Research Guides: HIST 221: Slavery, Agency and Ideologies (HC): Background Information

Slave in Brazil, 1865 (Wikimedia Commons)

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture
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Provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present.

The following sources provide overviews of global, african and Latin American history. They are a quick way to find out the basic facts and recent scholarly interpretations.

When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, frequently, Web resources considered to be the most up-to-date and reliable.

New encyclopedia of Africa
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This online reference work presents articles in anthropology, geography, history, and cultural studies by an international team of more than 600 distinguished Africanists.
Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas
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Offers authoritative essays on the history and historiography of the institution of slavery in the New World with essays on colonial and antebellum America, Brazil, the Caribbean, the Indies, and South America. It also includes thematic essays on comparative slavery, the economics of slavery, historical methodology in the field, and slavery and the law.
Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World
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This collection of essays provides a comprehensive overview of key historical issues. Note the essays on slavery and the slave trade, the antislavery movement and the Haitian revolution.

Historiography

Book Review Index
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Check for reviews of books that you are using for your research. Reviewers will often discuss relevant historiographic issues while analyzing the arguments of the book in question. Book Review Index is a comprehensive guide to book reviews with over five million citations to journal articles. Covers 1965-present.

Historians have interpreted historic events from a variety of different viewpoints. Analysis of these interpretations, known generally as historiography, can give more nuance to your arguments and provide a greater context for your understanding.

History Compass
This journal publishes literature reviews exclusively. Literature reviews are a particularly useful kind of journal article when doing research. They address the historiographic issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars. They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles for greater understanding.
Recent articles include:
"As Historical Subjects: The African Diaspora in Colonial Latin American History." Rachel Sarah O'Toole (2013)

"The Great Jugular Vein of Slavery: New Histories of the Domestic Slave Trade." Richard Bell (2013)

Subject Guide

Margaret Schaus

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Subjects: Africana & Black Studies, Cities, Classics, History, Latin American & Iberian Studies, Political Science, Writing Program