Introduction to Historical Research : Books
This guide is an introduction to selected resources available for historical research. It covers both primary sources and secondary materials.
Google Books
- Google Books (Advanced)Try Google Books to find books on your topic. Many titles in Google Books include a limited preview of the text that will help you decide whether you want to borrow a copy via the library. Some titles even include the complete text!
Books as Primary Sources
Books can serve as primary or secondary sources for your research. When searching for books to be used as primary source materials you will need to find books published during the time period you are researching. There a number of print and online bibliographies, as well as, catalogs that can help you identify useful books.
Here a couple of catalogs that can help you find both print and electronic books:
- WorldCatWorldCat is a catalog of libraries from around the world and can be used to request items through interlibrary loan.WorldCat is a catalog of more than 49 million books, serials, audiovisual media, maps, archives, manuscripts, scores, and computer files owned by more than 9,000 OCLC member libraries around the world, including UW-Madison and the Library of Congress. More than 400 languages are represented. One of its many uses is the ability to make online interlibrary loan requests for books.
Sample E-book Collections
These collections represent a few of the e-book collections that can be found through the Database library. They represent only a fraction of what is available, a complete list is available here.
- Digital South Asia LibraryBooks and research materials pertaining to South Asia.The Digital South Asia Library provides digital materials for reference and research on South Asia to scholars, public officials, business leaders, and other users.
- Early English Books OnlineEarly English Books Online (EEBO) provides full-text images of almost all the books printed in England and her colonies from the beginning of printing to 1700 (about 125,000 titles).You can search for books on your topic by author, title,and keyword, or search just for illustrations from these books if you wish. EEBO includes the items listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), and additional supplementary materials. Gradually, searchable electronic text versions of a selection of these books are being added to the project. These searchable texts are called: EEBO-TCP, the Early English Books Online Text Creation Project. Eventually both EEBO and EEBO-TCP will be combined into one database. For now, in addition to using using Early English Books Online (EEBO), check EEBO-TCP if you want to do want to do keyword searching within an individual work.
- Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineAn online library of over 180,000 titles published between 1701 and 1800, and printed in English-speaking countries, or countries under British colonial rule. Includes books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more.The majority of works in ECCO are in the English language but there are also works printed in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Welsh.
Based on the English Short Title Catalogue
Works published in the UK during the 18th century plus thousands from elsewhere - Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook ProjectCollection of some of the most influential and important American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century.The Michigan State University Library and the MSU Museum have partnered to create an online collection of some of the most influential and important American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. The goal of this project is to make these materials available to a wider audience. Digital images of the pages of each cookbook are available as well as full-text transcriptions and the ability to search within the books, across the collection, in order to find specific information.
- Gerritsen Collection: Women's History OnlineThe Gerritsen Collection includes books and periodicals from around the world which document the condition of women, the evolution of feminist consciousness, and women's rights.The Gerritsen Collection includes books and periodicals from around the world which document the condition of women, the evolution of feminist consciousness, and women's rights. More than 4,000 books and 265 periodicals in the collection are primarily in English with German, French, and Dutch-language materials strongly represented. Other languages included are Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Slavic, and Scandinavian.
- Ibero-American Electronic TextsThis collection covers a wide array of works from Latin America and Spain that span from the medieval to the contemporary period.Currently, the series holds over 35 titles in Spanish that cover a wide array of works from Latin America and Spain that span from the medieval to
contemporary period. Some titles included in the Ibero-American Electronic Text Series are: Vida de Santa María Egipciaqua; Manuscrito de Chichicastenango/Popol buj; Loa para el auto sacramental de "El Divino Narciso", Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes; Principios de Moral e Instrucción Cívica, Rafael Montoro. - Library of Latin TextsContains 3,200 works that are attributed to approximately 950 authors.The texts which are incorporated are selected by virtue of their having been edited according to best contemporary scholarly practice. Independent research is undertaken to verify facts relating to the text, such as the veracity of the authorial attribution or the dating.
- Nineteenth Century Collections OnlineNineteenth Century Collections Online unites multiple, distinct archives into a single resource, including a wide variety of previously unavailable primary sources ranging from books and monographs, newspapers and periodicals, diaries and personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, and maps.Initial archival modules include: British Politics and Society; European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection; Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; and British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture.
- Project RunebergContains 200 original-language classic works of Nordic literature, music, and the history of science, plus selected texts in Swedish law and in other disciplines.Project Runeberg is a Swedish-centered, volunteer-based project that offers in HTML format more than 200 original-language classic works of Nordic literature, music, and the history of science, plus selected texts in Swedish law and in other disciplines. Works represent Sweden (the bulk of the offerings thus far), Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The site also provides biographical information and links to additional reading, to other text sites, and to other electronic text projects.
