College of DuPage Library

Western Civilization Since 1600

Welcome to the Western Civilization from 1600 Research Guide

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Click on a tab below to find books, articles, primary sources and websites for use in the study of Western Civilization since 1600.

If you need additional help, please contact the History Librarian or stop by the Reference Desk. You can also get help from our online reference service: Ask A Librarian.

 

  1. Books
  2. Databases
  3. Primary Sources / Websites

Finding Books

Use the COD Library's book catalog to find books & videos. Click on the "keyword" tab to search using multiple search terms and limit your results by material type (book, video), date, or language. You'll need a current library card to check out books.

I-Share

I-Share allows COD students to borrow books from over 80 Illinois academic libraries. You must have a current COD library card, and create an account to request books from an I-Share library.
E-book Collections
Most books in these collections can also be located and accessed by searching in the Library's book catalog.

  • ebrary

    • Collection contains many History-related books. Many e-books can be viewed from your computer or downloaded to your e-book reader. You need to create an account to download e-books to your device.

  • EBSCO e-book collection

    • Collection includes some books on History. NOTE: Books can be viewed by single page on a computer, or, can be downloaded to an e-book reader. You'll be prompted to create an EBSCO account. The loan period for e-books is four hours. Books can be renewed after the initial loan period expires.

  • Humanities (ACLS) E-book Collection

    • This resource includes over 1500 full-text, cross-searchable books in the humanities selected by scholars for their continuing importance for research and teaching. Pages from this collection can be printed and emailed.

Reference Works

Reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias are useful for learning about background information on a topic topics in History.

Please note that print reference books may be used while in the library only. Online reference books may be accessed from any on or off-campus computer. You'll need a library card to access online books and articles from off-campus.
Click on the links below to access the online book/website or record/description of the print book.

Encyclopedias
Biographies
Chronologies

Databases

The Library subscribes to many databases that provide access to thousands of popular and credible, scholarly journals. Many databases provide access to full-text articles, while some provide information about the article only (citation). Request (for free!) through Interlibrary Loan copies of articles to which the Library doesn't have full-text access.

What are databases?

Databases are organized collections of information that you can search on a variety of fields, like title and author's name. iTunes is a database and so is Amazon. Even your contacts list in your phone is a type of mini database. The Library has databases of articles from newspapers, magazines and journals. We also have databases of streaming videos, music and e-books. The difference between our databases and iTunes or Amazon is that our stuff is free for you to use. You can browse the library's databases here: http://www.codlrc.org/databases

 

Databases - Best Bets

  • Academic Search Complete

    • Multidisciplinary database covering a wide range of academic areas.

  • Academic OneFile

    • Multidisciplinary database covering a wide range of academic areas.

  • Artstor
    The Artstor Digital Library provides over 1.6 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research.

  • History Study Center
    Primary and secondary history collections providing access to rare British, American and world history sources, full text articles and reference materials. Includes multimedia sources.

  • JSTOR

    • Excellent source for credible scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Articles in database were published between the early 1700s and between 1-5 years ago.

Individual Journal Title List

Click here to view a list of History-related journals

Primary Sources

There are several areas where you can find primary source documents. Click on a link below to view lists of resources in each of these areas.


General Collection
To locate sources in the General Collection:
  • Do an author search
    Anything written by a participant would be a primary source. For example, for a primary source about the war in Roman times, look up "Caesar, Julius" as an author and find his The Gallic War.

  • Do a title search
    Some primary sources have no known authors. For example, a known primary source for Egyptian religious rites is the Book of the Dead also known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Doing a title search shows the Library owns several copies.

  • Do a subject search
    Primary sources often contain one of these subheadings: sources, personal narratives, diaries, or correspondence. For example, look up Middle Ages and scan the results for those subheadings. Sometimes primary sources are found in broad collections with or without the subheadings above. Look up a broader heading and limit the search results to "source material" to find some useful collections.


Library Databases
  • Annals of American History : Writings and primary sources documents from more than 1,500 authors who made and analyzed American history through speeches, writings, memoirs, poems, and interviews.
  • History Study Center : Primary and secondary history collections providing access to British, American and world history sources, full text articles, maps, and reference materials among other types of resources.
  • Military and Government Collection : Although primarily concerned with U.S.history there are references to history and politics of other countries.


Websites
Who can publish on the Internet? Anyone.

You may find a website by doing a web search or through a recommendation of another student. Before you use a website for your assignment, you should evaluate the webpage for credibility, reliability, authority and purpose. Check out the CRAP Test for more information on evaluating websites.

