Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
Background Resources
Sometimes you may need some information to get more familiar with your topic. Below are some materials, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries, that can provide background in History. Hunt Library has additional resources, so if you need help finding information, please ask at the Hunt Library reference desk.
- African History: Background
- African American History: Background
- American History: Background
- Anthropology: Background
- Asian History: Background
- Atlantic World: Background
- Business and Industrial History: Background
- Environmental History: Background
- European History: Background
- Foreign Policy: Background
- General: Background
- Historic Preservation: Background
- History and Policy: Background
- History of Medicine: Background
- History of Technology and Science: Background
- Labor and Economic History: Background
- Latin American and Caribbean History: Background
- Pittsburgh History: Background
- Social History: Background
- Sports History: Background
- Urban History: Background
- Women's History: Background
General: Background
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- Belchem, John and Richard Price, eds. A Dictionary of Nineteenth-century World History. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994.
HUNT REF-1 D356 .D53 1994
- Black, Jeremy and Roy Porter, eds. A Dictionary of Eighteenth-century World History. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Reference, 1994.
HUNT REF-1 D286 .D53 1994
- Cayton, Mary Kupiec and Peter W. Williams, eds. Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectual History. 3 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, c2001.
HUNT REF-1 E169.1 .E624 2001
- Ciment, James. Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and the New Deal. 2 vols. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference, 2001.
HUNT REF-1 E806 .C543 2001
- Dictionary of American History. 10 vols. New York: Scribner, c2003.
HUNT REF-1 E174 .D52 2003
- Europa World: The Europa World Year Book Online (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Countries' maps, flags, profiles, statistics (current only), and directories of government and politics, society and media, business and commerce.
- FACTS.com (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Full-text of the Facts on File World News Digest since 1940, plus a live newsfeed from ReutersŪ and thousands of in-depth features, images, charts, and primary documents. FACTS.com is a permanent record of the essential facts of the news as reported in the major newspapers and news magazines of the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and elsewhere in the world.
- Finkelman, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, c2001.
HUNT REF-1 E169.1 .E626 2001
- Kammen, Carol and Norma Prendergast. Encyclopedia of Local History. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, c2000.
HUNT REF-1 E180 .K25 2000
- Kutler, Stanley I., ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. 5 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996.
HUNT REF-1 E740.7 .E53 1996
- McNeill, William H. and Bentley, Jerry H., eds. Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History. 5 vols. Great Barrington, Mass., U.S.A.: Berkshire Pub. Group, c2005.
HUNT REF-1 D23 .B45 2005
- Mellersh, H. E. L. The Chronology of World History. 4 vols. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1999.
HUNT REF-1 D11 .M39 1999
- Ritter, Harry. Dictionary of Concepts in History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986.
HUNT REF-1 D13 .R49 1986
- Salem History (Salem Press) (Carnegie Mellon users only)
Search and display the text of some Salem Press history reference works such as: Great Lives from History. The Renaissance & Early Modern Era, 1454-1600, The Fifties in America, The Sixties in America, The Seventies in America, The Eighties in America, The Nineties in America.
- Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson, ed. Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences. 15 vols. New York: The Macmillan company, c1930-35.
HUNT REF-1 H41 .E6
- Sills, David L., ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 19 vols. [New York]: Macmillan [1968]-c1991.
HUNT REF-1 H40 .A2 I5
- Singleton, Carl, ed. The Sixties in America. 3 vols. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, c1999.
HUNT REF-1 E841 .S55 1999
- Stearns, Peter N., ed. The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
HUNT REF-1 D21 .E578 2001
- Townson, Duncan. A Dictionary of Contemporary History - 1945 to the Present (Carnegie Mellon users only) Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.
April 2011 -- http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sc24/History/background.html
Sue Collins, Senior Librarian, sc24@andrew.cmu.edu