history searches: tired of googling? Try these for a change!

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    casahistoria is the web site of topic links for students of Modern History - 100,000 visit each month in term-time from all over the world. Our links, each with a brief description concerning usefulness, are best suited to undergraduate,
high school, IB & A level students and focus on
the most common areas of study





  on this page
 
 
Browse down the page or just click one of these sections....
 
 
1. Best places to start searching
      academic searches
2. Searching for a Book  or Document
      (or image)?
3. General magazine type  search sites
4. Special interest link sites
5. Websites for schools
 
 
 
 
  other related casahistoria sites
 
Teachers pages ·
Using the internet ·
Building a history web · 
Guide to the UK paperwork· 
young casahistoria searches for school pupils ·
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

see what we are reading! 

casahistoria is recommended by:
BBC Radio 4 History Channel 4 History
BBC radio,
UK		 Channel 4 TV, UK Birmingham GRID for Learning, UK UK joint university database Argentina's national paper
SBC Education
Blue Ribbon HOT site, USA
 SovLit, Harvard Univ, USA

If you find the webshots irritating, you can opt to switch them off.

 

 

1. The best places to start a search                                                                                go to top of page
 
  • Teoma - Search with Authority from Ask Jeeves, this is a new type of search engine. It includes links to "experts" on your search area as well as conventional links as in google (but perhaps a little more focussed with fewer commercial sites). Well worth a try.
  • Ocean Index Part of the Historyworld site. Very good at short-listing basic sites on history topics Yahoo history Special series of pages to historical themes
  • Google History Directory as above...
  • Refdesk.com Good, clear link page in the form of index. Comprehensive. A good place to start. Stark basic design makes it fast and easy to use. Good links to related sites

 

For more complicated, academic searches

  • WWW-VL History central catalogue  This is the World Wide Web Virtual Library History Central Catalogue part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library Very thorough and comprehensive links to most aspects of history: articles and journals, all epochs. No descriptions or evaluations, but full raw listings.
  • Find Articles.com As the name suggests, a search engine to find useful, academic articles on a topic. But: more and more articles are now available for subscription only..... Hints: Use the "Print this article" link to see all the article on one page... Another hint: Review articles, marked: (Review), are often a good, quick way to access ideas from articles/books.
  • H (Humanities) Net  Sophisticated, but complex search site. Recent changs mean this is more of a site for discussion groups and book/article reviews. Still difficult to navigate but top level IB recommended and worth persevering with.
  • The Dictionary of the History of Ideas An excellent resource from The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library. search by title, topic name and receive definitions/explanations that are sometimes like small articles

 

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2. Searching for a Book or Document?      go to top of page                                                                              

 

Looking for a Book?

  • Google Book Search
    Go to Google Book Search HomeIn the last few months this has become an increasingly valuable tool for casahistorians. Click on the logo alongside to go to a results page linked to this site. You can narrow your search further by using the search box. Instructions on how best to use Google Book Search can be found below.

    Each book includes an 'About this book' page with basic bibliographic data like title, author, publication date, length and subject. For some books you may also see additional information like key terms and phrases, references to the book from scholarly publications or other books, chapter titles and a list of related books. For every book, you'll see links directing you to bookstores where you can buy the book and libraries where you can borrow it. Books are available to view at different levels:

             Most useful are:

  • Full View: You can see books in Full View if the book is out of copyright, or if the publisher or author has made the book fully viewable. The Full View allows you to view any page from the book, and if the book is in the public domain, you can download, save and print a PDF version to read at your own pace.

  • Limited Preview: If the publisher or author has given permission, you can see a limited number of pages from the book as a preview. Usually there are enough pages available to make this worthwhile.

  • Remember then to show at Full & Limited preview settings

             Less Useful

  • Snippet View: The Snippet View, like a card catalog, shows information about the book plus a few snippets – a few sentences to display your search term in context.
  • No Preview Available: Like a card catalog, you're able to see basic information about the book.
  • The Online Books Page This is a very useful index to History Books (and sites that publish history ebooks) published free on the web.
  • Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 which now has a library of over 16,000 free books. However: they are out of copyright, hence this is a useful source of older, writings. Good for contemporary books from the past.
  • Electronic Text Center University of Virginia Library. Limited but worthwhile project. Very good on 19th century writing (and newspaper). Also includes valuable Native American resources. For ebook topics click here
  • Accelerated Schools A small but intriguing list of (largely contemporary) books on the web. The books can also be read over the web as audiobooks. Click on a area for the full available list:
 
  1. American History
  2. European History
  3. World History
  • Globusz Limited, but central history writing of the past can be downloaded for free but they expire after a given number of uses or days.
  • Questia is the first online library that provides 24/7 access to the world's largest online collection of (in and out of copyright)books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences, plus magazine and newspaper articles. It is a subscription service but you can search each and every word of all of the books and journal articles in the collection. and you can read every title cover to cover.

There are currently several projects putting recently published history books on the web as ebooks. Unfortunately these are subscription based (fees range from $350  a year to $1,500 for large Institutions). Expensive, but may be possible for your institution library and worthwhile for history departments geographically far from printed materials.

