History subject guide
Find articles
America: History and Life
Canadian and U.S. history
JSTOR
World history
Academic Search Complete
Interdisciplinary database with significant world history content
Érudit
Bilingual arts and humanities database with strong Quebec and Canadian history content
Find books
Search Sofia Discovery tool
Search for course textbooks
Tools for historians
Citation style
- Chicago Style Guide - guidelines and examples prepared by Concordia Library
- Chicago Manual of Style - (fulltext online version) access restricted to Concordia students, faculty and staff
Reference sources
- Cambridge Histories Online: Access to over 300 volumes of the Cambridge Histories series. Volumes are grouped into historical subject areas including British and American history, Music, Philosophy, History of the Book, Political and Social Theory, Religious Studies and Warfare.
- Oxford Reference Online Premium: Contains dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these reference books. A broad subject range of titles from the Oxford Companions Series is available.
Writing guides
- The Craft of Research: Chapter three on how to formulate a research topic (ie. turn an interest into a problem/question) is especially helpful.
- Learning to do Historical Research: An online primer by William Cronon, the dean of US environmental historians and former president of the American Historical Association.
- A Pocket Guide to Writing on History: A short book with lots of practical advice. Has a place on the bookshelf of all history students.
- Researching and Writing in History: An older, but useful, handbook for a student beginning his/her research.
- The Modern Researcher (Barzun and Graff): This classic introduction to the techniques of research and the art of expression is used widely in history courses.
Find primary sources
Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. These sources are often created at the time when the events or conditions are happening, but they can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format like manuscripts, letters, or diaries, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.