History & Historiography: Book Reviews
An introduction to researching history and historiography at PSU.
Book Reviews in History Databases
Start your search for book reviews in history databases, with the title of the book as your search term. Look for a search option that lets you limit the results to book reviews.
- America: History and LifeIncludes citations of articles and books on the history and culture of the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
- Historical AbstractsFind citations to academic articles on world history (except the U.S. and Canada), from the 15th century to the present.
- International Medieval BibliographyIndexes citations to journal articles and book chapters about the Middle Ages covering Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from 300 to 1500.
- ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and RenaissanceThe online bibliography covers literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).
- JSTORContains full text articles from major research journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage of most journals starts from the beginning of a journal's publication and typically excludes the most recent three to five years.
Using Database Search Limiters
- Enter the title of the book in the search box. Use quotation marks if the search returns too many irrelevant results.
- Many databases have a limiter for book reviews. Select that option for faster results.
Other Sources for Book Reviews
- An Index to book reviews in the humanitiesA print index identifying reviews appearing in scholarly humanities journals of books published from 1960-1990.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective, 1908-1982 (H.W. Wilson)Provides citations and excerpts from book reviews of adult or juvenile fiction and nonfiction.
- Combined retrospective index to book reviews in humanities journals, 1802-1974A print index providing coverage of reviews published in over 150 humanities journals from 1802 to 1974.
- New York Times 'Books' sectionThe New York Times free site; includes full text of book reviews going back several years.
- New York Times Historical FileArchives the New York Times from 1851 with full page images and articles.
- Early American Newspapers I, II, and IIICovers early American newspapers, a major primary source for American history. Provides unprecedented access to the nation's newspapers from 1690 to 1876. Series I covers 1690-1876, while series II and III cover 1821-1876.
- Academic Search PremierContains full text of selected journals drawn from all disciplines including humanities, social sciences and the sciences. The search engine offers a limiter by type of publication including "Review".
- Nexis Uni
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Includes full text sources for regional, national, and international newspapers as well as business, legal, and medical publications, and also, government documents. Includes book reviews from included publications. Searching for book reviews in LexisNexis Academic. - Literature Resource CenterProvides reference, literary timelines, and articles on authors, journalists, and critics from all literary periods. Covers literary genres such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism.
