History 620: Historiography
Guides to the Literature of History
The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature. 2 vols.
A selective guide to the literature. See the subject index in volume two.
Ref. [q.] Z6201 .A55 1995
The Historian's Handbook; A Descriptive Guide to Reference Works.
Aimed at both students and scholars
in the social sciences, and includes major reference works from history and
allied fields. Dates from the days of card catalogs, so some of the
information is older, but still a useful tool.
Ref. Z6201 .P65
Reader's Guide to American History.
Presents a series of brief essays that describe and evaluate significant
literature on over 600 topics. Be sure to use the general index.
Ref. [q.] Z1236 .R43 1997
Sources of Information for Historical Research.
A selective guide to historical reference for researchers at all levels.
Arranged by Library of Congress classification, so the call numbers you're
familiar with will lead you to more sources.
Ref. Z6201 .S64 1994
Term Paper Resource Guide to Twentieth-Century United States History.
Arranged chronologically. Includes lists of sources and suggestions for focusing topics related to the events. For high school and undergraduate students.
Ref. E741 .M83 1999
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Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
This is only an extremely brief list of the most general sources. To find more, try a Guided Search in LUCIA using terms that apply to your topic combined with Subject Keywords (dictionaries or encyclopedias). You might also try looking for more of the publications in the Cambridge and Oxford history series; you can do this by doing a Guided Search for Title Keywords cambridge and history or oxford and history. The information below on Finding Books will help you.
General:
- Britannica Online
- The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas; Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas. 6 vols. Ref. [q.] CB9 .N49 2005
- The Oxford English Dictionary. 20 vols. Ref. [q.] PE1625 .O87 1989 and online for the Lawrence campus
Historical periods and overviews: Overviews of historical periods are often found in the D call numbers, with the exception of the classical world.
- International Encyclopedia of Military History. 2 vols. Ref. [q.] D25 .A2 I58 2006
- Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Multiple vols. Ref. [q.] DE5 .N4813 2002
- The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 3 vols. Ref. DF521 .O93 1991
- Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols. Ref. [q.] D114 .D5 1982
- Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 6 vols. Ref. [q.] D209 .E97 2004
- Encyclopedia of World War I. 5 vols. Ref. D510 .E53 2005
- The Oxford Companion to World War II. Ref. D740 .O94 1995
- A Dictionary of Contemporary History 1945 to the Present. Ref. D 842 .T69 1999
Countries or regions of the world: A Subject Keyword search in LUCIA may be one of the best ways to find historical dictionaries and encyclopedias on a particular country. For example, to find information on African history, try a search for africa* and history and (dictionaries or encyclopedias). See the section below on Finding Books for more information on using LUCIA.
You might also want to browse the reference collections by subject area. You will find historical encyclopedias in the following call number ranges:
- DA Great Britain
- DC France
- DD Germany
- DE Greco-Roman World
- DF Greece
- DG Italy
- DK Russia and the former Soviet Union
- DP Spain and Portugal
- DS Asia and India
- DT Africa
- E and F United States and the Americas
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Historiography
Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing. 2 vols. Ref. [q.] D 14 .E53 1999
A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing. 2 vols. Ref. [q.] D 13 .G47 1998
Both titles are guides to important historians and historical debates. They include information on historiographical questions within national histories and topical areas.
Great Historians of the Modern Age : An International Dictionary.
Ref. D14 .G75 1991
History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction
D16.8 .G533 2000
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Biographical Information
Be alert when searching non-western names, as you may need to use varying forms of these names.
Biography and Genealogy Master
Index.
An electronic version of the printed index, containing citations to useful information
in standard biographical sources. It is a great place to begin
searching for biographical information about anyone.
Biography Index. 1946-1994.
This index contains citations for biographical articles in books and periodicals. Arranged alphabetically by the last names of individuals.
Reference Indexes
Blackwell Dictionary of Historians.
Gotta be dead to get in.
Ref. D 14 .B58 1988
Literature Resource Center.
Provides personal data, career highlights, lists of writings, and works in progress on contemporary authors.
The individuals included range from newspaper and television reporters to editors and columnists to novelists and
screenwriters.
Directory of American Scholars. 1999. 5 vols.
This directory of current scholars is divided into four volumes
by subject areas. The brief entries include birth dates,
personal and career data, names of publications and mailing
addresses.
Ref. [q.] LA2311 .C32
The National Faculty Directory. 2003. 3 vols.
Lists names, departments, and addresses.
Ref. [q.] L901 .N34
Twentieth-Century American Historians.
