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U.S. Political & Legal History

U.S. Political & Legal History offers researchers an eclectic 50-state history of the United States. Presenting books, treatises, pamphlets, and other works showcasing the unique history of each individual state, all browsable at the state level.

Searching

Main Search Bar Tips

  • The main search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline
  • Once inside the U.S. Political & Legal History database, the search bar will search only within this database, unless the Search All Databases box is ticked
  • Need something more robust? Click Advanced Search to perform a search using custom drop-downs
  • Need a refresher on how to construct a perfect search? Click Search Help for a quick reference guide to commonly used search syntax

The main search bar is always at the top of the page.

 

Using the Main Search Bar

  • For example, enter the phrase "louisiana purchase" inside quotation marks into the search bar
    • Select where you want to search for this phrase: as an Author, appearing in the Title of any document or article, as a Citation, or in our Catalog as a title. Want to see your search in any of these fields, or appearing in the full text of a document? Select Just search for

Start typing for search options to autopopulate.

  • Use the facets on the left side of the page to narrow your results by Date, Section Location, Title, Organization, Person or State 
  • Terms matching the search query appear in bold text within the matching text page snippets
  • Sort search results by relevance, volume date, or title
  • Save to your MyHein account, email a result, display download options, or download a PDF using the icons on the right side of each search result.
  • Use the icons next to the sort-by bar to modify your current search, to search within results, to toggle all matching text pages, or to turn OFF infinite scroll

Search results with matching text page snippets and facets on the left hand side.

Using Advanced Search

  • Click Advanced Search to be taken to a page with custom facets to help maximize your research within this collection
  • Use the drop-downs to choose a variety of ways to search: Text, Title, Creator/Author, or Description
    • Add another search field if three isn't enough
  • Pick a title by citation to search within
  • Restrict results within a date range and change how results are sorted

Change the dropdpwns on the advance search page to better target your search.

About Venn Diagram Search

 

  • Venn Diagram Search offers a visual representation of how search terms interact with each other
  • Helps users both refine their current search terms and become better researchers going forward
  • Find the link to Venn Diagram Search on the Advanced Search page
  • Searches are constructed by stringing together multiple terms separated by the Boolean operator "AND," with phrases grouped together in quotation marks

 

 

  • Results on the right side of the page pertain to the search as we originally constructed it (represented by the red slice in the center of the intersecting circles)
  • Select Clear for the ability to hover over the different segments of the diagram and see all possible search term combinations from our original query.
  • In our example, we can see results for:
    • buffalo AND bison
    • buffalo AND national park
    • national park AND bison
    • the terms buffalo, bison and "national park" individually
  • Sort the results, save or export, turn to the specific page of a result, or start at the beginning of a given title

Three intersecting circles representing each search term, with matching search results to the right.