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
- American National Biography
This link opens in a new window
Includes over 19,000 biographies of significant, influential, or notorious figures from American history written by prominent scholars, reflecting the diversity of American life from pre-colonial times to the present day.
- Cambridge Archive Editions
- This link opens in a new window
Historical reference materials related to the national heritage and political development of the Middle East, Russia and the Balkans, the Caucasus, Southeast Asia, and China and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.
- Gale eBooks
- This link opens in a new window
Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources.
- Oxford Reference Library
- This link opens in a new window
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.
Subject-Specific Reference Books
- Eugenics Archive
This link opens in a new window
Supported by the Canadian government and with an emphasis on eugenics in Canada, this extensive archive includes both background information and primary source material on the history of eugenics.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
- This link opens in a new window
Digital research encyclopedia covering American history. Along with essays, it incorporates visual and sound materials and links to original sources. Includes peer-reviewed articles and broad coverage of the field. Some topics feature debates by two or three historians about the most useful ways to understand subjects.
Disability in American Life by
Disability--as with other marginalized topics in social policy--is at risk for exclusion from social debate. This multivolume reference work provides an overview of challenges and opportunities for people with disabilities and their families at all stages of life. Once primarily thought of as a medical issue, disability is now more widely recognized as a critical issue of identity, personhood, and social justice. By discussing challenges confronting people with disabilities and their families and by collecting numerous accounts of disability experiences, this volume firmly situates disability within broader social movements, policy, and areas of marginalization, providing a critical examination into the lived experiences of people with disabilities and how disability can affect identity. A foundational introduction to disability for a wide audience--from those intimately connected with a person with a disability to those interested in the science behind disability--this collection covers all aspects of disability critical to understanding disability in the United States. Topics covered include characteristics of disability; disability concepts, models, and theories; important historical developments and milestones for people with disabilities; prominent individuals, organizations, and agencies; notable policies and services; and intersections of disability policy with other policy. Takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying disability in America Traces the evolution of U.S. attitudes and policies towards disability through primary documents featuring context-setting headnotes Provides easy reference via a glossary of terms related to disability studies, including those in the areas of law, health, arts, and culture Includes contributions from major scholars across disciplines involved in the study of disability
Call Number: E-bookISBN: 9781440834226Publication Date: 2019
The Eugenics Movement by
Eugenics_the theory that we can improve future generations of humans through selective breeding_was one of the most controversial movements of the early 20th century. Often tied to racist beliefs and nativist desires to limit immigration, the eugenics movement attracted some of the most prominent scientists and social reformers of the day. This encyclopedia brings into one place concise descriptions of the leading figures, organizations, events, legislation, publications, concepts, and terms of this vitally important period historical movement. Although focused on the United States during the heyday of the movement, the encyclopedia includes material on international event as well as connections to important contemporary issues such as genetic engineering, family balancing, and the possibility of human cloning. The book includes photographs,a chronology of events, and an extensive bibliography of works for further information.
Call Number: HathiTrust ETAS E-bookISBN: 0313327912Publication Date: 2005
The Oxford Handbook of Disability History by
Disability history exists outside of the institutions, healers, and treatments it often brings to mind. It is a history where the disabled live not just as patients or cure-seekers, but rather as people living differently in the world - and it is also a history that helps define thefundamental concepts of identity, community, citizenship, and normality.The Oxford Handbook of Disability History is the first volume of its kind to represent this history and its global scale, from ancient Greece to British West Africa. The twenty-seven articles, written by thirty experts from across the field, capture the diversity and liveliness of this emergingscholarship. Whether discussing disability in modern Chinese cinema or on the American antebellum stage, this collection provides new and valuable insights into the rich and varied lives of the disabled across time and place.
Call Number: Wells Library - Stacks -- HV1552 .O94 2018ISBN: 9780190234959Publication Date: 2018
Reforming America [2 Volumes] by
Presenting a detailed look at the individuals, themes, and moments that shaped this important Progressive Era in American history, this valuable reference spans 25 years of reform and provides multidisciplinary insights into the period. During the Progressive Era, influential thinkers and activists made efforts to improve U.S. society through reforms, both legislative and social, on issues of the day such as working conditions of laborers, business monopolies, political corruption, and vast concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few. Many Progressives hoped for and tirelessly worked toward a day when all Americans could take full advantage of the economic and social opportunities promised by U.S. society. This two-volume work traces the issues, events, and individuals of the Progressive Era from approximately 1893 to 1920. The entries and primary sources in this set are grouped thematically and cover a broad range of topics regarding reform and innovation across the period, with special attention paid to important topics of race, class, and gender reform and reformers. The volumes are helpfully organized under five categories: work and economic life; social and political life; cultural and religious life; science, literature, and the arts; and sports and popular culture. Offers more than 200 entries on the most significant people, places, themes, and moments of the era in one collected two-volume work Presents authoritative information by scholars and specialists in the period Enables readers to gain a sense of the times through an understanding of the problems, viewpoints, and approaches that dominated the day
Call Number: E-bookISBN: 9781440837203Publication Date: 2017
Essaying the Past by
Part 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
Call Number: E-bookISBN: 9781119111900Publication Date: 2017
Writing History by
Bringing 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.
Call Number: Wells Library - Stacks -- D16 .S864 2004ISBN: 0195166094Publication Date: 2004
The Information-Literate Historian by
The Information-Literate Historian: A Guide to Research for History Students is the only book specifically designed to teach today's history students how to successfully select and use sources--primary, secondary, and electronic--to carry out and present their research. Expanded and updated, the third edition of The Information-Literate Historian continues to be an indispensable reference for historians, students, and other readers doing history research.
Call Number: Wells Library - Stacks -- D16.2 .P715 2019ISBN: 9780190851491Publication Date: 2019
Historical Knowledge, Historical Error by
In 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.
Call Number: Wells Library - Stacks -- D16.9 .M299 2007ISBN: 0226518302Publication Date: 2007
Voice and Vision by
It 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.
Call Number: E-bookISBN: 0674033302Publication Date: 2009
