Western Civilization
Research Guide
Europe Since the Sixteenth Century
Reference
Works
Specialized reference works like the ones listed
below are very useful for research. All of the titles here are
located on the first floor of the Library. Browse around the same
areas to find other useful titles.
Biographies
- Dictionary of National Biography
Reference DA 28 .D4
- Dictionary of World Biography
Reference CT 104
.D54 1998
- Women in World History
Reference HQ 1115 .W6
Chronologies
- Chronology of European History
Reference D 11 .C54 1997
- Chronology of World History
Reference D 11 .C57 1999
- European Renaissance and Reformation
Reference CB 359 .W67 2001
- Great Events from History: WorldWide Twentieth
Century Series
Reference D 421 .G63 1980
- Great Events from History: Modern European
Series
Reference D 209 .M29
- Magill's History of Europe
Reference D 20 .M28 1993
- A Political Chronolgy of Europe
Reference D 11 .P655 2001
Encyclopedias
- The ABC-Clio World History Companion to
the Industrial Revolution
Reference D 359.7 .S74 1996
- Encyclopedia of European Social History
from 1350 to 2000
Reference D 20 .E6 2001
- Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
Reference D 286 .E63 2001
- Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
Reference D 804.3 .E53 1990
- Encyclopedia of World History
Reference D 21 .E578 2001
- European Powers in the First World War:
an Encyclopedia
Reference D 510 .E97 1996
- Holocaust Encyclopedia
Reference D 804.25 .H65 2001
- Oxford Companion to World War II
Reference D 740 .O94 1995
- Literature and its Times
Reference PN 50 .L574 1997
- Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800
Reference PN 86 .L56
- Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism
Reference PN 761 .N5
Library
Catalogs
Use the catalogs below to locate print and audio-visual
materials.
Primary
Sources
There are several ways to locate primary sources
in the College of DuPage Library.
Some may be found in the Reference Section
- Great Books of the Western World
Reference AC 1 .G72 1990
- Library of Original Sources
Reference AC 1 .T4 1971
- Translations & Reprints from the Original
Sources of European History
Reference D 101 .P43a
- The World's Best Essays
Reference PN 6141 .B8 1971
- The World's Best Orations
Reference PN 6121 .B85 1970
There are considerably more sources available
in the General Collection. To locate them use the College's Library
Catalog.
- Do an author search.
Anything written by a participant would be a primary source.
For example, for a primary source about socialism, look up "Marx,
Karl" as an author and find his Germany: Revolution
and Counterrevolution.
- Do a title search.
Some primary sources have no known authors.
- Do a subject search.
- Primary sources often contain one of these
subheadings: sources, personal narratives, diaries, or correspondence.
For example, look up "enlightenment" and scan
the results for those subheadings.
- Sometimes primary sources are found in
broad collections with or without the subheadings above.
Look up a broader heading such as "women" or "Europe"
and limit the search results to "source material"
to find some useful collections.
Many of the Internet Sites mentioned below also
have collections of primary sources. Using Primary Sources on the Web is an excellent guide to finding and evaluating web-based primary sources.
Indexes
Although the College of DuPage
Library has only one print or online index specifically for history,
many of these general sources cover the topic well. In many cases,
the databases will have the full text article available online.
If you are using these databases from off-campus, please be sure
to have your library
card available.
- Online Indexes
- Academic Search Premier
(1984-present)
Indexes over 3,000 journals and magazines; sometimes includes primary sources.
- Discovering
Collection (Prehistory to
present)
Includes some primary sources, mostly useful for topic overviews
like in the Great Events books listed above.
- Essay
and General Literature Index (1985-present)
Indexes chapters or essays in books.
- Expanded
Academic Index (1980-present)
Indexes over 2500 journals and magazines.
- Historical
New York Times (1851-1999)
Full images of the entire paper.
- History Study Center
Primary and secondary sources.
- JSTOR
JSTOR is an archive of digitized journal articles ranging in date from the 1700's to the early 2000's. These collections span a variety of subjects in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Physical Sciences.
- Newspapers
(1980s-present)
Full text of the Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, and the New York Times (last 90 days
only).
Internet
Sites
The Internet is an excellent place
to find primary sources for the study of history. Primary sources
are original documents from the time period. These texts are the
foundation upon which other studies and interpretations are made.
The Internet is also a good place to find images on historical
topics. While there are good sites with secondary information,
they are often not in enough depth for academic research. It is
best to critically evaluate these sites before using them.
Writing
Papers
Here are some helpful sources
to help you research and write papers in history.
Citing
Sources
The MLA format (Modern Language Association) is
commonly used to create bibliographies or works cited pages. The
sources below may help you.
Professors in other disciplines or professors
at other schools may prefer a different citation style. It's always
best to ask to be sure what style they would like you to use.
For professional writing in the field of history, the Chicago
Manual of Style is the prefered citation format. These are some
sources to help with that format
Marianne Berger, Reference Librarian
630-942-2338
berger@cdnet.cod.edu
18 August 2003
