Search Catalyst
Advanced Search: mix and match
Protip: subjects are most helpful for finding BOOKS (more than articles)
Subject (contains)....
- Countries: United States, Soviet Union, Russia, East Asia, China, Yugoslavia, Germany, Great Britain, etc.
- Descriptive words: Cold war, World politics, Foreign relations, Diplomatic history, International relations, History Modern, Social aspects, Religious aspects, etc.
Any field (contains)...
- Time limiters: 1945-1955, 1945-1989
Example search:
- Subject (contains) "Cold war" United States foreign relations Soviet Union [643 results]
Use Your Secondary Literature
Read bibliographies and notes of secondary literature carefully. Historians carefully document their sources in footnotes and bibliographies. You can get a good sense of not only specific primary sources that may allow you to explore a topic, but you can also get a general sense of the kinds of sources historians have used to research a topic.
From the secondary literature, you can identify individuals, places, institutions, and organizations important to your topic. This information will assist you in searching for primary sources in online catalogs.
Article Databases
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
The primary place to find scholarship on world history. (For U.S. and Canadian History, use America: History and Life). Covers publications from 1955 - present. - America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Contains information about scholarly articles on the history and culture of the U. S. and Canada. (For World History, use Historical Abstracts) - ABSEEES: American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Provides information on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union from journals, books, dissertations, and more. Subjects include: anthropology, culture and the arts, economics, education, and geography. Covers 1939 - current. - Africa Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
An indexing database that contains citations to books and journal articles published since 1984. They are searchable by keyword, subject, geographic area, country, and other bibliographic information. - BAS: Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Includes scholarship (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide. 1971-current. The reference section of the library also has BAS from 1960-1990 in physical form (ref DS 501 B49 1960) - HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Online This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
Includes journal articles about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Latinos in the United States. Covers 1970 - current.
- ALL HISTORY DATABASESIf you aren't seeing a helpful database, try looking at the whole list! You can narrow them down by material type (newspapers, data and statistics, full text journal articles, etc.).
Vetting scholarship
In order to learn how well (or poorly) received a book or article was in the field, read reviews! You can also use reviews to discover new scholarship in the field. They can also point you at similar (or better) books or articles.
HINT: add the key words "review" or "review article" to your Catalyst search.
- American Historical ReviewThe official journal from the American Historical Association, published by Oxford University Press. Includes book reviews.
- Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
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Articles in this collection offer comprehensive summaries of the state of research on topics from many disciplines in the sciences and social sciences, including Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science. Covers 1997 - current.