The following websites have been evaluated for their credibility.


17th/18th Century
  • DISC Archive: French Old Regime Bureaucrats: Intendants de Province, 1661-1790
    This site provides the names and periods of incumbancy for royal civil servants of French provinces from 1661 to 1790.

  • Eighteenth-Century Studies
    The site provides a comprehensive list of internet resources for novels, plays, memoirs, treatises, and poems from the 18th century and modern literary criticisms of these texts.

  • Exploring the French Revolution
    The site offers essays, images, documents, songs, and maps pertaining to the French Revolution. Also included is a timeline of events in the French Revolution.

  • The Napoleon Series
    This site offers a discussion forum, articles, maps, illustrations and photographs, reviews, and charts pertaining to Napoleonic history. The War of 1812 Magazine is also published on this site.

  • PBS: Napoleon
    This site was created to accompany a series on Napoleon broadcasted by PBS. The site includes a timeline and history of Napoleon Bonaparte’s life, video clips and interactive features, and classroom materials for teachers.


19th Century
  • Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions
    An online encyclopedia of key persons, events, and places in the European Revolutions of 1848.

  • The Siege and Commune of Paris
    This site is a searchable database of photographs, images, newspapers, books, and pamphlets produced during the Siege and Commune of Paris (1870 - 1871).

  • The Victorian Web
    Primary and secondary sources on all areas of study in Victorian Britain, including economics, art and architecture, society, science and technology, literature, and politics.

  • The British Library: Victorians
    Posters, pamphlets, political documents, illustrations and diaries and essays related to 19th century England.


20th Century
  • 1914-18 War - Art of the First World War
    This site hosts a collection of digitized paintings of and created during World War I. The collection is organized into major themes (e.g. “the battlefield,” “suffering”), each of which is accompanied by an explanation of the theme and its relevance to the war.

  • Decoding Nazi Secrets
    The companion Web site to “Decoding Nazi Secrets,” a PBS special program, offers interactive pages on ciphers and codebreaking.

  • First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One
    This site compiles primary and secondary source documents on World War I. Sources include encyclopedias, timelines, maps, propaganda posters, memoirs and diaries, poetry and prose, and audiovisual materials.

  • First World War Poetry Digital Archive
    The University of Oxford hosts this digital archive of primary source documents from World War I, including poems, letters, diaries, films, audio recordings, and images.

  • German Documents
    This site offers a collection of primary source documents, including transcripts of speeches, writings by various German political and military figures, and propaganda materials, from the Kaiserreich (1871-1918) and National Socialist Era (1933-1945).

  • German Propaganda Archive
    This site compiles Nazi and East German propaganda materials, including speeches, posters, essays, and cartoons.

  • The History Place: The Rise of Adolf
    Hitler
    The site hosts a variety of biographical entries, including his early life, the formation of the Nazi Party, and Hitler’s defeat.

  • Italian Life Under Fascism
    This site presents selected Fascist documents from the special collections of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The documents illustrate various aspects of Italian life during the Fascist era, including education, youth organizations, opposition to Fascism, women, and culture.

  • League of Nations Photo Archive
    This site offers a collection of photographs from the original archives and historical collections of the League of Nations. Also included is a digitized version of The League of Nations: A Pictorial Survey, which outlines the various sections, members, and activities of the League of Nations.

  • Learning Curve: The Great
    War
    This site compiles original papers, letters, photos, maps, and other documents pertaining to World War I from the National Archives of the United Kingdom.

  • Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern
    Europe
    This site presents primary source documents from and interviews with scholars of East European studies on the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

  • The Marxists Internet Archive
    This site offers an encyclopedia of Marxism, information on and works of Marxist writers, and a large variety of eBooks, audiobooks, and other documents on Marxism.

  • The National Archives Learning Curve: Cold War (
    This site is divided into six sections on the start of the cold war, the wartime Alliance, causes of the Cold War, how the Cold War “worked,” the nuclear game, and Vietnam as a possible turning point. Each section includes a timeline, glossary, student worksheets, and explanatory notes.

  • The National Archives Learning Curve: Home Front
    This site offers online activities, timelines, videos, and classroom worksheets on preparations for war, evacuations, bombings, everyday life, women, and spies in Great Britain during World War I.

  • Revelations from the Russian Archives
    This exhibit, coordinated by the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Russian Archival Committee, presents internal government documents from the Soviet Era (1917-1991).

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western civilization