Catalog
Databases

Introduction to historical research

• Bradley, James E. and Richard A Muller.  Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995 [Ref. 270.072 B811c]

History and the other Areas

• Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception [Ref. BS440 .E539]
• New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
• The Lives of Great Religious Books (series from Princeton) (example)
• Danto, Elizabeth Ann.  Historical Research.  Pocket Guides to Social Work Research Methods.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. [Ref. HM 571 .D36]

Primary vs Secondary sources (from Bradley and Muller, above)

• Primary source: "A document, datum, or artifact that belongs to the era under examination and that offers the most direct access to the person or issues being studied," p. 39.
• Secondary sources: "Offer information about an event but stand removed from it either in time or by a process of transmission of information," p. 41.        

Critical editions

• In the works of antiquity and Middle Ages
  • Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina/Graeca
  • Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
  • Thesaurus Linguae Gracae
  • Consult the "Clavis" volumes in the Corpus Christianorum series for guidance to critical editions of biblical and medieval apocyrypha & pseudepigrapha, and the Greek and Latin fathers [Search the catalog with the key words Corpus and Clavis to turn these up]
• In American religious history, e.g....
  • The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale) [BX7117 .E3; see esp. v. 1, "Note on the text," p. 118]
  • The Whitehead Research Project
  • The Works of George Santayana (MIT) [see especially catalog record, The Last Puritan]

Translations (Patristics, Medieval Studies)

• Guides to choosing
  • Bibliographies in Encyclopedia of Religion   
  • Essays in The Cambridge Companion to .... [e.g. Augustine, Dante, etc]
• Examples in series
  • Loeb Classical Library [Philo, Josephus, Clement, Tertullian, Augustine, etc] 
  • Ante-Nicene Fathers; Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers   
  • Fathers of the Church (CUA Press) [Clement, Tertullian, Augustine, etc]
  • Classics of Western Spirituality [Origen, Augustine, Hildegard, Julien, etc]
  • Library of Christian Classics [Clement, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, etc)

Online primary sources fulltext

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
• Patrologia Latina [also in print, with Patrologia Graeca: 281.1 M635; NB: these are not critical editions]
• Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH)
• Google Books
• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
• America's Historical Newspapers
• New York Times Historical
• LexisNexis
• American Decades: Primary Sources
• And see: American History: Primary Sources Online

Encyclopedias

• Online
  • Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church [Ref BR95 .O8]
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation [Ref BR302.8 .O93 ]
  • Encyclopedia of Religion in America [Ref. B2520 E52]
  • New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1st and 2nd eds, 1967 and 2003 [Ref BX841 .N44; online]
  • Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (e.g. Poverty)
  • Encyclopedia of World Poverty (e.g. History of Poverty)
  • Salem History: Decades
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library (e.g. New Dictionary of the History of Ideas)
  • Credo Reference
  • Oxford Reference Online
• Print: finding them
  • First stop: Reference Universe
  • New Westminster Dictionary of Church History, 2008- [Ref BR95 .W496] 
  • Encyclopedia of the Early Church, 1992 [Ref. BR66.5 .D5813 ]
  • Patrology, by Johannes Quasten, 1984-2006 [Ref. BR67 .Q3 ]
  • Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 1982-1989 [Ref. D114 .O94 ]
  • Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, 2006 [Ref. HQ1147 .E85 W66]
  • Encyclopedia of Protestantism, 2004 [Ref BX4811.3 .E53 ]
  • Encyclopedia of American Religious History, 3rd ed., 2009 [Ref BL2525 .Q44]
  • Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, 1988 [Ref. BL2525 .E53]
  • New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 2005 [Ref CB9 .N49]
  • and see:CHST503

Bibliography: History Compass

Printed Concordances

• Biblia Patristica [Ref. BR66.5 .U53]
• Complete Concordance to Flavius Josephus [Ref. PA4224 .R4 ]
• The Philo Index: A Complete Greek Word Index... [Ref.PA4270 .Z5 B67 ]

Key journals

• Church History
• Journal of Early Christian Studies
• Methodist History
• Religion and American Culture
• Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

Library catalog

• Browse searching for geographic and period breakdowns
  • Church History Primitive and Early Church, ca 30-600
  • United States Church History To 1775
  • Social History
  • Christianity and Justice–History
  • Poverty Religious Aspects Christianity History of Doctrines Middle Ages, 600-1500
  • Poor Europe History
  • Christian Sociology--History
• Subject searching on subheadings
  • su Social History and .... [e.g. monasticism]
  • su Social Ethics and  ....  [e.g. Martin Luther King]
  • su Social Aspects [or Social Conditions] and .... [e.g. women and England]   
• Source material: add "Sources" to any topic

Periodical Databases

• L'anne philologique
•  International Medieval Bibliography
•  Feminae
•  Historical Abstracts
•  America: History and Life
•  LexisNexis
•  Readers Guide Retrospective
•  JSTOR   
•  Project Muse
•  Academic Search Premier

Public Websites

• Recommended websites in history
• Wabash Center (for history sites)