Online Resources  Print Resources Databases

Online Resources 

 

 

Google Books

You can find historical full-text books (pre-copyright law) on your topic, as well as historical magazines and government documents in Google Books. Sometimes you will only see "snippet views" or "limited previews" of a book because of publisher/copyright issues. Try a Google Book Advanced Search and select "full view only" to view, download, and print the entire book.

Here is an example: The History of the British Empire in India, 1859

 

Internet Archive

You can find historical full-text books on your topic in Internet Archive as well as films, audio files, and government documents. You can search just their Text Archive Collection too.

A search for "British Empire" brings up over 600 digitized texts!

 

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Print Resources

 

Reference Dept. - 1st Floor

 

The Cambridge History of the British Empire (mult. vols.)

Ref DA16 .C252

 

Britannica in Louisiana: An Annotated Inventory of Manuscript Sources Relating to Great Britain and the Empire in [Archives & Special Collections], Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Ref DA30 .Z9943

 

General Circulating Book Collection - 1st Floor (if not on shelf, ask for it at Reserves, Circulation Desk, 1st Floor)

 

Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power

DA16 .F47 2003

 

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

DA16.J26 1996

 

The Oxford History of the British Empire

DA16 .O95 1998 Vols. 1-5

 

 

Broad Subject Terms/Keywords for Library Catalog Search:

 

Great Britain Colonies 

Great Britain Colonies Africa (or any other colony, such as America, Australia, India, etc.)

Great Britain Colonies History

Great Britain Colonies History 18th Century (or any other century, such as 17th, 19th, and 20th)

Great Britain Colonies Race Relations

Great Britain Colonies Religion

Great Britain Colonies Social Conditions

 

Or look for specific events under the names of countries or as separate headings.

 

India History British Occupation

South African War

World War 1939-1945 Great Britain

World War 1914-1918 Great Britain

 

Search for a wide range of relevant topical subject headings.

 

Decolonization Great Britain Colonies History

Imperialism History

Indigenous peoples Great Britain Colonies

Slave trade Great Britain History

Slavery Great Britain Colonies History

Social Classes Great Britain Colonies History

 

Keyword searches look for the search terms anywhere in the record, i.e. author, subject, title, content notes, etc. Once you have found a record of interest, click on the "Details" button and then the "Catalog Record" tab to see subject terms for that work. You can try similar search tecniques in databases as well.

 

(labor OR labour) AND India AND "Great Britain"

 

Collections: There are printed volumes that are collections of primary source materials. To locate these, try a search term combined with "sources".

 

"Great Britain" AND history AND sources

 

Try other words and phrases in your keyword searches: "personal narratives," "correspondence," "diaries," "memoirs," "interviews," "letters," etc. You can try similar searches in databases and Google as well.

 

"Great Britain" AND soldiers AND correspondence

"World War 1914" AND "personal narratives" and British

 

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Databases

 

Academic Search Complete

Provides full text articles from thousands of scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1865.

 

Biography Resource Center

Search by name or category for biographical reference articles, magazine articles, and websites.

 

Digital Dissertations & Theses

Includes citations and some full-text "preview" pages for over one million dissertations and theses, with coverage going back to 1861. Some dissertations and theses can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan.

 

History Reference Center

Full text from historical documents, reference books, encyclopedias, non-fiction books, history magazines, historical, biographies of historical figures, historical photos, maps, and historical video.

 

Humanities International Complete

Articles from thousands of journals, books, and other reference sources in the humanities.

 

In the First Person

Over 4,000 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world.

 

International Political Science Abstracts

Abstracts and some full text articles from over 900 political science journals.

 

JSTOR

Full text articles of scholarly literature from a variety of different disciplines.

 

Military & Government Collection

Articles pertaining to all branches of the military and government, containing some articles pertaining to military aspects of the British Empire.

 

Project Muse

Full text articles from scholarly journals in the arts & humanities and social sciences.

 

World History Collection

Articles from scholarly history journals, offering a global look at history with content from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and the Middle East.

 

WorldCat

Records of materials (books, manuscripts, video, etc.) cataloged by OCLC member libraries from around the country and the world. Easy "Order Through ILL" link in each record to easily Interlibrary Loan an item.