Tips
Encyclopedias are great for:
- choosing a topic
- quick self-education
- perspective on a topic
- variant spellings, vocabulary, terminology
- bibliography
OED
English Language and its history
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) The dictionary that is scholar's preferred source; it goes far beyond definitions.
Essentials
- Cambridge Histories OnlineExcellent resource. Full text. Chapters as pdfs. Extremely high quality essays with rich footnotes and bibliography.
- Oxford Bibliographies OnlineResearch guides combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia across a wide variety of subjects.
- Oxford Handbooks Online: Scholarly Research ReviewsResearch reviews-- literature reviews of scholarship-- on a variety of topics and disciplines including history.
Specialized Encyclopedias
A Companion to Europe, 1900 - 1945
Publication Date: 2007Provides an overview of current thinking on the period. Traces the great political, social and economic upheavals of the time. Illuminates perennial themes, as well as new areas of enquiry. Takes a pan-European approach, highlighting similarities and differences across nations and regions.The Oxford Handbook of European History 1914–1945
Publication Date: 2016The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History
Publication Date: 2011Democracy: A Very Short Introduction
Publication Date: 2002Fascism: a Very Short Introduction
Publication Date: 2014A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas
Publication Date: 2012A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas showcases twenty-five essays written by established and emerging film scholars that trace the history of Eastern European cinemas and offer an up-to-date assessment of post-socialist film cultures. Showcases critical historical work and up-to-date assessments of post-socialist film culturesThe Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War
Publication Date: 2006Offers critical overviews of the major literary genres and social contexts that define the study of the literatures produced by the First World War. The volume comprises original essays by distinguished scholars of international reputation, who examine the impact of the war on various national literatures, principally Great Britain, Germany, France and the United States, before addressing the way the war affected Modernism, the European avant-garde, film, women's writing, memoirs, and of course the war poets. It concludes by addressing the legacy of the war for twentieth-century literature. The Companion offers readers a chronology of key events and publication dates covering the years leading up to and including the war, and ends with a current bibliography of further reading organised by chapter topics.