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The Princeton Guide to Historical Research by "The essential handbook for doing historical research in the twenty-first century. The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian's craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries"
Frequently Used Resources
Visit specific History research guides for recommendations by area.
- JMU Library Catalog This link opens in a new windowFind journals, books, ebooks, films, sound recordings, and government documents available to JMU users.
- WorldCat This link opens in a new window
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Catalog of over 62 million titles cataloged by libraries worldwide that includes manuscripts written as early as the 1000 B.C., books, audio visual media, and internet source - HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowCollection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
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Index with abstracts to history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. - Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Index with abstracts to more than 1,800 journals in 40 languages on world history from 1450 to the present; excludes the US and Canada. - History of Science, Technology and Medicine This link opens in a new windowBibliographic entries for journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations on the history of science, technology, and medicine.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Multidisciplinary index and full text source for scholarly journals and magazines.
Popular Full-Text Collections
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull online text and images for back issues of selected scholarly journals and monographs in history, economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, literature, etc.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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An index of journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
Background Information
- Blackwell Reference Online Collection This link opens in a new windowFull text reference books in the humanities and social sciences.
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowReference resource covering fifteen subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, with a concentration on political and cultural history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, music and the arts.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
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Searchable online reference book collection covering all subjects from the arts to zoology. - Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new windowSubject specific research guides with annotated bibliographic lists of recommended books and articles.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Database of full-text scholarly reference books on all subjects. - Salem History This link opens in a new windowOnline access to the reference titles: The Sixties in America; The Seventies in America; Great Events from History: The Ancient World; Great Lives from History: The Ancient World; Great Lives from History: The 18th Century; Historical Encyclopedia of American Business.
- World History EncyclopediaAn online encyclopedia with articles reviewed by an editorial team. Formerly known as the Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Primary Sources
Visit the Primary Sources page of specific History research guides for recommendations by topic.
- Historical Primary SourcesA selection of primary source collections for historical research from the Databases list. Many of these collections are only accessible through the Libraries.
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
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Historical documents, personal papers, and family histories collected from archives across the globe. - Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS) This link opens in a new windowA consolidated database of more than 12,000 finding aids which provide information about the vast array of manuscripts and archival materials housed in historical societies, libraries, museums, colleges and universities across the Commonwealth