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Reference Sources
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
A complete version of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) with onlines updates added four times a year since 2000.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Published by Oxford University Press, it is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database containing dictionaries, language reference and subject reference works.
Oxford Scholarship Online This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable library containing the full text and abstracts of classic and newly published Oxford books in the areas of biology, business and management, classical studies, economics and finance, history, law, linguistics, literature, mathematics, music, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, public health and epidemiology, religion, and social work.
Cambridge Companions Complete Collection This link opens in a new window
The Cambridge Companions present collections of essays written by leading experts in the field on themes, subjects, and key figures in three broad areas: Literature and Classics; Philosophy, Religion, and Culture; and Music.
World History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Covers ancient history to current events using primary sources, reference information, and multi-media content.
Country Studies (Library of Congress) This link opens in a new window
Contains the electronic versions of 80 books previously published in hard copy as part of the Country Studies Series by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Intended for a general audience, books in the series present a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries throughout the world.
Revolutions in the Atlantic World, New Edition: A Comparative History by Wim Klooster
A new look at a contentious period in the history of the Atlantic world Within just a half century, the American, French, Haitian, and Spanish American revolutions transformed the Atlantic world. This book is the first to analyze these events through a comparative lens, revealing several central themes in the field of Atlantic history. From the murky position of the European empire between the Old and New Worlds to slavery and diaspora, Wim Klooster offers insights into the forces behind the many conflicts in the Atlantic world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Digging deeply into the structural causes and oppressive environments in which these revolutions occurred, Klooster debunks the popular myth that the "people" rebelled against a small ruling elite, arguing instead that the revolutions were civil wars in which all classes fought on both sides. The book reveals the extent to which mechanisms of popular mobilization were visible in the revolutions. For example, although Blacks and Indians often played an important role in the success of the revolutions, they were never compensated once new regimes rose to power. Nor was democracy a goal or product of these revolutions, which usually spawned authoritarian polities. The new edition covers the latest historiographical trends in the study of the Atlantic world, including new research regarding the role of privateers. Drawing on fresh research - such as primary documents and extant secondary literature - Klooster ultimately concludes that the Enlightenment was the ideological inspiration for the Age of Revolutions, although not its cause.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2018
The French Revolution by Peter McPhee
The French Revolution is one of the great turning-points in history. Never before had the people of a large and populous country sought to remake their society on the basis of the principles of liberty and equality. Its importance and fascination for us are undiminished as we try to understand revolutions in our own times. There are three key questions the book investigates. First, why was there a revolution in 1789? Second, why did the revolution continue after 1789, culminating in civil war, foreign invasion and terror? Third, what was the significance of the revolution? Was the French Revolution a major turning-point in French, even world history, or instead just a protracted period of violent upheaval and warfare which wrecked millions of lives?
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2017
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically acclaimed volume--a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.Beginning with the French and Indian War and continuing to the election of George Washington as first president, Robert Middlekauff offers a panoramic history of the conflict between England and America, highlighting the drama and anguish of the colonial struggle for independence. Combining thepolitical and the personal, he provides a compelling account of the key events that precipitated the war, from the Stamp Act to the Tea Act, tracing the gradual gathering of American resistance that culminated in the Boston Tea Party and "the shot heard 'round the world." The heart of the bookfeatures a vivid description of the eight-year-long war, with gripping accounts of battles and campaigns, ranging from Bunker Hill and Washington's crossing of the Delaware to the brilliant victory at Hannah's Cowpens and the final triumph at Yorktown, paying particular attention to what made menfight in these bloody encounters. The book concludes with an insightful look at the making of the Constitution in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and the struggle over ratification. Through it all, Middlekauff gives the reader a vivid sense of how the colonists saw these events and theimportance they gave to them. Common soldiers and great generals, Sons of Liberty and African slaves, town committee-men and representatives in congress--all receive their due. And there are particularly insightful portraits of such figures as Sam and John Adams, James Otis, Thomas Jefferson, GeorgeWashington, and many others. This new edition has been revised and expanded, with fresh coverage of topics such as mob reactions to British measures before the War, military medicine, women's role in the Revolution, American Indians, the different kinds of war fought by the Americans and theBritish, and the ratification of the Constitution. The book also has a new epilogue and an updated bibliography.The cause for which the colonists fought, liberty and independence, was glorious indeed. Here is an equally glorious narrative of an event that changed the world, capturing the profound and passionate struggle to found a free nation.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2007
A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution by Jeremy D. Popkin
This book offers students a concise and clearly written overview of the events of the Haitian Revolution, from the slave uprising in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 to the declaration of Haiti's independence in 1804. Draws on the latest scholarship in the field as well as the author's original research Offers a valuable resource for those studying independence movements in Latin America, the history of the Atlantic World, the history of the African diaspora, and the age of the American and French revolutions Written by an expert on both the French and Haitian revolutions to offer a balanced view Presents a chronological, yet thematic, account of the complex historical contexts that produced and shaped the Haitian Revolution
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2011
The Routledge Guidebook to Wollstonecraft's a Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Sandrine Berges
Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the greatest philosophers and writers of the Eighteenth century. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Her most celebrated and widely-read work is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This Guidebook introduces: Wollstonecraft's life and the background to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman The ideas and text of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Wollstonecraft's enduring influence in philosophy and our contemporary intellectual life It is ideal for anyone coming to Wollstonecraft's classic text for the first time and anyone interested in the origins of feminist thought.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2013
Literary Biography
Biography (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new window
Biography In Context offers biographical information about historically significant figures as well as present-day newsmakers. It includes reference content alongside magazine and journal articles, primary sources, videos, audio podcasts, and images.
