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Keywords

Here are some keywords to use in your searches. Remember to use terms that will narrow your search!

Absolute monarchy
Access rights
Accrual method
Age
Age of Discovery
Age of Enlightenment
Agent provocateur
Ancient history
Annales School
Annals
Anno Domini (AD)
Anthropology
Antiquarian
Antiquarianism
Antiquities
Antiquity
Archaeology
Archival bond
Archival science
Archive
Archontology
Art history
Artifact (also artefact)
Audience
Autobiography
Auxiliary sciences of history
Avalonia
Before Christ (BC)
Before the Common Era (BCE)
Bibliography
Blitzkrieg
Bolsheviks
Book review
Bottom-up approach
Bronze Age
Buranji
Caesar
Calendar
Century
Charter
Chorography
Chronicle
Chronology
Classical antiquity
Circa (also abbreviated c., ca., circ., or cca.)
Citation
Classical tradition
Classics (also called Classical Studies)
Cliometrics
Codex
Codicology
The Coherence Theory of Truth
Colonialism
Common Era (CE)
Comparative history
Congo Craton
Context
Correspondence theory of truth
Counterfactual history
Crypto history
Cultural history
Culture
Dark Ages
Dossier
Diplomatics
Discipline
Economic determinism
Economic history
Edwardian
Empire
Enlightenment
Environmental history
Epigraphy
Episteme
Epoch
Era
Ethnohistory
Fakelore
Floruit (fl.)
Folklore
Fonds
Genealogy
Gondwana
Gregorian calendar
Hagiography
Hegemony
Heraldry
Hermeneutics
Historian
Historical classification
Historical method
Historical negationism
Historical realism
Historical record
Historical revisionism
Historical thinking
Historicism
Historicity
Historiography
History
Human history
Humanism
illuminated manuscript
imperialism
Industrial Age
Interdisciplinary
Interpretation
Iron Age
Journal
Julian calendar
Lacuna
Landscape history
Legend
Local history
Longue durée
Lore
Macrohistory
Manuscript
Microhistory
Middle Ages
Migration
Military history
Modern history
Modernity
Monograph
Myth
Mythology
Notaphily
Numismatics
Natural history
Onomatology
Palaeography
Paleo-Tethys Ocean
Pangaea
Past
Periodization
Phaleristics
Philately
Philology
Political history
Post-classical history
Prehistory
Presentism
Primary source
Prosopography
Protohistory
Provenance
Pseudohistory
Public history
Quantitative history
Radical history
Radiocarbon dating
Regnal year
Renaissance
Respect des fonds
Revolution
Rodinia
Romanticism
Reference work
Revisionist history
Saeculum
Scientific Revolution
Secondary source
Seal
Sigillography
Social history
Statistics
Stone Age
Stratigraphy
Subaltern
Teleology
Terminus ante quem (TAQ)
Terminus post quem (TPQ)
Tethys Ocean
Three-age system
Time
Timeline
Timeliness
Top-down approach
Toponymy
Transhistoricity
Typology
Universal history
Unwitting testimony
Urban history
War
Warfare
Whig history
Women's history
Yuga

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

What the difference between a primary, secondary, and tertiary source?

Primary sources are created as close to the original event or phenomenon as it is possible to be. For example, a photograph or video of an event is a primary source. Data from an experiment is a primary source.
Secondary sources are one step removed from that. Secondary sources are based on or about the primary sources. For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team's experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources.
Tertiary sources are one further step removed from that. Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference books are tertiary sources (Text in this section is from Suny Empire College's guide: Research Skills Tutorial).

Why is this Important?

For your research assignments, you are asked to find primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. You'll need to be able to recognize the difference between all three. Remember primary sources are about the event. Secondary sources analyze the event and interpret another author's work. Tertiary sources summarize events from other authors after the event has occurred.

