Early Modern European History
This Web page is of interest researchers studying the Social Question in Modern Europe or Modern European Gender History. However, anyone doing research or interested in the early modern European history (ca. 1750-1950) should find it useful.
Reference | Books | Indexes (identify journal articles) | Web Sites
Reference materials are quite useful for finding background information and can be a great starting point for learning names, dates, terms, etc. Below is a very short list of titles available. Researchers interested in European history should browse the Reference shelves between call numbers D-DD and DG-DR. Not all titles are relevant to early modern or modern history, but many of them are. The online encyclopedias are available to CSU affliates only.
- English Historical Documents. 12 vols. DA 26 .E55 Reference
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 40 vols. DA 28 .O95 2004 Reference
- Facts on File Encyclopedia of the 20th Century. D 419 .F33 1991 Reference
- Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era. 4 vols. DA 550 .E527 2004 Reference
- Cold War Reference Library. 6v, 2004
- Encyclopedia of European Social History. 6v, 2001 (See "The Sources of Social History.")
- Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture. 2v, 2004
- Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe 1789-1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire. 5v, 2006
- Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. 5v, 2006
- Encyclopedia of Russian History. 4v, 2004
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 6v, 2004
- Gilded Age and Progressive Era Reference Library. 4 v, 2007
- Industrial Revolution Reference Library. 4v, 2003
- World War I Reference Library. 4v, 2002
- World War II Reference Library. 5v, 2000
Books are a key resource for information . The subject headings listed in this section can be used to find books related to early modern European history topics in any library catalog which uses Library of Congress Subject Headings, including CSU's SAGE (it is not an exhaustive list). Do a subject search using the terms below to identify books in SAGE and Prospector (the Colorado Union Catalog). Books may be requested from Prospector by CSU affiliates (establish a PIN in SAGE first).
Crime Europe History |
History, Modern -- 19th century |
Now also in the library catalog Sage are catalog records for the U.S. Serial Set (this electronic set was purchased by the library--it is not "on the Web," although it is accessed through that technology--thus items are available to CSU affiliates only). Found within were reports about Labor in Europe in the 1880's. For example:
- United States consular reports. Labor in Europe. Reports from the consuls of the United States in the several countries of Europe on the rates of wages, cost of living to the laboring class, past and present wages, &c., in their several districts, in response to a circular from the Department of State requesting information on these subjects; together with a letter from the Secretary of State transmitting the same to the speaker of the House of Representatives. Part 1 (available to CSU affiliates only)
- United States consular reports. Labor in Europe. Reports from the consuls of the United States in the several countries of Europe on the rates of wages, cost of living to the laboring classes, past and present wages, &c., in their several districts, in response to a circular from the Department of State requesting information on these subjects; together with a letter from the Secretary of State transmitting the same to the speaker of the House of Representatives. Part 2 (available to CSU affiliates only)
- State of labor in Europe: 1878. Reports from the United States consuls in the several countries of Europe on the rates of wages; cost of living to the laborers; past and present rates; present conditions of trade; business habits, and systems; amount of paper money in circulation, and its relative value to gold and silver; for the several consular districts, in response to a circular from the Department of State requesting information upon these subjects; together with a letter from the Secretary of State transmitting these reports to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. (available to CSU affiliates only)
Journals
Journal of Early Modern History. ASP 1999- most recent year not available
Journal of European Studies. D 1 .J575 Movable Shelves and online 1999-
Journal of Modern History. D 1 .J6 JSTOR 1929-2001; 1997-
Lancet. online 1823-
Contemporary Periodicals
Punch, or, The London Charivari. AP 101 .P8 Storage.
CSU owns Volumes 1-117,119-196,198-208,226,228,230,232,234-236,238-257,271; years 1841-1976
London Times. 1785- . AN .T5 Microtext film
Most European history research is done in books (and now the Web for primary sources). There are journal articles, but they are more easily identified in the bibliographies of books or via book-length bibliographies. That said, there are useful journal articles which must not be neglected! Use the bibliographies of these articles as resources for additional sources.
These indexes may also be accessed by CSU affiliates via the "Research Databases" pages.
British & Irish Women's Letters & Diaries (1500-1900).
Full text letters and diaries.
Electronic Collections Online (ECO). 1995- .
Identify articles.
Historical Abstracts. 1954- .
Covers the Western world. Subjects: Europe; Social Problems.
JSTOR. Full text articles at least 3-5 years old (varies by journal).
Selected history journals have issues from years of interest; thereby having utility as primary/contemporary sources.
Humanities International Index. Varies. Different publisher, similar subject coverage: Humanities Index. AI 3 .I495 Reference South 1974-98.
Core journals dealing with history, literature, and other humanities. Good coverage of humanities topics.
