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World History by Region: British Isles

What's on This Page?

In the boxes on this page, you will find links and citations to information resources on the history of the British Isles.

For advice on finding books on your topic, see the 'How to Find Books' tab of the World History (generally) research guide.

World History by Region: British Isles

A dictionary of British history
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2015.

The Oxford companion to British history. 2nd ed. 
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Oxford companion to Irish history
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Oxford companion to Scottish history
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Oxford dictionary of national biography
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004-

Reader's guide to British history
New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003.
- Ref DA34 .R43 2003 v.1-2

The Routledge dictionary of modern British history
London; New York: Routledge, 2006.
- Ref DA529 .P58 2006

The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.


Histories:

The Oxford history of Britain. Rev. ed. 
London; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Contents: 1 Roman Britain (c.55 BC - c. AD 440) Peter Salway; 2 The Anglo-Saxon Period (c. 440-1066) John Blair; 3 The Early Middle Ages (1066-1290) John Gillingham; 4 The Later Middle Ages (1290-1485) Ralph A. Griffiths; 5 The Tudor Age (1485-1603) John Guy; 6 The Stuarts (1603-1688) John Morrill; 7 The Eighteenth Century (1688-1789) Paul Langford; 8 Revolution and the Rule of Law (1789-1851) Christopher Harvie; 9 The Liberal Age (1851-1914) H. C. G. Matthew; 10 The Twentieth Century (1914-2000) Kenneth O. Morgan; Epilogue (2000-2010) Kenneth O. Morgan.
- Main Library DA30 .O93 2010

British historical statistics
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Ref HA1134 .M58 1988
- Major economic and social statistical series for the British Isles from the twelfth century up until 1980-81. British Historical Statistics is the successor to the Abstract of British Historical Statistics and the Second Abstract of British Historical Statistics. Covers Population and vital statistics; Labour force; Agriculture; Fuel and energy; Metals; Textiles; Building; Miscellaneous industrial statistics; External trade; Transport and communications; Public finance; Financial institutions; Consumption; Prices; Miscellaneous statistics; and National accounts.


Atlases & Gazetteers:

The Routledge atlas of British history. 5th ed. 
London; New York: Routledge, 2011.
- Sciences & Engineering G1811.S2 G5 2011

An atlas of Irish history. 3rd ed. 
London; New York: Routledge, 2005.
- Sciences & Engineering G1831.S1 E3 2005

Dictionary of British Place Names
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

The Ordnance Survey gazetteer of Great Britain:
all names from the 1:50,000 Landranger map series

Maybush, Southampton: Ordnance Survey; London: Macmillan, 1992.
- Special Collections, El Norte Atlases DA640 .G76 1992


Additional Reference Sources for World History by Region (British Isles):

Additional encyclopedias are listed on the United States History research guide, under the "Reference Sources" → "Encyclopedias & Dictionaries" tab.

Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History (generally) research guide, under the "Reference Sources" → "Encyclopedias & Dictionaries" tab.

Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Period research guide, under the "Prehistory & Ancient" tab, the "Medieval History" tab, etc.

Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Region research guide, under the "Africa" tab, the "Asia" tab, etc. 

Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Topic research guide, under the "Commerce, Commodities & Material Culture" tab, the "Empires, Borderlands & their Legacies" tab, etc.

Primary sources provide immediate, firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an event or topic.

Examples of primary sources include letters and diaries; photographs, audio and motion picture recordings; transcribed speeches; books, newspapers and magazines published during the period under consideration; government documents and other publications; oral histories, autobiographies and memoirs; and even artifacts, like clothing, furniture, and other items of material culture from the period.

bpi1700: British Printed Images to 1700.
An extensive digital library of prints and book illustrations from early modern Britain.

British cabinet papers, 1880-1916.
Public Record Office class CAB 37
Harvester Press Microform, 1980.
- Microfilm Area   DA25 .Z5 1980

British Cartoon Archive
An archive of over 200,000 pieces of cartoon artwork, dating from 1904, maintained by the University of Kent’s (Canterbury UK) Templeman Library.

British Government Publications. (Rutgers University) 
Librarians at Rutgers University Libraries maintain an excellent guide to finding British Government Publications.

British History Online. (BHO) 
A digital collection of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, and the British world, with a special focus on the period 1300 to 1800. The BHO collection includes over 1,280 volumes of primary content and secondary sources.
♦ Until 30 September 2020 all transcribed BHO content is freely available for individual users.

The British Library. Archives and Manuscripts catalogue
A hugely rich resource, with material dating from ancient to modern times.


The British Library. Image Collection.  
From the British Library, over one million images made available for public use via Flickr.

The British Library. Digitised Manuscripts.  
The Digitised Manuscripts web pages give access to manuscripts held at the British Library, with their descriptions These include an extensive collection of Greek manuscripts, plus the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Old English Hexateuch.

British Movietone Newsreel Archive
Selections from the British Movietone newsreel archive, including newsreel clips and footage captured during the company’s ninety year history (1895-1986).

British Pathé
Since the invention of the moving image in the 1890's, British Pathé has recorded aspects of global culture and news for the cinema in documentaries, newsreels, serials and films.

Early English newspapers: bibliography and guide to the microfilm collection.
Representing a very large microfilm collection of 18th- and early 19th-century English newspapers; the microfilm reels represented in this guide are held at UCLA.
- Ref PN5114 .C68 1983

Irish History Online. (IHO) 
The national bibliography of Irish history, IHO is part of a European network of national historical bibliographies from fourteen countries. Irish History Online is an authoritative listing (in progress) of what has been written about Irish history from earliest times to the present.

London Lives, 1690 to 1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis
A database of primary sources from eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners.

The National Archives. Discovery Catalogue
Access records held by The National Archives of the United Kingdom and more than 2,500 other archives across the country.

The National Archives. Online Collections
Online resources from the The National Archives of the United Kingdom. Includes such records as British Army casualty lists, 1939-1945; British Army war diaries, 1914-1922; the Domesday Book; Merchant seamen registers, 1835-1857; Railway employment records, 1833-1956; and Victorian prisoners’ photograph albums, 1872-1873.

The Parliament rolls of medieval England, 1275-1504
Leicester: Scholarly Digital Editions, 2005.
Full text and translation of the meetings of the English parliament from Edward I to Henry VII. CD-ROM
- Media Collection JN515 .P37 2005

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
A searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, documenting 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi scriptores = Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages
London, 1858-1911.
- Main Library DA25 .B5, 99 vols. in 162 parts

 


Links and citations to additional sources of information on the history of the British Isles might be found on the UCSB Library research guide for:
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