What About Older Books?
Finding Reviews of Older Books
Looking for a review of a literary classic like Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath? Or a popular non-fiction work such as Zinn's A People's History of the United States? Or even a more scholarly treatise that has seen frequent revisions (or editions)?
Online Databases
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowCoverage varies by title, often covering the full run of the journal up to 5 years ago. Full-text of core journals in a variety of subject areas. In Advanced Search: Narrow By > Item Type > Review
- Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new windowCovers 1665-1995; In the Advanced Search, limit by: Document Type > Book_Review
- Readers' Guide Retrospective, 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowUnder Document Type, select "Book Review"
Print Resources
Use these resources when you are trying to find a review of a book published before 1990. The titles listed below cover works published PRIOR to the advent of the Internet.
- Alternative Press Index [1972-1983][vol. 4 (1972) to vol. 15 (1983)]
- America: History and Life [1974-1988]Merged with: America, history and life. Part A, Article abstracts and citations; America, history and life. Part C, American history bibliography, books, articles and dissertations; and, America, history and life. Part D, Annual index; to form: America, history and life (Santa Barbara, Calif. : 1989).
- Art Index [1929-1997]A quarterly author & subject index to publications in the fields of archaeology, architecture, art history, arts & crafts, city planning, fine arts, graphic arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape design, photography & films, and related subjects.
- Book Review Digest [1905-January,1999]Provides citations and excerpts of book reviews from about 90 periodicals.
- Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals [1964-1972]Book review index to social science periodicals.
- Book Review Index [1965-2005Provides citations only of book reviews from a wider range of periodicals than Book Review Digest. Note that abbreviations are used for journal titles.
- Choice (Chicago, Ill.) [1964-2000]Print only: This periodical has reviews of books intended for academic libraries.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals [1802-1974]Index for book reviews in 150 humanities journals.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals [1886-1974 ]Index for book reviews in 459 scholarly journals in history, political science, and sociology.
- An Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities [1961-1990]Index for book reviews in selected humanities journals.
- Literary Reviews in British Periodicals [1798-1820]A bibliography with a supplementary list of general (non-review) articles on literary subjects.
- New York Times Index [1913-1929]This resource indexes the entire contents of the New York Times by subject headings and subheadings. Book reviews can be found under the heading "Books and Literature" in the index. Entries are then arranged alphabetically by the title of the work.
- Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature [1900 - 1997]Book reviews are listed separately at the back of each index.
- The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals [1824-1900]Index to contents over about 40 British periodicals; look at the tables of contents of each journal to find the title of the book.
