Reed College Library: History

There are many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias that provide basic information for historical studies. If you are selecting a topic, build a framework by consulting definitions or a quick overview found in these resources and then focus on your topic by searching for more specific information. These materials and many more for all geographic areas are to be found in the Reference Room. (Call number "D" = general and European history, "E" and "F" = American history, and "C"= the auxiliary sciences of history, such as archeology.)

General

Chronology of World History
Ref D11 .M39 1999
Covers prehistory to 1998 through a timeline showing politics/government/economics, science/technology/ medicine, arts/ideas, and society; no references. 4 v.

Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing
Ref D13 .G47 1998
Essays on historians, approaches to writing history, and treatment of historical events; includes texts and references. 2 v.

American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature
Ref D20 .A55 1995
Comprehensive critical overview of the best contemporary historical scholarship selected by specialists; contains an annotated bibliography for each section. 2 v.

Encyclopedia of World History
Ref D21 .E578 2001
Gives highlights and then treats major periods and areas in more detail, without references.

United Kingdom and Other Countries

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Ref DA28 .O95 2004
Covers British biographies from the earliest times to present, with references. 60 vols., index & suppls.

Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland
Ref DA34 .C28 1985
Dictionary-style entries about the United Kingdom; includes a brief bibliography.

Historical Dictionary of the United Kingdom
Ref DA34 .P36 1997
Includes bibliographical references.

Bibliography of British History:
Tudor Period, 1485-1603     Ref DA310 .B53 1959
Stuart Period, 1603-1714     Ref DA370 .D385 1970
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1789     Ref DA483 .A1 P37 1951
1851-1914     Ref DA530 .H355 1976
1914-1989     Ref DA566 .R63 1996
Annotated entries arranged by subject and usually indexed by author and title.

Twentieth Century Britain: An Encyclopedia
Ref DA566 .T835 1995
Essays on people and some topics with brief bibliographies for each article.

Medieval France: An Encyclopedia
Ref DC33.2 .M44 1995
Essays by scholars with extensive references and a good index.

Encyclopedia of the Third Reich
Ref DD256.5 .G76313 1991
Entries with some essays by scholars; includes a bibliography but no individual references.

Encyclopedia of Russian History
Ref DK14 .E53 2004
Entries cover from ancient events to the present; includes bibliographical references. 4 vols.

Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402-1975
Ref DP56 .H57 1992
Essays with references by scholars; includes a chronology and bibliography.

Encyclopaedia Judaica
Ref DS102.8 .E496 2007
Includes bibliographies and supplements to update this 17 volume set.

Chinese History: A Manual
Ref DS735 .W695 2000
Detailed overview of research tools, both secondary and primary, with excellent indexes and references.

United States

Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History
Ref E169.1 .E624 2001
Contains long essays with bibliographies on the various fields of inquiry concerning American thought and expression with interpretations by each expert author. 3v.

Encyclopedia of American Studies
Ref E169.1 .E625 2001
Essays with bibliographies on topics from an interdisciplinary perspective broadly based on American culture and the various approaches to its study. 4v.

Oxford Companion to United States History
Ref E174 .O94 2001
Covers all aspects of American society through encyclopedic entries and brief references.

Reader's Companion to American History
Ref E174 .R43 1991
Concentrates on biographical entries with brief references and some longer articles on movements and events.

American National Biography
Ref E176 .A54 1999
An encyclopedia of notable Americans with bibliographical references. 25v.

Locating Books

To locate books, look in the library catalog. If you know the author or editor, search Author, last name first. To search by Title, you must know the first few words of the title, but you do not have to know the complete title. If you are looking for books on a particular topic, try a Keyword search first. Type some keywords and see if you locate any appropriate book titles. Click on the subject headings assigned to them to find additional books on your topic.

If you have exhausted Reed's holdings, use the Search in Summit button to search in the Summit catalog of over 7 million titles, the holdings of the 26 libraries within the Orbis Cascade Alliance of Oregon and Washington libraries. You may borrow any book listed as available by clicking the Request This Item link and following the prompts.

If a particular title is not held in Summit, search WorldCat. WorldCat is a database of over 42,000 libraries' holdings of books. Books may often be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) by clicking the ILL icon and following the prompts.

Finding Journal Articles and Critical Essays

Indexes allow you to search the contents of periodicals to identify articles on your topic. Some indexes are interdisciplinary, and some focus on a particular subject area. Some indexes contain fulltext or links to fulltext from other sources.

After you find a citation for an article, you will need to check the Print & Electronic Journal page to see if Reed subscribes to the journal and if we have the particular issue.

Essential Sources

America: History & Life (1964 - present)
Indexes over 2,000 scholarly journals to find citations for appropriate articles on your topic in American or Canadian history, from prehistory to the present.

Historical Abstracts (1954 - present)
Covers 1450 to the present by indexing some 2,000 journals in the field of European and world history, excluding America and Canada.

General Sources

Academic Search Premier (1975 - present)
A multi-disciplinary database containing fulltext for nearly 4,000 scholarly publications. In addition to the fulltext, the database offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 7,700 journals.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 - present)
Multi-disciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. (Available through Web of Science.)

Bibliography of Asian Studies (1971 - present)
Multi-disciplinary index of western-language monographs, articles, and book chapters on all parts of Asia.

JSTOR
Fulltext archive of almost 400 scholarly journals of major importance in many fields. Most titles are available from their first issue up to 2-5 years ago.

Social Science Citation Index (1956 - present)
Multi-disciplinary index covering the journal literature of the social sciences. (Available through Web of Science.)

Primary Sources

Primary sources are books and other materials written during any specific historical period that may provide first-hand accounts, observations, and analyses from that time period.

American Memory
Fulltext access to large collections of the Library of Congress relating to the history and culture of the US.

Early American Newspapers
Full digital access to many American newspapers printed from 1690 to 1900. Covering American studies, journalism, political science, and history, the collection is incomplete but very strong in the 1690-1820 period.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Digital images of the entire body of books printed in England or about England in the English language between 1475 and 1700.

Early American Imprints, Series I
Full digital access to the Early American Imprints collection of 36,000 titles on 17th and 18th century American life. Includes most books printed anywhere about America from 1639 to 1800.

Early American Imprints, Series II
Full digital access to the Early American Imprints, Series II collection of over 36,000 American imprints from 1801 through 1819 on American life, including many state and governmental papers.

Proquest Historical Newspapers
Partial historical back runs of seven major American newspapers:
Atlanta Constitution (1868 - 1929)
Boston Globe (1872 - 1923)
Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1985)
Christian Science Monitor (1908 - 1993)
Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1985)
New York Times Historical (1851 - 2003)
Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1989)
Washington Post (1877 - 1990)

Resources for Identifying Archival Materials

ArchivesUSA
Directory of over 5,000 repositories of U.S. archival collections.

Online California Archives
Provides access to California state, academic, and private archives with fulltext finding aids.

Repositories of Primary Sources
From the University of Idaho. Provides access to archival collections in the U.S. by geographic locations.

Library

Research Guide for History

Contact: Rachel Bridgewater , Electronic Resources Librarian

Getting Started