Part of the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Extensive information on 59 historical writers.
Ref. [q.] PS221 .D5 v.17
Who's Who.
An online version of Who's Who in America as well as several other versions, including Who’s Who in American History and Who’s Who in the World.
To find biographical books about a certain person, search in LUCIA for the person using the Subject begins with option, with the last name first for standard western names. Browse through the subject headings to find the subheading which corresponds to your specific interests. Again, be alert when searching non-western names or names of rulers, as you may need to use varying forms of these names. Many times, LUCIA has cross-references for these. For autobiographical books by and about a certain person, search in LUCIA for persons as Author.
Be sure to consult the library's guide on Biographical Information for further ideas and information.
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, historiography or historians or history study and teaching. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on the shelves behind the Reference Desk on the first floor of the library. To find materials published during a specific time period, limit by date.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try a Keyword Anywhere search like women and historiog*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with historiog*: historiography, historiographic, etc. In keyword searching, LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH, or target your keyword search by using the Subject Keyword option. This tells LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records only. Compare a Keyword Anywhere search with a Subject Keyword search for women and historiog*
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text.
Essential: these should be among your starting points for finding scholarly materials.
ABSEES
The online version of The American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies, includes articles, books, and more, from 1990-present. Supplements the material you might find in Historical Abstracts.
Handbook of Latin American Studies.
Begun in 1935, in 1964 it was divided into two volumes, one covering the social sciences and one the humanities. A Web-based version of the
Handbook is available from the Library of Congress; see this page for details on dates and content.
Ref. Z1605 .H23
Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life.
The most important indexes to the scholarly literature of history, in books and proceedings as well as journals. Both include short summaries of the works indexed. America: History and Life includes material on the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Historical Abstracts indexes material on world history, including African, Asian, Latin American and European history, from 1450 to the present.
Iter.
Index to journals and books "pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700)."
General and Multidisciplinary Indexes: include citations and some full text of materials from a broad variety of fields including history.
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals.
Gale Academic OneFile
Broad coverage of academic periodicals going back to 1980. Includes full text of many articles.
Citation Indexes
Citation indexes allow you to search for articles and books using keywords, but more importantly they help you find out how often and where particular works have been cited in other authors' bibliographies.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
A citation index to articles in the arts and humanities. Citation indexes allow you to trace the number of times a particular source has been cited. Covers 1980 to the present.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular article is available. If you don't find it, you can confirm that we don't own it by searching in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper. You should also search BESS, an automated search of the library's full text databases, for electronic copies of articles.
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Finding Book Reviews
Book Review Index.
Like Book Review Digest, but includes significantly more titles. Check the volumes for the year the book was published and several years following.
Reference Indexes
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974. 10 vols.
Reference Indexes
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974. 15 vols.
Reference Indexes
Keep in mind that Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life include book reviews, as do many of the other sources listed for Finding Articles.
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Web Resources
The American Historical Association
Just in case you're wondering what professional historians do.
Cromohs
"Cyber Review of Modern Historiography." Published annually.
Doing History: Lawrence University History Department
Includes links to student and faculty projects.
Guide to History Departments Around the World
From The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. A great resource for the study of history.
H-History-and-Theory
A discussion site associated with the journal History and Theory. H-History-and-Theory allows you to look in on discussions about and around issues from the journal.
INFOMINE
Scholarly Internet Resource Collections: Social Sciences and Humanities
From librarians at all nine of the University of California campuses and
Stanford University. INFOMINE provides "organized access to important
university level research and educational tools on the Internet."
Internet
Resources for History
Sources chosen by the librarians here as starting points for historical
research.
t h e / u n t i m e l y / p a s t
"For those interested in the intersection
of historiography with postmodernism, poststructuralism,
and related varieties of theory/practice"
Voice of the
Shuttle: History Page
Voice of the Shuttle is a widely-respected resource for Web pages in the
humanities produced by Alan Liu, Department of English, University of
California, Santa Barbara.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources. The library's Web Wise Guide to Searching give some helpful inside tips. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69 2003
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
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About Library Research in Historiography
Finding information about a person's life and work can be complicated; don't give up too quickly. You may find only brief biographical information, but find that the person's work is widely reviewed, cited, or held in libraries world-wide. The library's research guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles may provide you with some additional useful sources and strategies for your work.
Remember that in any written work you produce your sources must be fully documented. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the details required for documentation at hand when you need them. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed here were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Current issues; Level A
Periodical Back Files = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and scores; at end of classes in other collections
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