E-Books

Access to History: The American Dream: Reality and Illusion, 1945-1980
Give your students the best chance of success with this tried and tested series, combining in-depth analysis, engaging narrative, and accessibility. Access to History is A-level History students' most popular, trusted, and wide-ranging series. This title:- Supports the content and assessment requirements of the 2015 A-level History specifications- Contains authoritative and engaging content- Includes thought-provoking key debates that examine the opposing views and approaches of historians- Provides exam-style questions and guidance for each relevant specification to help students understand how to apply what they have learntThis title is suitable for a variety of courses including:- AQA: The American Dream: Reality and Illusion, 1945-1980.
Antiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America : A Documentary Reader
World War I was a watershed in modern world history. On the battlefield, millions were slaughtered by chemical warfare, machine guns, and trench warfare—and this senseless bloodletting remains the most enduring legacy of the Great War. Critical to understanding the war's significance is the often-overlooked emergence of a "modern" dynamic grassroots peace movement that both opposed the war and sought to abolish its social causes. Edited by Scott H. Bennett and Charles F. Howlett, Antiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America presents primary documents, most anthologized for the first time, illustrating opposition and resistance to the war and the government's efforts to promote the fight and restrict dissent. This fresh collection highlights the broad range of antiwar sentiments: religious and secular, liberal and radical, pacifist and non-pacifist, including conscientious objection. It also addresses critical issues raised by the antiwar movement—particularly dissent in wartime, civil liberties, the meaning of patriotism, and citizen peace activism—that remain vital to understanding American democracy.
Asian Democracy in World History
Taking a comparative approach, Alan T. Wood traces the evolution of democracy from its origins in prehistoric times and describes democratic growth in thirteen Asian countries, from Japan in East Asia to Pakistan in South Asia, and examines critical issues such as: How does the democratic experience in Asia, in countries with unique and totalitarian political traditions, compare with democracies worldwide? Is the aspiration to freedom universal, or is it a product of Western ideas and institutions?
Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War
Thousands of wounded service members returned to Japan following the escalation of Japanese military aggression in China in July 1937. Thousands would return home after Japan widened its war effort in 1939. In Casualties of History, Lee K. Pennington relates for the first time in English the experiences of Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of Japan's' long' Second World War (1937 to 1945). He maps the terrain of Japanese military medicine and social welfare practices. He establishes the similarities and differences between Japanese and Western physical, occupational, and spiritual rehabilitation programs for war-wounded servicemen, notably amputees. To exemplify the experience of these wounded soldiers, Pennington draws on the memoir of a Japanese soldier who describes in gripping detail his medical evacuation from a casualty clearing station on the front lines and his medical convalescence at a military hospital. Moving from the hospital to the home front, Pennington documents the prominent roles adopted by disabled veterans in mobilization campaigns designed to rally popular support for the war effort. Following Japan's defeat in August 1945, U.S. Occupation forces dismantled the social welfare services designed specifically for disabled military personnel, which brought profound consequences for veterans and their dependents. Using a wide array of written and visual historical sources, Pennington tells a tale that until now has been neglected by English-language scholarship on Japanese society. He gives us a uniquely Japanese version of the all-too-familiar story of soldiers who return home to find their lives (and bodies) remade by combat.
Defining Documents in World History: Ancient World (2700 BCE-50 CE)
From Gilgamesh to Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome, this volume provides easy-to-use tools to engage, enlighten and give students a new frame of reference to study and analyze the most critical documents from Ancient History.
Defining Documents in World History: Vietnam War (1956-1975)
It provides readers with a new, exciting way to study the impact of the Vietnam War on American history. Through an in-depth analysis of significant primary documents from 1956-1975, readers will gain new insight into the causes, issues, and lasting effects of this pivotal time in American history.
Defining Documents in World History: Women's Rights (1429-2017)
Provide in-depth analysis of various historical documents from influential figures in women's history from the United States and worldwide.
Finding History: Research Methods and Resources for Students and Scholars
In today's modern research methods, the irony is that even though more materials are readily available now than ever, this proliferation of sources has made the process more difficult for the novice researcher. In addition, today's professors expect high-quality sources to be used in students' undergraduate research precisely because so much information is available; however, without instruction, many students are unaware of the standard history sources they should use routinely for history research projects. Finding History is a practical and modern guide to research for history projects, helping to sort through the available resources and technology for students, scholars, and librarians. Finding History includes practical, step-by-step instructions for discovering historical evidence using library catalogs, databases, and websites. It simplifies and clarifies the research process so that students new to the experience may locate appropriate research material with the same skill as seasoned historians. This book addresses the information literacy skills defined by the American Library Association and the American Historical Association, which include recognizing the need for scholarly historical information, defining and identifying the need for primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; knowing what finding tools are available to help locate historical sources; using history research tools efficiently and effectively; learning research vocabulary as well as the language of the historical profession; making evaluative judgments about the scholarly value of materials once they are located; physically acquiring research materials; using research material effectively to support a thesis or argument; and using research material ethically and responsibly. Including search samples and tables, Finding History is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to ensure their research draws from the best available sources and those needing instruction in locating, obtaining, evaluating, and using scholarly sources efficiently, directly, and ethically.
The History of the World: The Story of Mankind From Prehistory to the Modern Day
Humanity has come a long way since our ancestors first stood on two feet, but how did we get to where we are today? This book tells our story through conflict and intrigue, power won and lost, and great empires built and destroyed. Written and accessible, the chapters progress chronologically, with each section focusing on a different part of the world, making this book ideal for quick reference or reading in depth. Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the first civilizations, follow marauding Mongols on their quest to conquer or find out what made colonial empires tick, the answers lie within these pages. Looking at our recent history, the last section focuses on the great themes of the 21st century so far: population growth, technology, climate change, and religious extremism. Whatever the future may hold for us, we have much to learn from our past.