Full text articles (view in PDF).
Printed Index & Newspaper & British Parliamentary Papers
Palmer's Index to the Times Newspaper. 1790-1941, other years, different title nearby. ( London) AI 21 .T51 Reference South
The Times. AN .T5 Microtext Film 1785- . Current in Newspapers (North end of Journal Room). Online 1985- through LexisNexis Academic.
Checklist of British Parliamentary Papers in the Irish University Press 1000-Volume Series 1801-1899. Z2019 .I73 1972 REF
Use the checklist (Part II is recommended, see broad subjects just below) to identify which volume you need. Then request the volume from storage via the library catalog SAGE (volumes are not available immediately or over weekends, so plan ahead; if requested after noon on Friday, items will not be available until after noon on Monday, if requested before 7am). A title search for British Parliamentary pages brings up all volumes. If you know your specific area, a Boolean keyword search might be more efficienct: British parliamentary papers and education. Then select the specific topic volume(s) from the list. If your topic merits a volume name, use that term, for example: British parliamentary papers and public libraries.
Part I Chronological
Part II Alphabetical Subject Set List
- Agriculture
- Anthropology
- Colonies
- Crime and Punishment
- Education
- Emigration
- Famine
- Fisheries
- Fuel and Power
- Government
- Health
- Industrial Relations
- Industrial Revolution
- Insurance
- Inventions
- Legal Administration
- Marriage and Divorce
- Military and Naval
- Monetary Policy
- National Finance
- Newspapers
- Poor Law
- Population
- Posts and Telegraphs
- Religion
- Shipping
- Slave Trade
- Social Problems
- Stage and Theatre
- Trade and Industry
- Transport
- Urban Areas
Part III Key Word Title Index to Part II
The following sites have materials of interest to those doing research in early modern European history.
Pages are arranged first in general, British Focus, France, Germany, Focus on Women, Library Guide.
World War I. CSU History page.
Lists resources, how to identify additional books and articles, and links to resources on World War I.
Art in 19th Century Europe. CSU Art page.
Lists resources, how to identify additional books and articles, and links to resources on 19th century European art.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Fordham University.
Links to primary sources; arranged by broad topic.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History: Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations.
Primary documents from European countries: Albania, Andorra,Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vatican City. History of the United Kingdom: Primary Documents includes England and Scotland. Chronological.
Eighteenth-Century Resources — History. Jack Lynch. Rutgers. Eighteenth-Century Resources on the Net.
Links to a number of sites (a few are listed on this page). Annotated. Divided by: history: general resources, chronologies, enlightenment, exploration, British history, monarchs and prime ministers, crime, piracy, and low life, newspapers, journals, broadsides, and print culture, American history (several subcategories, but these aren't European topics), European history: general, France (with subtopics), Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, other history, military history, and amateur historiography and historical re-enactment.
Virtual Library. History. WWW Virtual Library.
Has links to broad categories of history as found in the Virtual Library.
Early Modern History to c. 1800. The British Academy Portal.
Links to early modern history pages/sites on the Web. Click on link for very brief description and key words assigned to the site.
Early Modern Resources. Sharon Howard.
Site author defines early modern as 1500-1800. Links have not been evaluated. Arranged by broad categories.
Modern History from c. 1800. The British Academy Portal.
Links to modern history pages/sites on the Web. Click on link for very brief description and key words assigned to the site. Site that links to Charles Booth Online Archive (via the British Academy portal).
British Focus
British History Online. Copyright 2003-2007 University of London & History of Parliament Trust.
Arranged by: places, subjects, periods, sources, and maps. Browse by period for Papers of British Parliament from 1509 to 1739. Sources:
- Commons, Debates of (Grey) (10) Debates (1667-94), collected by the Hon. Anchitell Grey, MP (10 vols).
- Commons, History and Proceedings ( Chandler) (10) Extensive verbatim accounts of Commons debates, 1660-1739, in 10 volumes.
- Commons Journal (13) The official record of the House. Includes volumes 1-12 (1547-1699) & 85 (1830).
- London, Old and New (Thornbury & Walford) (6) Surveys London and Westminster and their environs (6 volumes, 1878).
Royal Historical Society Bibliography. Institute of Historical Research. University of London.
"The Royal Historical Society bibliography is an authoritative guide to what has been written about British and Irish history from the Roman period to the present day." Bibliography includes subsets for Irish History Online and London’s Past Online.
Monuments and Dust: The Culture of Victorian London.
Contemporary texts. Navigate through the archive link, then genres.
The National Archives. United Kingdom.
