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Early modern history (British & W European c. 1500-c. 1800): Finding critical literature

Pile of books

Looking for books, journals, databases and more, held in Oxford libraries? 

Search Oxford Libraries Online (SOLO)

Suggested subject searches:

Reformation - Great Britain

France - History - 17th century - Sources

Germany - Social conditions - 18th century

Industries - England - 18th century

Enlightenment -- Italy -- History

Search Google Books

Google Book Search

Search WorldCat

Search for an item in libraries near you:
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Getting started - finding books, book chapters, journal articles & dissertations

Library catalogues and bibliographical databases (also known as abstracting & indexing databases) are a important resources to find books on a particular topic or by a particular author. Most catalogues will allow you to search by author, title or subject keywords.

Key library catalogues

Finding books, book chapters and journal articles

Bibliographical databases usually have to be accessed via SOLO or Databases A-Z. Oxford users should use their SSO (what is SSO?) login for remote access.

Why bother? Bibliographies specialise in finding articles which have been published in history or history-related journals. Important: Note that these databases tell you what has been published but not what exists in Oxford.

How to you find the full-text? use the Find it @ Oxford button to locate the full-text (print or electronic).

Finding critical readings by country

Finding dissertations and theses

Read our guidance for finding and accessing theses and dissertations held by the Bodleian Libraries and other institutions.

You can find most Oxford University  higher degree theses in SOLO. Search tips to locate Oxford University History theses in SOLO: "Faculty of Modern History" thesis or "Faculty of History" thesis

British & Irish theses

Looking for reviews of book, articles, textbooks and digital resources?

Reviews are typically...

  • published in history journals (e.g. Past & Present) or newspapers (e.g. Times Literary Supplement, New York Book Reviews, etc.). You can find book reviews in SOLO: 'Search everything' and add book title and author.
  • indexed in a bibliograpical databases such as Bibliography of British and Irish History or Historical Abstracts (Oxford users only)
  • published in H-Net;
  • Reviews in History publishes reviews and reappraisals of significant work in all fields of historical interest.  The ejournals includes over 1000 reviews to date and new reviews appear regularly. You can browse reviews by type of review (digital reviews, textbooks, articles, books, etc.) or by subject, period or country.
  • Choice Reviews Online (Oxford users only): publishes annually more than 7,000 concise reviews of academic titles, including books and electronic resources. The reviews are organized by discipline and also feature bibliographic essays and lists of significant forthcoming titles.You can browse or search through the issue, going back to 1988.