Secondary resources are based in commentary, analysis or description outside the time and space frame of the historic person, creation or event...
Tertiary resources help organize and locate secondary and primary resources
Search Tips:
Seek out critical monographs dedicated to your topic, person or event. It will more quickly put you on your way to understanding the context and research landscape of your topic
Try starting these searches first:for monographs:
Timelines are a quick way to get context surrounding a person or an event and for understanding an era.
Examples:
Library of Congress: American Memory Timeline
Oxford Reference Online Timelines
History World Timelines
Great Events from History Series
Empire Online
Click on the Chronology tab. This database covers many types of research resources regarding the rise and fall of Empires from Columbus to the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Grun, Bernard; Stein, The Timetables of History : a Horizontal Linkage of People and Events
HUNT FA-REF-4 D11 .G78 1991
Surveys, Encyclopedias and Biographical Dictionaries can provide concise information on your topic and help you put it in historical context.
Examples:
Nellhaus, Tobin. Theatre Histories: An Introduction. Third edition. London : New York: Routledge, 2016.
HUNT FA-REF PN2101 .T48 2016 and E-book
(earlier print editions also available)
Brockett, Oscar Gross Hildy. History of the Theatre. 9th ed. Boston : Pearson, 2008. 10th ed.
HUNT FA-REF PN2101 .B68 2008
Earlier editions are available in the library.
International Dictionary of Theatre.
Hawkins-Dady, Mark, ed., Leanda Shrimpton, picture ed.
Chicago and London: St. James Press, 1992.
HUNT FA-REF-4 PN2035 .I49 1992
Volume 1 Plays
Detailed information about play publication and production. Includes date of first production, translations and bibliography;critical summary of each play.
Volume 2 Playwrights
Detailed information on life and work; critical summary; bibliography
Volume 3 Actors, Directors and Designers
Detailed information on life and work, critical summary; bibiliography.
Critical Survey of Drama : English Language Series.
Magill, Frank N. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Salem Press, 1985. HUNT REF-1 PR623 .C75 1985 6 volumes. Volume 6 is an index to playwrights covered
Biographical summaries; critical essays examine representative plays and identify themes and characteristics employed by English language dramatists.
Critical Survey of Drama : Foreign Language Series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Salem Press, 1986. Magill, Frank N.
HUNT REF-1 PN1625 .C74 1986. 6 volumes with 1987 supplement
Biographical summaries; critical essays examine representative plays and identify themes and characteristics employed by more than 170 non-English speaking dramatists.
Volume 6 is an index to playwrights covered
Cambridge History of American Theatre
Wilmeth Don B. and Christopher Bigsby, eds. New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University, Press, 1998.
HUNT FA-REF-4 PN2221 .c37 1998 3 volumes
Volume 1: Beginnings to 1870
Volume 2: 1870-1945
Volume 3: Post-World War II-1990s
A contextual survey; each section contains extensive timelines juxtaposing theatre events in America with selected historical/cultural American and worldwide events.
Cambridge History of British Theatre
Wilmeth Don B. and Christopher Bigsby, eds. New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University, Press, 1998.
HUNT FA-REF-4 PN2581 .C36 2004 3 volumes
Volume 1: Origins to 1660
Volume 2: 1660-1895
Volume 3: Since 1985
A contextual survey; each section contains timelines juxtaposing theatre events with political and social events.
American National Biography. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds. New York: Oxford University Press..
HUNT-REF-1 CT213 .A68 1999 9 24 volumes
Each entry is written by a scholar and containing bibliography.
Also look for specific focused encyclopedias such as
Encyclopedia of South Africa online
Jacobs, Sean, editor of compilation.; Johnson, Krista, editor of compilation.; Credo Reference (Firm), distributor.;
1955-present. A comprehensive database of journal articles citations and abstracts, book citations, and dissertations relating to the history and culture of the United States and Canada. Also has a non-US history counterpart, Historical Abstracts. You can also search America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts simultaneously.
This link opens in a new window
Examples:
Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global
Dissertations and theses from around the world, from 1861 to the present, with full text for most added since 1997.
American Doctoral Dissertations, 1933-1955
100,000 dissertations from 1933 through 1955 accepted by U.S. universities during that period of time.
Credo Reference
Online encyclopedias and dictionaries for the arts, literature and across disciplines.
Oxford Reference Online
Encyclopedias and dictionaries across all disciplines