TYPES OF HISTORY RESEARCH
Your professor may require you to find scholarly sources popular sources, secondary sources or primary sources on your topic. Here's a very basic guide if you need more details:
Primary Sources: Primary sources are the raw stuff of history. Examples of primary sources:
Some Primary Sources maybe be considered popular sources, but they are of the time that you are researching.
Secondary or Scholarly Sources:
These are the peer reviewed articles and scholarly books that historians write after they have worked with the primary sources -- and consulted other secondary articles or books.
Historiography: Historiography is the study of how historians have interpreted historical events throughout time. One way of doing this comparative interpretation, is looking for bibliographies on a subject or using the keyword "historiography" in Library Search or an online scholarly database such as Historical Abstracts or America: History and Life.
Want more information about primary resources? Check out the Primary Resources Research Guide!
GUIDES TO HISTORY LITERATURE
American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature
Call number: Langson Library 4th Floor Z6201 .A55 1995
Also available online.
Reference sources in history : an introductory guide
Call number: Langson Library Reference 1st Floor D20.F75 2004
Sources of Information for Historical Research
Call number: Langson Library 4th Floor Z6201 .S64 1994
HOW TO DO RESEARCH IN HISTORY
Historical Research: A Guide
Call number: Langson D1625 .M32 2002
W.H. McDowell. London: Longman, 2002.
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
Call number: Langson D13 .R295
Mary Lynn Rampolla. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, many editions (2001-2015).
A Student’s Guide to History 10th ed.
Call number: Langson D16.3 .B4 2007
Jules R. Benjamin Boston: Bedford Books/St. Martin’s, c2001.
Finding History: Research Methods and Resources for Students and Scholars
Call number: D16 .B693 2012
Christine Bombaro. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2012.
Before you start searching for resources, think about what exactly you will search for.
How do you come up with the words to write down?
Historical Abstracts*
Covers world history from 1450 - present. Does not include much on the United States or Canadian, but does have information about early colonial, revolutionary and early republic eras. Includes articles, books, dissertations and book reviews.
America: History and Life*
This is the main database for US and Canadian History. Start here to find peer reviewed articles, scholarly books, and book reviews. For history of any other part of the world back to 1450, use Historical Abstracts.
Academic Search Complete*
A multidisciplinary database for peer-reviewed journals, newspapers and magazines, and some trade publications.
JSTOR*
A growing full text collection of scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Most titles only include backfiles (some as far back as the early 1800s), with only some current content.
*UCI access only
* UC Irvine access only