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European History

:

Approaching European History

Guide to researching early modern and modern European History at Boston College.

Studying European History

On this page you'll find access points to getting started with European history. To start, you'll find reference material (i.e., dictionaries and handbooks) before information on finding books and journals.

Sub-pages (linked left) provide access to primary source collections based on states (e.g., France) as well as some topics (e.g., genocide).

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

    Reference Shelf

    For a full list of BC Libraries' dictionaries, encyclopedia, bibliographies, and more see the European History Reference Shelf (tab in subpage menu).

    Books: Find & Request from BC & Beyond

    Your local libraries have excellent monographs and anthologies located in O'Neill library as well as through the BC libraries portal. Try searching for books (only books) through the WorldCat library system to see if we have what you need. If we don't, you can order material through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

    WorldCat Catalog


    Books Only   All Formats  

     

    That said, you might want to go up to the fourth and fifth floor in O'Neill and browse the stacks. The books are organized loosely by subject including:

    • D900-2009  Europe (General)
    • DA - DR Country Specific
    • HQs A significant portion of histories involving women. LOC has a long, problematic legacy for classification. 

    Journal & eBook Databases

    For a selection of excellent journals and some e-books on various topics in global history, we recommend a few databases. Remember to explore these database "advanced search" options for date and other modifiers before you run your searches.

    Additional Recommendations

    Journal Recommendations

    Take a look at some of the following journals to get a feel for some (usually) excellent historical writing and topics. Don't forget to take a look at the articles' bibliographies to see who they are citing to.