Humanitas US Disasters in the 20Th Century

Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

Focus: Excluding the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, research 3 tragic events that have shaken America, but ultimately, brought us closer together as a people. These may include assassinations of prominent Americans, natural or man-made disasters, attacks from outside groups or countries, violent clashes over social, political or cultural events. Explain how these events altered the way American’s viewed themselves, their society, their laws, and their social relationships. Why did they have such an enormous impact on American history? What did they reveal about our flaws and our strengths as a people?

How to Search for Information on Various Disasters. The list of “Disasters” on the chart below is just a small fraction of the most famous disasters in 20th century US History. The Disasters are organized first by date in ascending order and then by title and category.

HOW TO SEARCH: Below is a sample of how to search on each of the following web directories or search engines. Open Directory Project is a surface web directory so it does not require a login. JSTOR and Academic Search Premiere are deep web databases. See your email for login information. GALE Opposing Viewpoints is available to LAPL library users only. Please contact the Petit Park branch of the LAPL for more information.

Gale Opposing Open Directory Project JSTOR Academic Search Premiere Viewpoints Link to site Link to site Link to site Link to site

List of Major Natural and Man-Made Disasters in United State History Disaster Date Category Johnstown Flood 1889 Natural Galveston Storm 1900 Natural General Slocum Steamboat Disaster 1904 Man-made San Francisco Earthquake 1906 Natural LA Times bombing 1910 Man-made Wellington Washington Avalache 1910 Natural Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 Man-made Titanic 1912 Natural Spanish Influenza 1918 Natural Boston Molasses Spill 1919 Man-made Tulsa Race Riots 1921 Man-made Stock Market Crash 1929 Man-made Black Drought (Dust Bowl) 1931 Natural Hindenburg Airship Crash 1937 Unknown Pearl Harbor 1941 Man-made Coconut Grove Fire 1942 Man-made Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

Hartford Circus Fire 1944 Man-made Thalidomide 1960 Man-made Cuba Missile Crisis 1962 Man-made Texas Watchtower Shootings 1966 Man-made Hurricane Camille 1969 Natural Attica Prison Riots 1971 Man-made Jonestown Massacre (Guyana) 1978 Man-made The Who Concert (Riverfront Stadium, Cleveland) 1979 Man-made Three Mile Island Meltdown 1979 Man-made Love Canal 1980 Man-made Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption 1980 Natural Challenger explosion 1986 Man-made Exxon Valdez oil spill 1989 Man-made Northridge Quake 1994 Natural 1995 Chicago Heat Wave 1995 Natural Oklahoma City Bombing 1996 Man-made TWA Flight 800 1996 Man-made Hurricane Ivan 2004 Natural Hurricane Katrina 2005 Natural British Petroleum Spill (Deepwater Horizon) 2010 Man-made

Open Directory Project (ODP) Directions:

Type in the name of the Disaster (Example: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire). Look at the results and the read the summaries for each website. They are just a few sentences long

Open the sites you think would be the most helpful to you. If ODP recommends Wikipedia, that’s okay. Read the article but go to the References and External Links. The external links and reference articles are the actual academic or journalistic sources not the Wikipedia article. Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

JSTOR Before searching on JSTOR, you must log into the database (see email for login information). Always use “advanced search” in JSTOR; it works faster and is more accurate than a basic search

Always choose “include only content I can access” and narrow the search by “articles.” If you want, you can limit the language to English or narrow the date range as needed.

How to open a document, click on the link called “PDF” then click on the link called “Proceed to PDF.” Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

Academic Search Premiere Before searching on Academic Search Premiere, you must log into the database (see email for login information). Always use “advanced search” it works faster and is more accurate than a basic search

Search Tips:

Put your search term in quotes Click on “Also search within the full text of the articles” Click on Full Text Choose “article” in the area marked Document Type. How to open: click on the links called “HTML Full Text” or “PDF Full Text” and the document will open. Print, save or email as your wish Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

GALE Opposing Viewpoints in Context This database is available through the LAPL, you must have an LAPL card to access the site.

How to Search

1. Type in your subject. As you can see the database will automatically give you search suggestions to help you find the information like Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

2. You will get a list of results in the following categories

a. Viewpoints: these are opinion pieces

b. News: articles from major US and World News organizations

c. Magazine Articles: articles from Time, Newsweek, US News and World, National Review, etc.

d. Academic Journals: scholarly articles from publications similar to those found in JSTOR (reading level is a little easier) Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century

How to Access Articles

Choose your article. Place mouse over title of article and left click your mouse. All of your search terms will be highlighted in RED. Briefly skim over article to determine whether it may be valuable to you. IF IT IS VALUABLE AND YOU WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE, choose print, save or download on the Tools Menu Humanitas_US Disasters in the 20th century