Research Guides: POLS 023: Slavery and its Legacy for US Politics (SC): Getting Ideas + Narrowing Focus

Coming up with questions

Mapping your research ideas
Walks you through the process of creating a simple map to generate, visualize, and clarify your research ideas. (another example concept map)

History + Topic Overviews

These sources offer overviews and introductions to the topics they discuss. You can use these sources for some basic historical background, and to identify relevant readings to explore your topic in greater depth.

Cambridge Histories Online
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Searchable collection of e-books; useful starting point for exploring topics in history

Handbooks and companions [Tripod] search
Instead of making a narrow argument, these books (many available online) offer a broader perspective on the topics they discuss. Great for getting an introduction and finding key readings.

Very Short Introductions
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Launched by Oxford University Press in 1995, Very Short Introductions offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas from Climate to Consciousness, Game Theory to Ancient Warfare, Privacy to Islamic History, Economics to Literary Theory.
Oxford Reference
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Look up a topic or concept and find entries from digital encyclopedias and other reference works

Language + Terminology

Keyword brainstorming tool
Follow the prompts to break down your topic idea into concepts and brainstorm keywords.

POLS 023: Slavery and its Legacy for US Politics (SC)

Connect to Resources

Select the shortcut for your school to access a library resource.

Coming up with questions

History + Topic Overviews

Language + Terminology