The Oxford History of the World
Histories you can trust. Imagine the planet, as if from an immense distance of time and space, as a galactic observer might see it—with the kind of objectivity that we, enmeshed in our history, can't attain. The Oxford History of the World encompasses the whole span of human history. It brings together some of the world's leading historians, under the expert guidance of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, to tell the 200,000-year story of our world, from the emergence of homo sapiens through to the twenty-first century: the environmental convulsions, the interplay of ideas (good and bad); the cultural phases and exchanges; the collisions and collaborations in politics; the successions of states and empires; the unlocking of energy; the evolutions of economies; the contacts, conflicts, and contagions that have all contributed to making the world we now inhabit.
A Radical History of the World
History is a weapon. The powerful have their version of events; the people have another. And if we understand how the past was forged, we arm ourselves to change the future. This is a history of struggle, revolution, and social change: of hominids, hunters, and herders; of emperors and enslaved people; of patriarchs and women; of rich and poor; of dictators and revolutionaries. From the ancient empires of Persia and Rome to the Russian Revolution, the Vietnam War, and the 2008 Crash, this is a history of greed, violence, solidarity, and resistance. Many times in the past, a different society became an absolute necessity. Humans have always struggled to create a better life. This history proves that we, the many, have the power to change the world.
Reckoning with History: Unfinished Stories of American Freedom
Reckoning with History brings together original essays from a diverse group of historians who consider how writing about the past can engage with the urgent issues of the present. The contributors—all former students of the distinguished Columbia University historian Eric Foner—explore the uses and politics of History through key episodes across a wide range of struggles for freedom. They shed new light on how different groups have defined and fought for freedom throughout American History and how the ideal of liberty remains unrealized today. Covering a broad range of topics, these essays offer insight into how historians practice their craft differently and illuminate what it means to be a socially and politically engaged historian.
Trans-Saharan Africa in World History
During the heyday of camel caravan traffic--from the eighth-century CE arrival of Islam in North Africa to the early twentieth-century building of European colonial railroads that linked Sudan with the Atlantic--the Sahara was one of the world's great commercial highways, bringing gold, enslaved people, and other commodities northward and sending both manufactured goods and Mediterranean culture southward into Sudan. Historian Ralph A. Austen here tells the remarkable story of an African world that grew from more than one thousand years of trans-Saharan trading. Perhaps the most enduring impact of this trade and the common cultural reference point of trans-Saharan Africa was Islam. Austen traces this faith in its various forms--as a legal system for regulating commerce, an inspiration for reformist movements, and a vehicle of literacy and cosmopolitan knowledge. He also analyzes the impact of European overseas expansion, which marginalized trans-Saharan commerce in global terms but stimulated its local growth. Indeed, trans-Saharan culture not only adapted to colonial changes but often thrived upon them, remaining a potent force into the twenty-first century.
A World History of War Crimes: From Antiquity to the Present
A World History of War Crimes provides a truly global history of war crimes and the involvement of the legal systems faced with these acts. Documenting the long historical arc traced by human efforts to limit warfare, from codes of war in antiquity designed to maintain a religiously conceived cosmic order to the gradual use in the modern age of the criminal trial as a means of enforcing universal norms, this book provides a comprehensive one-volume account of war and the laws that have governed conflict since the dawn of world civilizations. Throughout his narrative, Michael Bryant locates the origin and evolution of the law of war in the interplay between different cultures. While showing that no single philosophical idea underlay the law of war in world history, this volume also proves that war in global civilization has rarely been a lawless free-for-all. Instead, from its beginnings, warfare has been subject to certain constraints defined by the unique needs and cosmological understandings of the cultures that produce them. Only in late modernity has law assumed its current international humanitarian form. The criminalization of war crimes in international courts today is the most recent development of the ancient theme of constraining when and how war may be fought.
World Monarchies and Dynasties
Throughout history, royal dynasties have dominated countries and empires around the world. Kings, queens, emperors, chiefs, pharaohs, czars - whatever title they ruled by, monarchs have shaped institutions, rituals, and cultures in every period and every corner of the globe. The concept of monarchy originated in prehistoric times and evolved over centuries right up to the present. Efforts to overthrow monarchies or evade their rule - such as the American, French, Chinese, and Russian revolutions - are considered turning points in world history. Even today, many countries retain their monarchies, although in vastly reduced form with little political power. One cannot understand human history and government without understanding monarchs and monarchies. This fully-illustrated encyclopedia provides the first complete survey of all the world's significant rulers and ruling families, past and present. No other reference work approaches the topic with the same sense of magnitude or connection to historical context. Arranged in A-Z format for ease of access, World Monarchies and Dynasties includes information on significant monarchs and dynasties from ancient times to the present. This set: includes overviews of reigns and successions, genealogical charts, and dynastic timelines; addresses concepts, problems, and theories of monarchy; provides background and information for further research; highlights important places, structures, symbols, events, and legends related to particular monarchs and dynasties; includes a master bibliography and multiple indexes.
Writing History! : A Companion for Historians
Historians not only know History, but by writing about it and engaging with other historians from the past and present, they make History themselves. This companion offers young historians clear guidelines for the different phases of historical research; how do you get a good historical question? How do you engage with the literature? How do you work with sources from the past, from archives to imagery and objects, art, or landscapes? What is the influence of digitalization on the historical craft? Broad in scope, Writing History! also addresses historians' traditional support of policymakers and their activity in fields of public history, such as museums, the media, and the leisure sector, and offers support for developing the necessary skills for this wide range of professions.

