Reference and General History
IMPORTANT NOTE: Encyclopedias and dictionaries provide useful background information and are valuable tools as you begin to research a topic. HOWEVER, they are not significant sources for research papers and an overreliance on such works indicates superficial, not thorough, research.
General Reference Databases
- Cambridge Archive Editions
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Historical reference materials related to the national heritage and political development of the Middle East, Russia and the Balkans, the Caucasus, Southeast Asia, and China and the Far East.
- Europa World Plus
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Economic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of 250+ countries and global regions. Includes contact information for officials and features information on over 1,700 international organizations. - Gale eBooks
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Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources.
- Oxford Reference Library
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Reference resources from the Oxford University Press. Includes English dictionaries and thesauruses, English language reference books, bilingual dictionaries, quotations, maps and illustrations, timelines and subject reference sources. - Encyclopaedia Brittanica This link opens in a new window
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The online equivalent of the complete printed Encyclopaedia Britannica plus Internet links.
Biographical Databases
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index
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Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) provides more than 20 million biographical citations on more than 6 millions persons, living and deceased, from all fields of activity, covering more than 2,000 years of human history.
- Biography (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new window
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Biography is built on a foundation of more than 600,000 biographical entries covering international figures from all time periods and areas of study.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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Biographies of those who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century. - World Biographical Information System
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Worldwide index to biographical information on people from the 8th century B.C. to the present.
Thematic or Era-Based Encyclopedias
- Brepolis Medieval Encyclopedia
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Combines access to the Lexikon des Mittelalters with a supplement, the International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages. The Lexikon des Mittelalters online contains some 37,000 signed articles and covers all aspects of medieval studies for the period 300 to 1500.
- New Pauly Online
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Unrivalled reference work for the ancient world, including fifteen volumes on Greco-Roman antiquity, and five volumes on the Classical Tradition.
- Encyclopaedia Judaica
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Authoritative reference resource for Jewish knowledge and life.
- Encyclopaedia of Islam Online (English)
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The standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies; electronic access to the 2nd ed., enhanced by the inclusion of an Index of proper names and an Index of subjects, and the ongoing 3rd ed.
- Holocaust Encyclopedia
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An encyclopedia with extra features concerning the Holocaust and the principal figures involved.
Essaying the Past by Call Number: E-resourceISBN: 9781119111900Publication Date: 2016-12-19Part research manual, part study guide, and part introduction to the study of history, Essaying the Past guides the reader through the nuts and bolts of producing good historical prose, offering key strategies and useful tips. Includes expert advice on writing about history, conducting good research, and learning how to think analytically Covers important topics such as framing questions, developing a strong introduction and topic sentences, choosing good evidence, and the crucial role of revision An annotated case study takes the reader through one student's process of writing an essay and illustrates how strategies discussed in the book can be successfully implemented Six appendices cover the major issues facing students today, such as the dangers of plagiarism and the role of the internet
Writing History by Call Number: Wells Library - Research Coll. - D16 .S864 2004ISBN: 0195166094Publication Date: 2003-07-17Bringing together practical methods from both history and composition, Writing History provides a wealth of tips and advice to help students research and write essays for history classes. The book covers all aspects of writing about history, including finding topics and researching them,interpreting source materials, drawing inferences from sources, and constructing arguments. It concludes with three chapters that discuss writing effective sentences, using precise wording, and revising. Using numerous examples from the works of cultural, political, and social historians, WritingHistory serves as an ideal supplement to history courses that require students to conduct research. The second edition includes expanded sections on plagiarism, interviewing, and topic selection, as well as new sections on searching and using the Internet.
The Information-Literate Historian by Call Number: Wells Library - Research Coll. - D16.2 .P71 2007ISBN: 9780195176520Publication Date: 2006-09-01Suitable for history students, this primer is a guide to doing research in order to write a research paper, create a website, or do a PowerPoint presentation. It talks about how to do research on the Internet and how to differentiate between reliable and unreliable historical information on the Web.
Historical Knowledge, Historical Error by Call Number: Wells Library - Research Coll. - D16.9 .M299 2007ISBN: 0226518302Publication Date: 2007-02-01In the past thirty years, historians have broadened the scope of their discipline to include many previously neglected topics and perspectives. They have chronicled language, madness, gender, and sexuality and have experimented with new forms of presentation. They have turned to the histories of non-Western peoples and to the troubled relations between “the West” and the rest. Allan Megill welcomes these developments, but he also suggests that there is now confusion among historians about what counts as a justified account of the past. In Historical Knowledge, Historical Error, Megill dispels some of the confusion. Here, he discusses issues of narrative, objectivity, and memory. He attacks what he sees as irresponsible uses of evidence while accepting the art of speculation, which incomplete evidence forces upon historians. Along the way, he offers succinct accounts of the epistemological road historians have traveled from Herodotus and Thucydides through Leopold von Ranke and Alexis de Tocqueville, and on to Hayden White, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Lynn Hunt.
Voice and Vision by Call Number: Wells Library - Research Coll. - PN145 .P96 2009ISBN: 0674033302Publication Date: 2009-05-15It has become commonplace these days to speak of “unpacking” texts. Voice and Vision is a book about packing that prose in the first place. While history is scholarship, it is also art-that is, literature. And while it has no need to emulate fiction, slump into memoir, or become self-referential text, its composition does need to be conscious and informed. Voice and Vision is for those who wish to understand the ways in which literary considerations can enhance nonfiction writing. At issue is not whether writing is scholarly or popular, narrative or analytical, but whether it is good. Fiction has guidebooks galore; journalism has shelves stocked with manuals; certain hybrids such as creative nonfiction and the new journalism have evolved standards, esthetics, and justifications for how to transfer the dominant modes of fiction to topics in nonfiction. But history and other serious or scholarly nonfiction have nothing comparable. Now this curious omission is addressed by Stephen Pyne as he analyzes and teaches the craft that undergirds whole realms of nonfiction and book-based academic disciplines. With eminent good sense concerning the unique problems posed by research-based writing and with a wealth of examples from accomplished writers, Pyne, an experienced and skilled writer himself, explores the many ways to understand what makes good nonfiction, and explains how to achieve it. His counsel and guidance will be invaluable to experts as well as novices in the art of writing serious and scholarly nonfiction.
