History Portal

Reference Shelf

Scholarly resources in all areas of historical research at Boston College.

General Reference

Reference materials are the texts designed to provide definitions (e.g., dictionaries), suggest additional scholarly material (e.g., bibliographies), and give background information about people, events, concepts, and more (e.g., encyclopedia and handbooks).

This is a page with access points for BC's e-reference materials, with an emphasis on broad access points. For area specific (e.g., Irish) reference material, select the relevant sub-page or check the reference list under the relevant page of the History Research Guide.

Find Definitions

Oxford Reference Online
This is a quick go-to for high-quality, short, dictionary style descriptions, definitions, facts, and figures. Great for date and name checking.

Dictionary Plus History
Call Number: Oxford Reference Premium Collection
Publication Date: 2016+
Authoritative, highly accessible entries on notable eras, events, and individuals that have shaped our history. The dictionary is an ongoing project, and more entries will be added over time.

Language

Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
Traces the usage of words, past and present, through three million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.

Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture (SAGE)
Provides the historical background and etymology of a wide number of words related to these concepts, looking at discourses of race, ethnicity and culture from a broadly multicultural perspective.

Find Background Information

Use the following resources written by experts in their respective fields to find reliable background information, confirm dates/names, and more.

Find More Scholarly Sources

Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
This tool helps researchers find reliable sources of information selected by experts in the subject. Access bibliographies on more than two dozen topics, including:
- African American Studies
- African Studies
- American Literature
- Anthropology
- Architecture Planning and Preservation
- Art History
- Atlantic History
- Biblical Studies
- British and Irish Literature
- Buddhism
- Childhood Studies
- Chinese Studies
- Cinema and Media Studies
- Classics
- Communication
- Criminology
- Ecology
- Education
- Environmental Science
- Evolutionary Biology
- Geography
- Hinduism
- International Law
- International Relations
- Islamic Studies
- Jewish Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Latino Studies
- Linguistics
- Literary & Critical Theory
- Management
- Medieval Studies
- Military History
- Music
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Renaissance and Reformation
- Social Work
- Sociology
- Urban Studies
- Victorian Literature

Biographical Information

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on thousands of people throughout history and from around the world.
Marquis Biography Online This link opens in a new window
International in scope, this database includes biographies of people in business, law, science, medicine, the arts, government, and entertainment. Updated daily, this source also includes biographies that have appeared in 24 Marquis Who's Who print titles since 1985, plus historical biographies from our Who Was Who in America volumes from 1607-1985.

Encyclopedia

Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Working with international communities of scholars across all fields of study, this includes BC's subscriptions to several comprehensive collections of in-depth, peer-reviewed summaries on an ever-growing list of topics in the humanities as well as social and natural sciences ranging from African and American History to Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Global Public Health.

Wiley Online Library (includes Blackwell Reference Online) This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to Wiley journals and books. Covers business & economics, history, language & linguistics, literature & cultural studies, philosophy & religion, and sociology and psychology. Includes the Blackwell Companions and Handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias and concise companions.

Individual Titles

Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online by Andrew Colin Gow (exec. ed.)
Call Number: Brill Online reference
Publication Date: 2005-2012
The English edition of the German-language Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, a 15-volume reference work. The perspective of this work is European. This is not to say that the rest of the World is ignored – on the contrary, the interaction between European and other cultures receives extensive attention. With a personal account, users can annotate and mark text.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World by Peter N. Stearns
Call Number: Oxford Reference Premium Collection
Publication Date: 2008
Informative articles by an array of leading scholars offer an unprecedented breadth of information relating to the modern world.

Handbooks and Companions

Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Collections Online offers subject or theme based collections of content. At present, there are two collections comprising the Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics and the Cambridge Companions in Philosophy, Religion and Culture. Each collection is updated with new Companions on publication and are cross-searchable.

For Additional Help

For additional recommendations, contact your History Liaison, Erin, at erinkate.scheopner@bc.edu or schedule an appointment.

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History Portal

Reference Shelf

General Reference

Find Definitions

Language

Find Background Information

Find More Scholarly Sources

Biographical Information

Encyclopedia

Individual Titles

Handbooks and Companions

For Additional Help