Catena Paper - Hints on Research Process

Most of you start the research paper process with a very general topic. During your research, you will review the literature relevant to your topic and find a creative, or original, angle on your topic.  A catena is not as difficult as you think: it is your hypothesis as to how events, peoples, compositions, ideologies, etc. (the stuff of history) served to influence each other. 

Instead of heading directly to the journal databases or the books - or more likely Google (not as helpful as you think!), consider starting with primary sources FIRST and have those form the GUTS of your paper. What are good primary sources? Newspaper articles, letters, pamphlets, poems, journals,  speeches, diplomatic correspondence from embassy to mother country, paintings, musical compositions, etc. Having the primary sources take center stage makes it much more likely that you will hit on a creative, original thesis.  You will also look at secondary sources (review of the scholarly literature) in order to enhance your understanding of the era, your topic, the existing scholarship on your topic (do others agree or challenge Tuchman's narrative), and bolster your argument within your paper. Ultimately, you need both primary and secondary sources to write a sophisticated, original paper.  Below, I have linked you to databases and collections of primary and secondary sources particularly useful to Modern European History.

BOOKS

The library houses important resources for your paper, including books, database articles, websites, e-books and primary sources.  Books provide general background information, detailed information on specific historical events, and context for an event or topic. Books are a very important piece of the research puzzle!  Remember to use the tables of contents and indexes to target specific details when using a more general text.  Enter Rowley catalog here.  

PRIMARY SOURCES:

Fordham University Modern History Sourcebook, broken down on left-hand side by era, country, or ideology, http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.asp

Other primary sources may be found under the "Documents" link on the left-hand side of the screen in ABC-CLIO as you search. Say, for instance, you researched anarchism. You will find Peter Kropotkin's Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal on the Left (1896).  Now, you have a stellar primary source to use.

You might also look for newspaper articles from the era.  If you can read French or German, see me.  Otherwise, archives of newspaper articles in English include:

Free available through Regenstein, http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/content.php?pid=497098&sid=4102969

160 years of the NY Times online, available through Rowley
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.uchicago.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/index?accountid=14657

With some in English and some in other languages, the following group, the International Coalition on Newspapers, links to digitized newspapers by country around the world:

http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.php, available for free through Regenstein with your CNET, http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/content.php?pid=497098&sid=4102969

Likewise, Germany has digitized at least two old Prussian newspaper from the time period, available in ENGLISH at http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/amtspresse/

British government archives contain interesting records as well:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-subject/default.htm

For those of you working on the debate over American imperialism expansion, see the Library of Congress, for instance.

Finally, here is the research guide for HISTORY for Regenstein Library.
http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/content_mobile.php?pid=497098&sid=4086704

OTHER SECONDARY SOURCES:

ABC-CLIO Modern World History, http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Authentication/LogOn?returnUrl=%2F

History Today, http://www.historytoday.com/user/login

JStor, http://www.jstor.org/

Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu/