Librarians for History:
Laura Reiner, Research & Instruction, x2108
Graham Henderson, Collections, x3514
Contents:
- Getting started
- Find articles & essays
- Find primary sources
- Find books
- Find background information
- Key websites
Scope:
This guide focuses on general resources for history. For additional resources on specific regions, see also:
- HIST 244: The Cold War and the Remaking of Europe, 1945-1991
- HIST 252 & 317: Library Research on Early America
- HIST 297: Europe since 1945
- HIST 301: Women of Russia - A Portrait Gallery
- HIST 316: Native American Histor
- HIST 364: Women in Islamic Society
- Primary sources
- Biographies
- News - including historical newspapers
Related academic departments:
Offcampus Access · Databases A-Z · Research Guides by Subject | by Course · Reference Books Online · Library Catalog
Getting Started: Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students by Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College
| Find articles & essays |
- America History and Life
- U.S. & Canadian history articles, prehistory to present, written from 1964 to present.
Historical Abstracts- Articles on world history from 1450, excluding US & Canada, written since 1954. Can be co-searched with America: History & Life
Facts on File World News Digest- News digests written contemporary to the time, as well as full-text historical documents, election results, and selected editorials, 1940 to present.
The Nation Digital Archive- Full text of The Nation, a liberal, national weekly journal covering foreign affairs, local and national politics, education, law, literature, and the arts, from 1865 to present
The New York Times- The digitized, searchable full text of this newspaper from from 1851-2003. More recent articles (in html only) in Lexis/Nexis Academic
The Times of London- The digitized, searchable full text of this important newspaper from 1785-1985.
| Find primary sources |
Primary sources are original, uninterpreted information, such as firsthand accounts of events in letters, diaries, interviews, or historical news reportage; original works of fiction, art, or music; research reports or data; testimony, speeches, etc.
See our Primary Sources guide to the major online collections of primary sources, arranged by time period.
More material can be found in the Key scholarly websites section of this guide.
| Find books |
tip: in the library catalog, use a subject search: [country] + history to find all the books on that general topic, then scroll down to a specific time period. For example:
tip: use the same search techniques in WorldCat to find books and videos we don't own, and request them through Interlibrary Loan by clicking on the title of the item you want, then clicking on the 
button in the full record of the item.
| Find background information |
General
Dictionary of Contemporary World History: From 1900 to the Present Day
Dictionary of World History
Dictionary of the Middle Ages (Clapp Ref D114 .D5 1982)
Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates (Clapp Ref CB69 .C37 1993)
The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia
Illustrated History of the World (Clapp Ref D20 .R655 1999)
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia (Clapp Ref HQ 1115 .W6 1999)
Oxford Companion to Military History
Africa / Middle East
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (Clapp Ref DS 57.C55 1995)
Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World
Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East (Clapp Ref DS 43 .E53 1996)
The History Atlas of Africa (Clapp Ref G 2446 .S1 K3 1998)
A History of the Middle East (Clapp Ref DS 62.4 .M36 1991)
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (Clapp Ref DS 35.53 .O95 1995)
Asia
Encyclopedia of Asian History (Clapp Ref DS 31 .E53 1988)
Encyclopedia of Buddhism
Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World
Oxford Companion to Australian History
Europe
Dictionary of British History
Oxford Companion to British History
Kings & Queens of Britain
Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland (Clapp Ref DA 772 .C618 1994)
Oxford Companion to Irish History (Clapp Ref DA 910 .O935 1998)
Encyclopedia of Ireland (Clapp Ref DA 906 .E53 2000)
Encyclopedia of the Victorian World (Clapp Ref DA 550 .E53 1996)
Historical Dictionary of Stuart England 1603-1689 (Clapp Ref DA 375 .H57 1996)
Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World (Clapp Ref DA 357 .W34 1999)
Historical Dictionary of Tudor England 1485-1603 (Clapp Ref DA 315 .H5 1991)
Medieval England (Clapp Ref DA 129 .M43 1998)
Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Clapp Ref DA 152 .B58 1999)
Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe (Clapp Ref DJK 6 .E53 2000)
Encyclopedia of Russian History
Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (Clapp Ref DK 14 .M6)
Medieval France an Encyclopedia (Clapp Ref DC 33.2 .M44 1995)
Jewish
Latin America
Latin America History and Culture (Clapp Ref F 1406 .E53 1996)
North America
Oxford Companion to United States History
Oxford Companion to American Military History
Dictionary of American History
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History
American Decades (Clapp Ref E 169.12 .A419 1994)
An American Primer (Clapp Ref E 173 .B7)
Documents of American History (Clapp Ref E 173 .D59)
Reader's Guide to American History (Clapp Ref E 178.1 .R43 1997)
Oxford Companion to Canadian History
Native AmericanChronology of Native North American History (Clapp Ref E77 .C555 1994)
Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (Clapp Ref E 77 .G15 1998)
Handbook of North American Indians (Clapp Ref E77.H25)
| Key scholarly websites |
see also the Primary Sources research guide for key websites.
- American Civil War Homepage
- A collection of links to documents and other materials pertaining to the Civil War.
Avalon Project - Yale Law School- Primary sources from the pre-18th through 20th centuries for history as well as law and diplomacy.
Best of History Web Sites- This megasite created by Thomas Daccord, history teacher at Noble and Greenough School, is organized by topical categories.
Chinese University of Hong Kong History Site- Particularly useful for sites relevant to history of areas other than North America.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe - Brigham Young University Library- Links to primary sources about key historical happenings from countries in Western Europe.
H-Net- An online, international interdisciplinary community of scholars and teachers in the humanities and social sciences. See the discussion networks and reviews especially.
History Channel: Speeches- Audio file of speeches (requires Real Player) that are searchable by subject or speaker, with a summary of each speech.
History Guide- An Internet-based subject gateway to scholarly information in history
HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things- Think of this as a walk through the storage area of the National Museum of American History. The website can be browsed or searched.
The Jewish History Resource Center - Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History- More than 6,000 links to information on Jewish history.
Labyrinth- Georgetown University- A good source for medieval studies on the web.
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Nineteenth Century Documents Project - Lloyd Benson, Furman University - Transcribed primary texts focusing on the causes, events and debates leading up to the United States Civil War; especially strong in the areas of abolitionism, sectionalism and secession.
Women Working, 1800-1930 - Harvard University Library- Primary source material of women working in the late 18th-early 19th century, including books, pamphlets, images and some manuscripts.
Wellesley College Library • WCIS • Laura Reiner • last modified: February 13, 2008