The Libraries have recently added four titles from Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO). Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a scholarly encyclopedia, Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO) are designed to guide researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects. These authoritative research guides provide a starting point for your research or a working list for comprehensive or subject exams. Create a personal account to save references and add notes.
The University Libraries currently subscribe to these sections of OBO:
African Studies
“The birth of independent African nations, the rise of the Civil Rights movement and African-American Studies in the U.S., and the end of the Cold War all prompted the emergence of African Studies as an important area of inquiry in Africa, Europe, and North America. Founded as Africa was emerging from centuries of the slave trade and foreign domination, the field has sought to displace racist foreign notions to explore African perspectives on art, culture, economics, geography and the environment, ancient and modern history, literature, music, politics, religion, science and thought, and society.”
Atlantic History
“Atlantic history is a fast developing field of historical inquiry that operates upon new assumptions about how to understand the remarkable nature of interactions between different peoples and cultures on four continents and many islands in the period between Columbus’ voyages to the New World in the late fifteenth century and the end of slavery in the Americas in the late nineteenth century. Its principal theme is the movement of peoples, ideas and things in the Atlantic World – a world encompassing the continents of Africa, Europe, North America and South America and many islands, from the Canary Islands near Africa to the Caribbean islands and to Bermuda in the North Atlantic. The multiple movements were fundamentally important in shaping the modern world and in making cultural diversity a key component of modern identity.”
Chinese Studies
“Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies is a multi- and inter-disciplinary enterprise covering the study of China across all disciplines. It developed mainly from two sources. First, a long-standing tradition of Sinology, still strong in Europe, has used philological and literary tools to study mainly the humanities and pre-modern China. Second, from the Second World War, an “area studies” approach – initially closely linked to US foreign policy needs and remaining predominant in the US, Canada and Australia – has focused on modern China using interdisciplinary (mainly social science) methods. More recently, China’s rapid growth has led to the rapid expansion of the field, while scholars originally from the PRC have led a trend to identify primarily with a discipline rather than an area.”
Military History
“The study of military history has evolved into a multidisciplinary effort to go beyond the history of military operations to consider broader political, cultural, and social questions. It spans across several disciplines and genres, including sociology and political science, biography, war and battle narratives, the history of technology, foreign affairs and international relations, and various national histories. From ancient military history to contemporary studies of international conflict, a great deal of this work has moved online with the most recent scholarship, research, and statistics appearing in online databases and often only discoverable through online search tools. ”