 up to the present.
- Humanities Source This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world.
Secondary Sources: Topical Overviews
These resources offer compact, authoritative discussions of focused topics, individuals, or research areas in history, as well as bibliographies to begin your research.
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to over 250 volumes in the Cambridge History series, each one offering a comprehensive selection of authoritative essays on individual topics in history.
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowDozens of specialized encyclopedias and reference works across the disciplines, with contents available online in full-text.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowComplete one-stop source for information on social issues.
- Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new windowOxford Bibliographies offers authoritative research guidance through highly specific annotated bibliographic guides. The bibliographies identify the best work available on a topic, whether it is in the form of a chapter, a book, an article, a website, an archive, or a dataset.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new windowProvides full, accurate and concise articles on noteworthy people.
- Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new windowEssays that present multiple perspectives on controversial current issues.
Oxford Bibliographies of Interest
Oxford Bibliographies offers authoritative research guidance through highly specific annotated bibliographic guides. The bibliographies identify the best work available on a topic, whether it is in the form of a chapter, a book, an article, a website, an archive, or a dataset.