Research Guides: Historiography: Home

Writing a Historiographic Essay

The website below on History writing from the History Department at Queens College, New York provides good background information on what historiography is as well as information on wrting a historiographic essay.

Writing on History : Historiography
This useful online guide discusses what historiography is and writing historiographic essays. From the History Department at Queens College, New York.

Sources on Historical Debates

History in Dispute
This is a great source to look at when choosing a historiography topic. It is a 21 volume set with entries on hundreds of historical controversies. Each has an overview of the debate, articles written by experts arguing each side and a list of sources. To get to History in Dispute from the link, type in your Salem State login, select History from the left column and scroll down until you see one of the volumes. Click on a volume and type in your subject in the search box that says Search Publication.

Bibliographies

Oxford Bibliographies Online
These extensive bibliographies include an introduction of the subject followed by a variety of sources such as overviews, bibliographies, primary sources, and works on particular aspects of the subject. Works mentioned also link to WorldCat or Google Books, to make locating them easier. SSU currently has historical bibliographies on the Atlantic World, Medieval Studies, Renaissance & Reformation.

History Databases

JSTOR
JSTOR is a full-text archive of scholarly journal articles in many subject areas and is especially strong in history. It also links to more recent articles available in other databases and to Google Scholar.

The databases listed below have particularly strong collections of scholarly history journal articles.

Historical Abstracts
Covering the history of the world from 1450 to present, except for North America, this database provides abstracts to scholarly articles. The full-text of some articles is available and links to full-text articles available in other databases is supported.
America: History & Life
The companion database to Historical Abstracts, America: History & Life provides abstracts (and in some cases full-text or links to full-text articles) on North America from prehistory to the present.
Project Muse
Project Muse is a full-text database similar to JSTOR except that the articles are recently published.

Historiography Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Historians & Historical Writing
Call Number: Ref. D 14 .E58 1999
ISBN: 1884964338
A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing
Call Number: Ref. D 13 .G47 1998
ISBN: 0815315147

Guides to Historical Literature

The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature
Call Number: Ref. D 20 .A55 1995
ISBN: 0195057279
Reader's Guide to American History
Call Number: Ref. E 178 .R43 1997
ISBN: 1884964222

Finding Books at SSU and Beyond

Follow the links below to find books at Salem State University Library or in libraries elsewhere.

SSU Library Catalog
To find books in the Berry Library at Salem State and in other local libraries in the NOBLE Library Consortium, select the Books, Media & More tab above the search box at the top of the library's homepage. Request books from other NOBLE Libraries by clicking on the Place Hold button. The book will be sent to Salem State or another library of your choice.
WorldCat
Contains the catalogs of thousands of libraries worldwide. Items found in WorldCat can be requested through Interlibrary Loan and picked up at the Library's Circulation Desk.
HathiTrust
Large collection of online, usually older, books in the public domain.