  • Google Book Search. You can search for relevant complete book extracts. You have to possess a gmail account to access most of the library, and only a few (apout three) pages are available at one go, but the results are increasingly worthwhile as the search encompasses a growing number of (recent books) taking you to a relevant page as a starter depending on what you are searching for....
  • Pulp friction For an update on the current state of play see this Nov 2005 article from the Economist

Looking for a Document?

The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use:

  • Internet Ancient History Sourcebook A "classroom usable" sourcebook of copy-permitted material for Ancient history and civilization courses.
  • Internet Medieval Sourcebook It is the largest online resource of medieval and Byzantine textual sources. 
  • Internet Modern History Sourcebook A mass of copy-permitted material for Modern European history and Modern Civilization courses. North American and Latin American documents are located within its structure. Subdivisions of documents are as follows:
  Internet African History
Internet East Asian History
Internet Global History
Internet History of Science
Internet Women's History
Internet Indian History
Internet Islamic History
Internet Jewish History
  • History on the Web from the University of Washington Libraries. Very full listing by topic of (mainly) documentary sites. Many of the sites are run as academic archives and may require registration. Nonetheless a valuable resource

Looking for an image?

  • Picture History is an on-line archive of images and film footage illuminating more than 200 years of American history. Good access to photos and accompanying articles. well listed in categories

 

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3. General magazine type search sites for browsing  go to top of page   

   

  • About.com   Good links with sub-sites listed down the side, but also set out in a magazine style with good articles of IB level. A wide variety. Tghis links to the 20th century, but other periods of History are covered too elsewhere on the site. Unfortunately, recent changes have made it much harder to navigate amongst the ads and trailers to other sites...
  • Digital history Interesting site with a focus on how best to use digital technology and (mainly US) history.
  • Eyewitness to history:  History through the eyes of those who lived it, presented by Ibis Communications, Inc. a digital publisher of educational programming. Stylish and good for a browse - even if not comprehensive, key areas coverered
  • HistoryNet US conflict focussed, free access magazine site.
  • History Today A subscription site but each month about three articles are marked: Article available to registered users This gives free access to selected articles from the past three issues of History Today but requires one-off registration. If you really need an article that is subsciption, then sign up for a week's trial - no credit card details are needed....
  • BBC history Online Enormous. Not really a TV site despite being by the BBC. Set up as paert of the BBC drive to be an "online broadcaster" and probably the web's single most comprehensive site. Explore the local BBC subwebs for further depth (although the size of the site makes full interrogation difficult. Find a web search engine and use that.) It also has links to the BBC schools History pages. Some of the site may be shortlived as the BBC cuts down its more "commercial" sites (following pressure by commercial (mainly subscription) web sites) - many of the school sites have already gone for this reason.
  • Channel 4 History UK TV site. Very well produced. Articles based on its (many) history documentaries arranged by period, subject and forum. Well worth exploring.
  • PBS History Well produced "articles", usually linked to recent US TV history series. However, there are many more sites than appear in the general index. Some exploration is needed..... The Education (Social Sciences) subweb has further useful sites.
  • History Channel  and (History Channel International) Written by the US History TV channel, this site has many items of historical interest and a general history search engine.

 

casahistoria home                     now visit caféhistoria for updates and current topic news

 

4. Special interest history links        go to top of page

 

Woman with a magnifying glassAfrican-American History:

Slavery: see young casahistoria page.

Women:

Women: see casahistoria page on Women's history

 

Various:

 

casahistoria home                     now visit caféhistoria for updates and current topic news

 

5. Websites for schools        go to top of page

 
  • Spartacus Good link pages to educational resources. UK bias but excellent on World Wars, Vietnam, links to women in History and always adding new sites. Very good mix of content, sources and images.
  • Historyworld Provides sound basic narrative accounts of histories and a small selection of articles - but for clarity of overview use the test version of each page - not the interactive.
  • BBC History for kids Sites (Age related) to fit in with the UK National curriculum. With History Bitesize Revision for 16 year olds
  • History Channel - uk Good on 20th century European history for IGCSE. Much of the site was written for IGCSE/K10-12.
  • History Study Stop "The ultimate revision zone" is worthwhile but spoilt by huge overuse of Flash. Contains games and hints to help you learn and understand the topics.
  • History on the Net The site is comprised of four main sections: Subject information linked to the UK National Curriculum; lesson ideas for use in the classroom; a reference section with an A-Z of History, Timelines and links to other History sites; and a games section with History quizzes, puzzles and interactive activities.
  • johndclare.net Designed for school use primarily and set out in a very structured manner with each section having a basic narrative and documents with links to key areas in the format of the current guided learning UK style textbooks (includes the exercises used by the school - good practice!).
  • P.L. Duffy Resource Centre Australian college site. Good link pages - but beware - the site address seems to change frequently!

Young casahistoria website for 11-18 year olds. Many pages of links to school curriculum topics. Includes a History Search Page designed especially for schools.

(I)GCSE exam revision Revision tips and interactive tests that you can mark yourself from casahistoria.

IB, K12 & A level revision page something from casahistoria to help with your IB & A level revision. These casahistoria netguides are mainly in note form and are easy to follow. They should be used in conjunction with your own reading, notes and research from casahistoria weblinks

Teachers pages casahistoria microsite for teachers. Includes pages on Using the internet, Building a history web and for teachers in the UK: A Guide to the UK paperwork

 

 

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