Finding books
Most historians publish their work in books. So, for many topics in history, your best starting point is a good recent scholarly book. The easiest way to find that book is to ask someone else who is knowledgeable about your topic -- for example, your junior seminar instructor or spring JP advisor. But a thorough search of the library catalog is also essential. Here are some tips on finding books about historical topics in the Princeton University Library Catalog.
- Identify the Library of Congress Subject Heading for your topic, and use it in a subject search. You can look up LC Subject Headings in the big red books in the Trustee Reading Room (and elsewhere in the library). You can also look up a known book on your topic and check the long view for the subject headings assigned to that book.
- Use the word "history" as part of a keyword search.
- To find material about a person, an government agency, or an organization, search for it as a subject
- To limit your search results to English-language materials, "Set Limits" before searching.
- Didn't find enough? Expand your search in Worldcat to identify items not held by Princeton, then use Borrow Direct or Interlibrary loan to get the books you discover there.
Assessing what you find -- is this book worth your time?
- Who is the author? Is he/she associated with an academic institution?
- Who is the publisher? Most good history books are published by academic presses, e.g. Princeton University Press or Oxford University Press.
- When was the book published? Your first choice will probably be a book published in the last ten years or so, because a recent book will refer to all the previous work on your topic. But some older books are still very valuable, so do not worry if the most recent book you can find on your topic was published long ago.
- Does the book include the scholarly apparatus that will enable you to verify the author's work? Look for footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography. A book with no notes or bibliography will not be helpful to you at this stage of your research.
Once you have a book in hand, read it. Alas, there are no shortcuts to this part of the research process.
- Catalog (Princeton) This link opens in a new windowSearch tool covering the collections of Princeton University Library.
- WorldCat This link opens in a new windowComprehensive online catalog of library holdings. Lists books, journals, maps, recordings, films, scores, and other materials located in public, academic, corporate, school and specialized libraries all over the world. Check Worldcat for holdings of material that are not available at Princeton. Available items may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.
Finding journal articles
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new windowIndexes books and journal articles on the history of the world (excluding the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Index 1954+
- America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowIndexes books and journal articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. 1954+
Consider also
- Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new windowDetailed guides to a wide variety of disciplines.
- Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) This link opens in a new window
Records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide in Western languages. Includes chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, etc. 1971+
- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new windowProvides bibliographic citations to the contents of 700+ social science and humanities journals published around the world on Latin America and the Caribbean since the late 1960s. Citations often include links to the full text articles.
- Oxford research encyclopedias. African history This link opens in a new windowSubstantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History combines the speed & flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing.
- Oxford research encyclopedias. Asian history This link opens in a new windowSubstantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History combines the speed & flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing.
- Oxford research encyclopedias. Latin American history This link opens in a new window
Substantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History combines the speed & flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing.
- Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) This link opens in a new windowExtensive annotated bibliography and index to books, articles and a variety of other materials. The HLAS Web version, which covers resources published from the 1960s to the present, offers multiple search options and limits, and easy options for citing, saving, and emailing search results. The HLAS Online version is a legacy system that links researchers to descriptions of materials published from the 1930s to the present and also provides online access to full-text bibliographic essays written by scholars.
- L'Année Philologique This link opens in a new windowMain index to the scholarship of classical studies published in all languages in both books and journals. 1924+
- International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary bibliography of the European Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 400-1500.
Subaltern Studies
The following links show books and other resources related to subaltern studies that are available at Princeton.
Oxford Handbooks
The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory by ISBN: 9780199328581Publication Date: 2016-01-26The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory provides a rich overview of the analytical frameworks and theoretical concepts that feminist theorists have developed to analyze the known world.
The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies by ISBN: 9780190930028Publication Date: 2021-10-07The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies offers a contribution from Southern scholars to remake Youth Studies from its current state, that universalises Northern perspectives, into a truly Global Youth Studies. Eleven concepts are re-imagined and re-presented throughout the Handbook - personhood, intersectionality, violences, de- and post-coloniality, consciousness, precarity, fluid modernities, ontological insecurity, navigational capacities, collective agency and emancipation.
The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations by ISBN: 9780198873457Publication Date: 2023-11-30This Oxford Handbook examines the past and present of the intersection between history and IR, and looks to the future by laying out new questions and directions for research.
The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History by ISBN: 9780195166217Publication Date: 2010-11-05The decades since the 1980s have witnessed an unprecedented surge in research about Latin American history. This much-needed volume brings together original essays by renowned scholars to provide the first comprehensive assessment of this burgeoning literature.
The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Studies by ISBN: 9780199588251Publication Date: 2013-11-01Original chapters written by a worldwide team of contritbuors are organised into five cross-referenced sections, "The Imperial Past," "The Colonial Present," "Theory and Practice," "Across the Disciplines," and "Across the World."
Scholars in Subaltern Studies