Print Books

A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present
A History of Modern Africa explores two centuries of the continent’s political, economic, and social history. This thorough yet accessible text help readers to understand key concepts, recognize significant themes and identify the processes that shaped the modern history of Africa. Emphasis is placed on the consequences of colonial rule and the links between the precolonial and postcolonial eras. Author Richard Reid, a prominent scholar, and historian, argues that Africa’s struggle for economic and political stability in the nineteenth century escalated and intensified through the twentieth century, the effects of which are still felt today.
Holocaust Representations in History
How the Holocaust is depicted and memorialized is critical to understanding its impact. Through 18 case studies dating from the immediate aftermath of the genocide to the present day, Holocaust Representations in History explores this in detail.
Milestone Documents in World History: Exploring the Primary Sources that Shaped the World
Key documents from all important world cultures are included, from the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt to the Greek and Roman Empires, medieval Islam, Renaissance Europe, and modern Africa and Asia. Constitutions, speeches, letters, acts, treaties, and legal cases are all covered. Among the documents included in the set are iconic legal and constitutional documents such as the Code of Hammurabi, Magna Carta, Meiji Constitution, and the Constitutive Act of the African Union; famous treatises such as the Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," the Communist Manifesto, and Osama bin Laden's Declaration of Jihad against America; necessary legislative acts from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the Treaty of Nanjing to the Treaty of Versailles; and cultural and political declarations such as Martin Luther's 95 Theses, Gandhi's "Quit India" Speech, and Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Address.
What is Digital History?
Digital history is an emerging field that draws on digital technology and computational methods. A global enterprise that invites scholars worldwide to join forces, it presents exciting and novel ways we might explore, understand and represent the past.
Writing History: A Guide for Students
Bringing together practical methods from History and composition, Writing History, Fourth Edition, provides many tips and advice to help students research and write essays for history classes. The book covers all aspects of writing about History, including finding and researching
topics, interpreting source materials, drawing inferences from sources, and constructing arguments. It concludes with three chapters that discuss writing effective sentences, using precise wording, and revising. Using numerous examples from the works of cultural, political, and social historians,
Writing History is an ideal text in any history course that asks students to conduct research.
Writing History Essays
To write history successfully, it is essential to understand the nuts and bolts of technique and the underlying principles that are too rarely made explicit but govern the whole process. I.W. Mabbett carefully analyzes these principles and takes us step-by-step through the stages of the process. He shows how history differs from other disciplines, outlines the methods of historical research and writing, and clearly illustrates their application to writing assignments, essays, and dissertations in history.

EBSCO Discovery Search Tutorial

Video Credit: EBSCO Tutorials, Sep 19, 2023.