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History

Welcome to HIST 400 Penrose

Hello, this is the library research guide for HIST 400 Junior Seminar in Methods and Historiography with Professor Walter Penrose. You'll see sections for recommended resources that will be useful for your various written assignments, including your final paper. 

Need help? Check out the links on the left, below the black nav bars.

Worksheet for Library Session

During the library session, you'll be working on a couple of practice questions to prepare you for your written assignments. Please right click the link to this Google doc and open it in a new tab. It will prompt you to log into your @sdsu.edu account and then save a copy. 

When you have completed the questions, please rename the document to something that includes your name and HIST 400, and email it as an attachment to lbliss@sdsu.edu.

Paper #2 Secondary Source Analysis

You can find book reviews in several sources:

  • OneSearch: search for your topic. Once you have results, look at the left hand nav under "Tweak my results." Go to "Document Type" and select "Book Reviews." If there aren't any book reviews, that won't be listed as an option.
  • Historical Abstracts: go to the Advanced Search page. Scroll down to the Document Type box and select "book review."
  • JSTOR: go to the Advanced Search page. Scroll down to Narrow Results and select "Reviews."

Book reviews in literature and book reviews in newspapers may also be relevant.

Final Paper HIstoriographic Analysis

A critical evaluation of the status of historical thought on a particular topic relating to Alexander or the Hellenistic World.

Advanced Search Strategies

  • Generate keywords to describe your topic, being mindful of synonyms.
  • Keep your search simple at first, using only a couple of words. Try different combinations of words.
  • Use quotes for phrases such as "new york" to keep the words together. 
  • Use the asterisk for truncation, so that photo* will bring up photographs, photographers, etc.
  • Limit your search by filters such as date of publication, language, or peer-reviewed articles.
  • If you find a source that seems directly on topic, look closely to see what words they use. These can be in the title, table of contents, subjects, or summary.
  • Try your search in different databases.