HI 1313: Introduction to the Study of American Foreign Relations and Diplomatic History
T. Robertson
Where to Start
- Oxford Reference Online: Contains 100+ dictionaries, timelines, and subject reference works full text and searchable, including The Oxford Companion to Military History, The Oxford Companion to United States History, and The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World.
- DeConde, Alexander. Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy studies of the Principal Movements and Ideas. New York: Scribner, 2002. [REF E183.7 E52 2002]
- Jentleson, Bruce W. and Paterson, Thomas G. Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. [REF E183.7 .E53 1997]
- Use the History link on the WPI Library page under Databases and Electronic Resources
Additional Reference Materials
- Encyclopedia Britannica: timelines, historical context
- Finkelman, Paul and Wallenstein, Peter. Encyclopedia of American political history. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001. [REF E183 E48 2001]
- American Foreign Relations Since 1600: a Guide to the Literature
- Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Presidential Use of Force, 1789-2000
- Biography Resource Center: check dates/facts on people
- More ...
RefWorks: Manage your References
Footnotes for this class: You MUST provide footnotes from the very first draft. Follow WPI's Style Sheet for WPI Humanities & Arts Courses. For more complicated footnotes, use the Chicago Manual of Style (the Library has the manual in the Reference Collection).
Country Reference
- Library of Congress Country Guides
- CIA World Factbook
- Political Handbook of the World. Reference JF37 P6: Useful summaries of historical, political situations of each country of the world. Use this to get your bearings prior to reading books on the topic.
- Europa World Year Book. Reference JN1 E85: Excellent summaries by country of history, politics, economy
Find Biographical Information
Political Speeches
In addition to YouTube and web searches on the person’s name and speech OR speeches try the following.
- Vital Speeches of the Day
- State.gov
- Whitehouse.gov
- U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
- More sites for political speeches
Search the above biographical and speeches sources to find:
- One biographical source on your Afghan advisor
- One speech by advisor
Find Books
How to Search:
- Search the Library Catalog for items at WPI
- WorldCat to search beyond our library
- Google Books - view snippets, or limited previews of copyrighted books, and full text of public domain books.
Find Articles
Filter and Follow Up...
- Bibliographies can clue you in on the value of the article as well
- Find an interesting author? Search for more articles or for his/her web site
Start with QuickFIND - for History Databases and check out Google Scholar, a web search of scholarly sources.
- Readers' Guide Retro: References to articles in general interest magazines back to 1890. Click on
FullTextFinder to track down full articles or, in most cases, options to obtain the full text. Locations could be:
- Ground Floor of library for periodicals, microfilm/fiche
- Founders Storage (in Library Catalog record, click Request for retrieval within one day)
- Interlibrary Loan for items not at WPI
Scholarly Articles
- America, History & Life and Historical Abstracts: References to articles on historic topics. Click on FullTextFinder to track down full articles or options to obtain the full text. References to academic articles on historic topics, most by historians.
- JSTOR - Complete full text of important scholarly journals in a variety of academic fields. Includes back issues of
Diplomatic History (journal) - Humanities International Complete: References to and some full text of academic articles on humanities topics.
- Gale Powersearch: Articles on all topics, includes magazine articles as well. Contains articles back to the 1980s but good coverage of historical topics.
Search the above databases to find at least one scholarly article for your presentation bibliography (Due 11/13).
Only Finding a Citation? Getting the Full Text
- Is the journal online or here in the library? Use FullTextFinder to link to full articles or retrieval options within database results or search our Journals, Magazines, & Newspapers list
- Visit another library: Search WorldCat to find one
- Request delivery from another library: Interlibrary Loan.
Give Credit! Cite Your Sources
Try RefWorks, to create a database of your personal references, which can be output into APA, MLA, Chicago or other citation formats for your bibliography. It integrates with Word and will help you create in-text references too.
Primary Sources & Images
Use different types of information to get broad coverage of your topic. Historians use primary materials to build their research. See the Primary Sources guide for information on primary literature and how to find it.
Examples include:
- drawings,
- maps,
- interviews,
- personal journals,
- autobiographies, and
- more.
Browsing older books & magazine archives (Ground Floor): Scientific American, National Geographic, etc. can lead you to images that you may use.
- Library of Congress Collections: American Memory | Print & Photo Reading Room
- Images of American Political History
- NYPL Digital Gallery
- Google Books - choose Full View and choose date ranges before 1923 for public domain
- New York Times Historical - full text and image 1851-2004 including news, illustrations, editorials, and advertisements.
- Time Magazine Archive - articles and many useful images of past events
Last modified: Nov 05, 2009, 09:17 EST
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