URL: http://library.spokanefalls.edu/guides/westernciv.stm
Last modified: Wednesday, November 16, 2005.

Western Civilization

Introduction

The following resources are intended to assist students studying Western civilization. This guide includes reference books and other resources available at the SFCC Library, as well as links to online resources. Among the recommended Web sites are links to pages maintained by A. B. Longman, the publisher of the class text.

Contents:

Finding books
Finding magazine & journal articles
Finding Web sites
Citing information in a paper

Finding books & videos

The Library's online catalog lists books, videos, magazines, and journals, available at SFCC or SCC. You can search by author, title, or subject. The keyword option is particularly useful if you aren't sure of a title or the exact Library of Congress subject heading.

Books are usually cataloged under relatively few, broad subject headings recommended by the Library of Congress. If you are searching for something specific, try to find relevant books, then search the index of those books for your topic. Some typical subject headings are:

civilization, ancient	civilization, Greek
civilization, medieval	Crusades
Russia, history	Egypt, antiquities
history, modern 18th century	Napoleonic wars
France- history, military	literature, medieval

The book catalog is not case sensitive, meaning you do not have to capitalize your search terms.

If the book you want is only available at SCC's library, you can request it. Courier service between campuses is fast and efficient for items that aren't already checked out. Items requested from SCC can generally be delivered to the SFCC circulation desk overnight (except on Fridays, with delivery on Monday).

Reference sources

Also consider general reference works, the most current of which are usually located in the Reference stacks on the first floor of the Library. While these items are generally unavailable to be checked out, you are welcome to photocopy from them. You may also wish to browse similar call numbers in the second floor stacks to find sources which can be checked out.

R 909.0496 AFRICAN	Africana: Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
R 909.0976 Encyclop	Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
R 909.0976 Oxford	Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World
R 920.003 Encyclo	Encyclopedia of World Biography
R 940.2303 Encyclo	Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
R 949.503 Oxford	Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
R 967.003 Encyclo	Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara
R 972.01 Oxford	Oxford Encyclopedia of MesoAmerican Culture

Magazines and Scholarly Journals

To find articles in magazines and scholarly research journals, you can browse current and back issues. However, it is more efficient to use an index. We recommend

ProQuest Direct http://library.spokanefalls.edu/_auth/journal.asp: This is our best general purpose index for a broad range of articles from 1980-present; the full text of most articles is provided online. This index is available from any campus computer; students who have Internet access from home can use this index with a current student ID number. See below for tips on searching ProQuest.
Electric Library http://library.spokanefalls.edu/_auth/journal.asp: Electric Library is aimed at K-12 students, teachers, and parents. It provides full-text articles from magazines and newspapers, book excerpts, and transcripts of selected television broadcasts. Content is rated by "reading level."

Improving your ProQuest search

A basic search in ProQuest searches article titles, subject headings, and article descriptions for the key words you enter. You usually get decent results as long as you don't enter too many key words. You can search more precisely, however, using standardized subject or name headings. For example, try entering any of the following, exactly as shown:

NAME(George W. Bush)
SUB(capital punishment)
GEO(United States)

Be careful with subject heading searches: don't stick just any words into such a search. Searching on

SUB[death penalty]

for example, returns no hits, because "death penalty" is no longer a subject heading in ProQuest.

If you want to narrow your search, you can combine these. For example:

NAME(Bush, George W.) and SUB(capital punishment)

Locating magazines in the library

The most recent two or three issues of periodicals are kept on the open shelves in the reading area at the northeast corner of the Library. Older issues are on the mezzanine level at the south end of the building.

World Wide Web Resources

The World Wide Web is increasingly useful for scholarly research, as long as you use it with caution.

Try to identify stable, reputable sources. Start with ones we have already selected for you (listed below). If you want to search the Web yourself, here is an excellent site which recommends various search tools for different purposes:

Choose the Best Search Engine for Your Information Needs: http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Listed below are some sites that may be useful:

Web Sites from your text

Note: These are sources currently recommended by your textbook's publisher; because Web sites come and go, this list might not correspond exactly to those printed in your book. Clicking the following links will open a new window. To return to this page, close or minimize the new window.