American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
Biographical dictionary of notable deceased American men and women from all eras of American history. Includes illustrations and links to other web resources.
Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
LION includes texts, criticism, and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries on over 350,000 works of poetry, prose, and drama from the 8th to the 21st century.
U.S. History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of U.S. history from the arrival of Vikings in North America, through the American Revolution, the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, and the War on Terror. Includes reference works, magazine articles, and primary source documents ranging from slave journals to presidential papers.
Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage by Vincent Carretta
With Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784) became the first English-speaking person of African descent to publish a book and only the second woman--of any race or background-- to do so in America. Written in Boston while she was just a teenager, and when she was still a slave, Wheatley's work was an international sensation. In Phillis Wheatley, Vincent Carretta offers the first full-length biography of a figure whose origins and later life have remained shadowy despite her iconic status. A scholar with extensive knowledge of transatlantic literature and history, Carretta uncovers new details about Wheatley's origins, her upbringing, and how she gained freedom. Carretta solves the mystery of John Peters, correcting the record of when he and Wheatley married and revealing what became of him after her death. Assessing Wheatley's entire body of work, Carretta discusses the likely role she played in the production, marketing, and distribution of her writing. Wheatley developed a remarkable transatlantic network that transcended racial, class, political, religious, and geographical boundaries. Carretta reconstructs that network and sheds new light on her religious and political identities. In the course of his research he discovered the earliest poem attributable to Wheatley and has included it and other unpublished poems in the biography. Carretta relocates Wheatley from the margins to the center of her eighteenth-century transatlantic world, revealing the fascinating life of a woman who rose from the indignity of enslavement to earn wide recognition, only to die in obscurity a few years later.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2014
Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions by Charles Forsdick; Christian Høgsbjerg
"In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of the black liberty in St. Domingue--it will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep." These are Toussaint Louverture's last words before being taken to prison in France. Heroic leader of the only successful slave revolt in history, Louverture is one of the greatest anti-imperialist fighters who ever lived. Born into slavery on a Caribbean plantation, he was able to break from his bondage to lead an army of freed African slaves to victory against the professional armies of France, Spain, and Britain in the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. In this lively narrative biography, Louverture's fascinating life is explored through the prism of his radical politics. Charles Forsdick and Christian Høgsbjerg champion the "black Robespierre," whose revolutionary legacy has inspired people and movements in the two centuries since his death. For anyone interested in the roots of modern resistance movements and black political radicalism, Louverture's extraordinary life provides the perfect groundwork.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2017
Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics by Sylvana Tomaselli
A compelling portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft that shows the intimate connections between her life and work Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women's rights advocacy. However, as Sylvana Tomaselli shows, a full understanding of Wollstonecraft's thought is possible only through a more comprehensive appreciation of Wollstonecraft herself, as a philosopher and moralist who deftly tackled major social and political issues and the arguments of such figures as Edmund Burke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith. Reading Wollstonecraft through the lens of the politics and culture of her own time, this book restores her to her rightful place as a major eighteenth-century thinker, reminding us why her work still resonates today. The book's format echoes one that Wollstonecraft favored in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: short essays paired with concise headings. Under titles such as "Painting," "Music," "Memory," "Property and Appearance," and "Rank and Luxury," Tomaselli explores not only what Wollstonecraft enjoyed and valued, but also her views on society, knowledge and the mind, human nature, and the problem of evil--and how a society based on mutual respect could fight it. The resulting picture of Wollstonecraft reveals her as a particularly engaging author and an eloquent participant in enduring social and political concerns. Drawing us into Wollstonecraft's approach to the human condition and the debates of her day, Wollstonecraft ultimately invites us to consider timeless issues with her, so that we can become better attuned to the world as she saw it then, and as we might wish to see it now.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2020
The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin by Carla Mulford (Editor)
Comprehensive and accessible, this Companion addresses several well-known themes in the study of Franklin and his writings, while also showing Franklin in conversation with his British and European counterparts in science, philosophy, and social theory. Specially commissioned chapters, written by scholars well-known in their respective fields, examine Franklin's writings and his life with a new sophistication, placing Franklin in his cultural milieu while revealing the complexities of his intellectual, literary, social, and political views. Individual chapters take up several traditional topics, such as Franklin and the American dream, Franklin and capitalism, and Franklin's views of American national character. Other chapters delve into Franklin's library and his philosophical views on morality, religion, science, and the Enlightenment and explore his continuing influence in American culture. This Companion will be essential reading for students and scholars of American literature, history and culture.
Location: Online
Publication Date: 2009