- Twentieth Century Advice LiteratureThis collection includes how-to books and guides; employee manuals, sorority and fraternity pledge manuals; scouting manuals; textbooks; commercial literature; and government manuals.Twentieth Century Advice Literature focuses on gender roles and relations, American consumerism, views of democratic citizenship, character development for children, changes in reaction to each major war (including World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam), class relations, and adjustments to new technology (such as proper manners when using the telephone, point-and-shoot camera, or e-mail). Included are how-to books and guides; employee manuals, sorority and fraternity pledge manuals; scouting manuals; textbooks that deal with home economics, health and hygiene, and sex education; teacher-training and course manuals; commercial literature that promotes specific behaviors; and government instruction manuals for a variety of workplaces and industries.
- Yiddish Books OnlineThe National Yiddish Book Center offers access to the full texts of nearly 11,000 out-of-print Yiddish titles.The National Yiddish Book Center is proud to offer online access to the full texts of nearly 11,000 out-of-print Yiddish titles. You can browse, read, download or print any or all of these books, free of charge. These titles were scanned under the auspices of our Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, and have been made available online through the Internet Archive.
Additional E-book and E-journal Collections
These are additional e-book and journal collections that might be helpful for locating primary sources.
- Making of America--CornellMOA is a collaborative publishing effort by Cornell University Libraries and the University of Michigan Libraries. Approximately 900,000 pages of materials were selected from the Cornell University Library, and 600,000 pages from the University of Michigan. Collectively, these materials represent more than 750 bound volumes of journals and more than 2,000 books.
- Making of America--MichiganThe Making of America (MOA) is a distributed digital library of important materials (journals and books) that document nineteenth century America and the history of the United States.MOA is a collaborative publishing effort by Cornell University Libraries and the University of Michigan Libraries. Approximately 900,000 pages of materials were selected from the Cornell University Library, and 600,000 pages from the University of Michigan. Collectively, these materials represent more than 750 bound volumes of journals and more than 2,000 books.
- Sabin Americana, (1500 - 1926)Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography (Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time), this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1476 to the early 1900's.Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.
- Gallica: Bibliotheque Nationale de FranceGallica is an "experimental server" with links to thousands of electronic text, image, animation, and sound files bearing on the nineteenth-century French experience. The literature subsection draws on texts of classic French literature from the 12th century onwardThere are introductory pages for the following disciplinary groupings: History; Political Science; Law and Economics; Literature; Philosophy; Science and the History of Science. The language is French. Most files are full-text/image, but more than 300 works are available in full-text/ASCII. A special strength is digitized photographs, of which this site had over 10,000 in early 1999. The site's general search engine is linked to under the term "Recherches-plein texte"
- Defining GenderDefining Gender contains some 50,000 images of original documents from five centuries of advice literature and related material, from diaries, advice and conduct books, as well as articles from medical and other journals, ballads, cartoons, and pamphlets, all from Europe.Much of the material is British in origin, from the Bodleian and other libraries. Defining Gender is organized into five thematic sections: Conduct and Politeness, Domesticity and the Family, Consumption and Leisure, Education and Sensibility, and The Body. Each section also features author biographies, essays by scholars, a chronology, and teaching hints. The items in Defining Gender are a selection from various microfilm series, and there is a link to the indices for the full microfilm sets.
Finding E-books
Many historically relevent books are available electronically. Find out how to find them through the link below.
Freely available E-books
Some of the largest collections of freely available electronic books:
- Google BooksGoogle Books includes the full text of a number of older books that are in the public domain (pre-1923).Try Google Books to find books on your topic. Many titles in Google Books include a limited preview of the text that will help you decide whether you want to borrow a copy via the library. Some titles even include the complete text!
- Hathi TrustFull-text of works that are out of copyright or in the public domain are available for viewing or searching. The items may also be in Google books but may have greater availability and searchability.The digitized collection, Hathi Trust, includes the CIC libraries (Big Ten) and the University of California System. Full-text of works that are out of copyright or in the public domain are available for viewing or searching. The items are also in Google books but have greater availability and searchability. These titles also appear in MadCat searches for those titles that are also in the University of Wisconsin--Madison libraries.
- Project GutenbergContains over 33,000 electronic books.The Project Gutenberg philosophy is to make information, books, and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs, and people can easily read, use, quote, and search. It includes classic literature such as, Aesop's Fables, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, and Paradise Lost. Historical documents such as, inaugural addresses and treaties are included, as well as, the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. Included in the collection are reference works such as, Roget's Thesaurus and the CIA Factbook, as well as, almanacs, census data, and works containing mathematical constants. Religious documents such as, the Bible and the Book of Mormon are also included.
- Many Books: HistoryProject Gutenberg titles converted into multiple formats.