Research Guides: HIST 150: Coffee and Modernity (Spring 2024): