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Background & Overviews

Revolutions, generally:

The encyclopedia of political revolutions. Reference JC491 .E63 1998 

American Revolution:

The American Revolution, 1775-1783 : an encyclopedia. Reference E208 .A433 1993

The Blackwell encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Reference E208 .B635 1991 

The Encyclopedia of colonial and revolutionary America. Reference E188 .E63 1990 

Historical dictionary of the American Revolution. Reference E209 .M36 1999   

Revolutionary America, 1763-1800. Reference E162 .P86 1995 

Puritan Revolution (England)

Companion to the English civil wars. Reference DA405 .N48 1990    

French Revolution:

A critical dictionary of the French Revolution. Reference DC148 .D5313 1989 

Historical dictionary of the French Revolution 1789-1799. Reference DC147 .H57 1985 

Russian Revolution:

The Blackwell encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution. Reference DK265 .B54 1988 

Dictionary of the Russian Revolution. Reference DK265 .D49 1989    

Bibliographies and Guides to Research

Revolution, generally:

Revolutions and revolutionists : a comprehensive guide to the literature. Reference HM283 .B546 

American Revolution:

Loyalist literature : an annotated bibliographic guide to the writings on the Loyalists of the American Revolution. Reference E277 .A78    

Revolutionary America, 1763-1789 : a bibliography. Reference E208 .G43 1984

The War of the American Revolution : a selected annotated bibliography of published sources. Reference E208 .B55 1984     

China (Communist Revolution & Cultural Revolution):

The Chinese Communist movement : an annotated bibliography of selected materials in the Chinese Collection of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.
Reference Z3108.A5 H8    

China during the cultural revolution, 1966-1976 : a selected bibliography of English language worksReference DS778.7 .C42 1999   

Cuban Revolution:

The Cuban revolution; a research-study guide (1959-1969). Reference Z1525 .V33      

French Revolution:

Women in the French revolution (1789) : bibliography. Reference DC158.8 .B47 1991  

Latin America:

Revolution and structural change in Latin America; a bibliography on ideology, development, and the radical left (1930-1965). Reference Z1601 .C496 

Russian Revolution:

The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 : an annotated bibliography.
Reference DK265 .S57 2003      

Library Catalogs

Randall Library Catalog = Local holdings of library's books, videos, government documents, manuscript collections and journal holdings. (Note that the journal information in the catalog tells what issues we have but does not index individual articles.) Some web sites are also cataloged.

WorldCat = Cataloged holdings of over 9,000 libraries. WorldCat is the union catalog of books, web resources, and other material located worldwide cataloged by OCLC member libraries (approximately 26,000 libraries.) Books in the catalog are generally available via Interlibrary Loan, and many of the websites are freely available.

Subject Headings

Select Suggested Subject Headings

[country] -- History -- Revolution, [years], e.g., United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Revolutionaries
Counterrevolutionaries
Women Revolutionaries
Revolutionary ballads and songs
Revolutionary literature
Revolutionary literature, [country]
Revolutions
(subheading) Wars of Independence

Also consider these narrower terms
Coups d'etat
Insurgency
National liberation movements
Peasant uprisings
Slave insurrections
State of siege

• The library catalog and WorldCat use Library of Congress Subject Headings. This list of authorized subject headings is available in the 5-volume set at the Reference Desk. However, you can start with keyword searches to gather some relevant titles, then look at their subject headings to discover the official terms to use.
  
• Libraries and database creators try to structure language in a way to make browsable lists.  Subject terms tend to be set up in a hierarchical manner.  To understand this better, try a Keyword search in the Randall Library Catalog for "French Revolution "  Then, do a Subject search on " France -- History -- Revolution "  The hierarchical display of the subject search allows you to browse through results for various aspects and periods of history.
  
• Subject headings are not "natural language." For example, books on social history commonly use the subheading Social life and customs.
  
• Keep in mind that the most specific terms will be used as subject headings. You should start specific, but also keep in mind that a broader search may yield items with chapters on your specific topic. Books on the Bolivian independence movement will be found under Bolivia -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1809-1825 but you will also find books with chapters on the topic under South America -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1806-1830 and Latin America -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1806-1830.
  
• Just because an item's subject heading does not include "History" as a subdivision does not mean it has no history in it. In particular, look at the publication date. It may be a source contemporary to the period.
  
• There are several commonly used subject subheadings that indicate an item is a primary source. Look for or search these subheadings:
  • correspondence*
  • diaries*
  • interviews*
  • personal narratives
  • pictorial works
  • songs and music
  • sources
  • speeches, addresses, etc.*
  • treaties

Browsing

After finding some sources through searching the online catalog, be sure to browse the shelves near these times. The call numbers are devised to place materials on the same subject together on the shelf. In the catalog, the call number is presented as a link, so you can even browse the shelves when searching the catalog:

You may also wish to browse the Reference Collection to see what special sources are available. A basic outline of the Library of Congress Classification Scheme is at http://library.uncwil.edu/is/outlinelc.html. For more detail, see the outline from the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html

Scholarly Journal Databases & Indexes

Use these databases and journal indexes to search for articles in journals and magazines.

America: History and Life Indexes and summarizes article and reviews about U.S. and Canadian history published since 1957.

Historical Abstracts provides article abstracts and citations of books and dissertations on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present.

EbscoHost Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary periodical index to over 8,000 journals and magazines, 4,700 of which are full-text online.

JSTOR Full-text searching of an archive of over 40 history and 25 political science journals. Typically excludes the latest 3-5 years of publication.

PAIS Archive The PAIS Archive database contains references to monographs, periodical articles, government and non-governmental agency reports about public affairs, public and social policies and international relations. The archive database contains references from 1915 to 1976.

Primary Sources

See the guide "Finding Primary Resources for Historical Research" for a more complete discussion of the library's resources. For public policy history, be sure to consider the following searches and sources:

Don't miss these collections of source material:

American Revolution:

The American Republic : primary sources. Reference E173 .A7535 2002    

Documents of the American Revolution, 1770-1783 : (Colonial Office series)
Reference E203 .G68 1972

Extracts from the Journals of the Provincial Congresses of South Carolina, 1775-1776.
Reference J87 .S6 1776Ca 

French Revolution:

The French Revolution sourcebook. Reference DC136.A2 F72 1999 

Russian Revolution:

The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: documents. Reference DK265.19 .B7

Newspapers and Popular Magazines

Electronic Resources
HarpWeek. Harpers Weekly 1857-1876.

Making of America (Cornell University) Full text of 22 journals and 109 monographs, ca. 1840-1900.
Making of America (University of Michigan) Full text of 13 journals and 8,500 books, ca. 1840-1900.

New York Times Archive  Full-image online access for the NYT back to 1851.

Newspapers on Microfilm (Index availability)
The library has a collection of 18th and 19th century newspapers from various locations.

News & Observer (Raleigh) 1897-1901; 1965-present (Index Collection AI21 .N53 1967-1973; 1975-76; Index Microfiche 1974, 1977-80.)

Wilmington Morning Star (no index available)

New York Times (New York Times Index Index Collection AI21 .N45)  
     You may want to use this index to make sure you find articles you can retrieve through the online version.

Print Indexes to Periodical Literature
International Index to Periodicals (Index Collection AI3 .R5)  Indexes selected scholarly periodicals.

Poole's index to periodical literature (Index Collection AI3 .P7) Indexes selected popular magazines, 18002-1907.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (Index Collection AI3 .R48)  Indexes selected popular magazines, 1890-2001.

Web Resources

The free web is becoming a rich resource for primary source material. A very selective list of history websites is available at http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/subjects/history/websites.html

 

Last Update:September 25, 2006