Primary Source Archives
Gale Primary Sources contains full-text archives and digitized collections that provide researchers with firsthand entries.
U.S. Regional History
Discover the regional history of the United States, which examines the past of this geographic territory. There are many ways to divide the United States into regions. The major territories of America include the West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast, although other areas exist within and cross between these broad designations. For example, the Pacific Northwest can be considered a unique region, as can New England, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, Appalachia, the Deep South, and the Rocky Mountains. Regional designations are useful to group territories together that have similar features, such as geography, culture, and climate.
Regional histories can cover a wide variety of subjects, including important people, events, and the significance of the region within the greater context of the nation. Regional histories may focus on a particular time period, such as the significance of the Great Lakes region during the War of 1812, or take a broader view, as is the case with a study of the Deep South from the beginning of slavery to the twenty-first century. Regional histories can also focus on a particular aspect of a region, such as the economy of the Southwest or the tribal peoples of the Great Plains.
