Overviews and Beginning Sources
Several databases can be good beginning points with introductory overview essays on your topic and some include bibliographies of the principal recommended secondary and primary sources. These can be good starting points for thinking about your topic and identifying the key recommended works.
- Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new windowLiterary guide to significant sources on a variety of subjects. Works as an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia.
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Reference sources published by Oxford University Press. Dictionaries, subject reference works, language reference sources and key titles in the Oxford Companion series. Some examples are: the Oxford-Duden German dictionaries, A Dictionary of Psychology, A Dictionary of Zoology, The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Oxford Companion to U.S.History, Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Companion to Philosophy, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, etc.
- Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new windowCollection of Cambridge titles covering literature, classics, philosophy, religion and cultural studies.
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowCambridge Histories covering American, British, economic, regional, and general history, language and linguistics, philosophy, religious studies, theatre studies and performing arts, etc.
- Very Short Introductions This link opens in a new window
Concise overviews of hundreds of diverse topics from the abstract (Knowledge) to the concrete (Coral Reefs), written by experts in the field who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make challenging topics highly readable.
Reference Books
Subject specific encyclopedias and historical dictionaries are useful points of departure for your research. Some of the titles below can be accessed online.
Encyclopedia of Ancient HistoryCall Number: Available Online.
Historical Dictionary of KenyaCall Number: Online and 4th Fl Reference
Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political HistoryCall Number: Online
Why Should I Start With These Resources?
Good question -- here are a few reasons:
- Get an overview of a new or complex topic
- Find authoritative information
- Find out the names of key players in a given area
- Locate terms that you can use in your research
- Help narrow (or expand) your topic
- Locate a bibliography of sources to help you start your research.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new windowLong-form overview articles written, peer-reviewed, and edited by leading scholars. Both foundational and cutting-edge topics are covered in order to develop, over time, an anchoring knowledge base for major areas of research.
Access to selected content only. Some articles may not be available.
Companions - Some Books that Provide an Overview
Companions are books authored and edited by scholarly writers that give background information about topics. This background can further your understanding of the issues and/or complexities surrounding your topic and the time period when it takes place.
You can find "companions" on many topics. Just do a keyword search in the Library Catalog for the word "companion" and the word(s) for your topic to see if one has been published. Below are some examples of the variety of companions you might encounter - from the broad to the narrow in scope.
A Companion to American Women's HistoryCall Number: Available OnlineThis collection of twenty-four original essays by leading scholars in American women's history highlights the most recent important scholarship on the key debates and future directions of this popular and contemporary field. Covers the breadth of American Women's history, including the colonial family, marriage, health, sexuality, education, immigration, work, consumer culture, and feminism. Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every important era and topic. Includes expanded bibliography of titles to guide further research.
A Companion to Europe Since 1945Call Number: Central, D1051 .C65 2009, and Available OnlineA Companion to Europe Since 1945 provides a stimulating guide to numerous important developments which have influenced the political, economic, social, and cultural character of Europe during and since the Cold War. Includes 22 original essays by an international team of expert scholars; Examines the social, intellectual, economic, cultural, and political changes that took place throughout Europe in the Cold War and Post Cold War periods; Discusses a wide range of topics including the Single Market, European-American relations, family life and employment, globalization, consumption, political parties, European decolonization, European identity, security and defence policies, and Europe′s fight against international terrorism; Presents Europe in a broad geographical conception, to give equal weighting to developments in the Eastern and Western European states
A Companion to the History of the Middle EastCall Number: Available OnlineA Companion to the History of the Middle East offers a fresh account of the multifaceted and multi-layered history of this region. Comprising 26 newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars, this Companion treats the Middle East as four differentiated political units - Iran, Turkey, Israel, and the Arab world. While focused primarily on the modern and contemporary periods, it also includes a number of chapters on classical and pre-modern themes. Topics are situated within a chronological framework and include the rise of Islam, the militarization of Islam under a wide variety of dynasties, the commercial and industrial revolutions, colonial rule, and the struggle for independence. A final section highlights issues that have preoccupied historians in the second half of the twentieth century, and are most likely to gain momentum well into the twenty-first. These range from oil and urban growth to the role of women and democratic human rights.
A Companion to World HistoryCall Number: Central, D13 .C628 2012, and Available OnlineA Companion to World History presents 34 essays from an international group of historians that both identify continuing areas of contention, disagreement, and divergence in world and global history, and point to directions for further debate. Features a diverse cast of contributors that include established world historians and emerging scholars. Explores a wide range of topics and themes, including and the practice of world history, key ideas of world historians, the teaching of world history and how it has drawn upon and challenged "traditional" teaching approaches, and global approaches to writing world history. Places an emphasis on non-Anglophone approaches to the topic. Considers issues of both scholarship and pedagogy on a transnational, interregional, and world/global scale.
