Secondary Sources: Topic Introductions - HIST 001W: Promised Lands - European Settler Colonies, 1830-1962 (SC)

How do you use overview sources?

Some reasons to consider starting your research with overview sources (ex: review articles, handbooks, companions):

You'll gain context and background that will inform your deeper research
By becoming familiar with relevant names, geographic locations, dates, and events, you'll have an easier time identifying books and articles that will be useful for your research.
Rather than wading through lots of search results, you can use overview sources to find a few key scholarly articles & books within your discipline.

Handbooks & Companions (Tripod search results)
These books can give you a sense of the history and historiography of broad areas of interest, by highlighting the work of scholars who have written on different aspects of the topic.
----------
How to Find Handbooks on your Topic: In Tripod, use the "Region" limit to find handbooks/companions covering specific geographic areas e.g. China, Latin America
-----
  • Example: The Palgrave handbook of African colonial and postcolonial history

  • Example: Oxford Handbook of Modern African History
  • Example: Oxford Handbook of Settler Colonialism

Very Short Introductions
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
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.

Seminar Studies Books (Tripod search results)
Books in the Seminar Studies series can be helpful for getting a chronological overview of events relating to a broad historical topic.