From "about us": "The National Archives is also the official archive for England, Wales and the central UK government, containing 900 years of history from Domesday Book to the present, with records ranging from parchment and paper scrolls through to recently created digital files and archived websites. Increasingly, these records are being put online, making them universally accessible." A resource with many items of interest to the historian. For example, Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills (1384 - 1858).
Victorian Web. University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore.
Economic, social, political, history. Science literary relations, authors, visual arts, etc. Links to sites on an off the Victorian Web itself (not all links work). A lot of information about the Victorians. See Gender Matters.
Library of Early Journals (British). Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford.
A digital library of six 18th and 19th Century journals. Annual Register (1758-1778), Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1750), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1757-1777), Notes and Queries (1849/50-1869), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1843-1863), and The Builder (1843-1949). Scanned images of the pages. (Not all are there.)
British Newspaper Digitisation Project. The British Library.
Project plans to digitize up to two million pages of 19th century British national, regional and local newspapers. "The aim is to select and to digitise complete runs of UK newspaper titles that are published between 1800 and 1900." This is still in process, but may be available soon as latest projection available date is mid-2007.
United Kingdom. © Donald J. Mabry. Historical Text Archive.
Links to multiple sites on the Web with historical material. A wide range of photographs, research articles, documents, and more. A great deal of the material is from time periods not considered early modern Europe. Not all links work. Separtate page for London.
London Magazine, or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, 1732-1839. From Online Books Page. at Penn.
Not all years, but see full issues of the magazine from 1732-1784, 1825-1829 (from Michigan's library, scanned by Google), and 1821-1824 (Google books). View page by page.
Science in the 19th Century Periodical.
Entries for around 7,500 articles and references to more than 5,500 individuals and 2,000 publications. Browse for people, authors, illustrators, books, periodicals, and institutions, societies, etc. Searchable by keyword, periodical (seven at present), and date range.
Women’s Magazines. Steve Johnson. Cyberheritage.
Covers and advertising from popular women’s periodicals. Arranged by decade: 1920's (very few), 1930's, and 1940's. No context, per se.
Britannia History. Britannia.com
"[S]ome of the significant charters, histories, chronicles, accounts, laws and summonses that are now available. They are arranged roughly as they appear in history, from the first century on." Pop-ups may appear. Note: it appears that there is a sponsoring link to "adult" materials.
France
Exploring the French Revolution.
A repository of many key documents from the era of the French Revolution. Essays, images, text documents, songs, a timeline, a glossary, and short audiovisual lectures from leading historians.
France. © Donald J. Mabry. Historical Text Archive.
Links to multiple sites on the Web with historical material. A wide range of photographs, research articles, documents, and more. Some of the material is from time periods not considered early modern Europe. Not all links work.
Germany
German History in Documents and Images. English and German (Deutsch).
Materials are divided by era. Of interest to early modern Europe will be the sections on: From Absolutism to Napolean 1648-1815, From Vormarz to Prussian Dominance 1815-1866, Forging an Empire: Bismarckian Germany 1866-1890, Wilhelmine Germany and the First World War 1890-1918, Weimar Germany 1918/19-1933, Nazi Germany 1933-1945, and the first part of Occupation and the Emergence of Two States 1945-1961. Context is provided for documents, images, and maps.
German History Sources. Richard Weikart. California State University, Stanislaus.
Documents mostly of interest to 19th and 20th century German history. Arranged chronologically by eras.
IEG Maps. Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz.
Maps arranged by series (in some cases, by year). Images can be enlarged. Digital and historical maps. (Server für digitale historische Karten.) Bilingual German/English site.
Germany. © Donald J. Mabry. Historical Text Archive.
Links to multiple sites on the Web with historical material. A wide range of photographs, documents, and more. Some of the material is from time periods not considered early modern Europe. Not all links work.
Focus on Women
Women’s History. WWW Virtual Library.
Links to materials that relate to women by geographical area, special topics, and more.
Internet Women's History Sourcebook. © Paul Halsall, November1998. Last Updated April 16, 2007.
Subset of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Internet History Sourcebooks. Arranaged in various ways; much of the material is not relevant to modern history, but keep looking--scroll down just over half way to find Early Modern Europe and below that Modern Europe. (If go too far you find North America.)
Women’s Suffrage. CSU History page.
Web sites with primarily primary sources, recommended sources for identifying articles, selected articles and books, and terms for identifying additional books.
Early Modern History. WWW Virtual Library Women's History.
Annotated links to materials that relate to women. Scroll down for Modern History on the same page.
Library Guide for Modern European History
Modern European History: A Guide to the Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. General Research Division. New York Public Library.
Guide to the resources in the New York Public Library. Check local library holdings for ownership.
As in all research, be sure to evaluate what you find, be it an article, book, or Web page.
Content: Naomi Lederer