Chapter 1: First Civilizations http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349108-content,00.html: These are sources recommended by your textbook
Chapter 2: Early Greece, 2500-500 B.C.E. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349182-content,00.html
Chapter 3: Classical and Hellenistic Greece, 500-100 B.C.E. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349254-content,00.html
Chapter 4: Early Rome and the Roman Republic, 800-146 B.C.E. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349335-content,00.html
Chapter 5: Imperial Rome, 146 B.C.E.-192 C.E. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349409-content,00.html
Chapter 6: The Transformation of the Classical World http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349479-content,00.html
Chapter 7: The Classical Legacy in the East: Byzantium and Islam http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349558-content,00.html
Chapter 8: The West in the Early Middle Ages, 500-900 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349631-content,00.html
Chapter 9: The High Middle Ages http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349712-content,00.html
Chapter 10: The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1500 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349791-content,00.html
Chapter 11: The Italian Renaissance http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349865-content,00.html
Chapter 12: The European Empires http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2349942-content,00.html
Chapter 13: The Reform of Religion http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350018-content,00.html
Chapter 14: Europe at War, 1555-1648 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350094-content,00.html
Chapter 15: The Experiences of Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1650 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350172-content,00.html
Chapter 16: The Royal State in the Seventeenth Century http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350238-content,00.html
Chapter 17: Science and Commerce in Early Modern Europe http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350314-content,00.html
Chapter 18: The Balance of Power in Eighteenth-Century Europe http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350386-content,00.html
Chapter 19: Culture and Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350454-content,00.html
Chapter 20: The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350517-content,00.html
Chapter 21: Industrial Europe http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350582-content,00.html
Chapter 22: Political Upheavals and Social Transformations, 1815-1850 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350643-content,00.html
Chapter 23: State Building and Social Change in Europe, 1850-1871 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350715-content,00.html
Chapter 24: The Crisis of European Culture, 1871-1914 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350786-content,00.html
Chapter 25: Europe and the World, 1870-1914 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350848-content,00.html
Chapter 26: War and Revolution, 1914-1920 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350921-content,00.html
Chapter 27: The European Search for Stability, 1920-1939 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2351003-content,00.html
Chapter 28: Global Conflagration: World War II, 1939-1945 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2351065-content,00.html
Chapter 29: The Cold War and the Postwar Recovery: 1945-1970 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2351133-content,00.html
Chapter 30: The End of the Cold War and New Global Challenges, 1970 to the Present http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2351212-content,00.html

Other Useful History Sites

The History Guide http://www.historyguide.org/: "The History Guide has been created for the high school and undergraduate student who is either taking classes in history, or who intends to major in history in college."
Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/
Some Tips for Writing History Papers http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/257/classmats/papertip.html

Guides and Resources

Primary Historical Sources

Internet History Sourcebooks http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/: Collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. Includes ancient, medieval and modern primary sources and also links to special topics such as religious historical texts, gay and womens history sources.
http://www.authentichistory.com/: "The Authentic History Center is comprised of images of artifacts, sounds, and written letters and diaries. [The authors] believe that these items reflect the history and societal values of the time period in which they were produced." The site focuses on United States history.
Eurodocs http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs: Source for translated historical documents illustrating important events in European history. Documents are arranged by country and historic period. Includes modern documents as well as medieval and renaissance.
Hanover History Texts Project http://history.hanover.edu/project.html: An outline of history with links to primary sources
Online Reference Book from Medieval Studies http://www.the-orb.net/: Links to transcriptions and translations of medieval sources.
The On-Line Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books: Books no longer in copyright are available; many of historic interest.

Ancient History

Perseus Project: An Evolving Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu: Includes atlases, primary texts, secondary sources and links to museums and catalogs of ancient items. Lots of links to art and archaelogy.
The Amazing Ancient World of Western Civilization http://www.omnibusol.com/ancient.html: Extensive site is part of a course on ancient civilization; includes links and a reading list. Begins with prehistoric times to the fall of the Roman Empire and includes links to sites on many ancient civilizations such as Assyrians, Hittites, Hebrews, Etruscans and others. Created by Dr. Konnilyn Feig, Foothills College.
Diotoma: Women and Gender in the Ancient World http://www.stoa.org/diotima/
Ancient History at About.com http://ancienthistory.about.com/education/ancienthistory: Links to a directory of ancient history sites.
Cambridge Classics http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/everyone/links/links.html: A listing of links to ancient history, archaeology, classics, philosophy and literature internet sites

Medieval History

Paul Halsall/ Fordham University http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html: Links to many internet sources "Medieval Sourcebook" connects to extensive Middle Ages and Byzantine textual sources.
NetSERF - http://www.netserf.org/: Links to medieval sources on art, architecture, culture, philosophy and religion.
Medieval History (About.com) http://historymedren.about.com/education/historymedren/mbody.htm: A directory of medieval links and FAQ's.

Modern History

Modern History Sourcebook http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html: Especially good source for modern European history. Includes links to primary documents.
Victorian Web http://www.victorianweb.org/
Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: An encyclopedia of history that concentrates on Britain and American Modern history

How to cite sources in your paper

As with any other source you use, information found on Web sites must be cited and attributed. No one really agrees yet on the best method for citing electronic and Internet sources. The two most common citation styles--the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA)--have been modified and adapted to keep track of Internet sources:

MLA Style

Citing Sources: A collection of links, handouts, and class guides dealing with citing print and online sources in MLA style
Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format: A good general purpose handout from Purdue's Online Writing Center (OWL)

APA Style

Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the APA: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

For comments or questions about this page contact SFCC Reference Desk

URL: http://library.spokanefalls.edu/guides/westernciv.stm
Last modified: Wednesday, November 16, 2005.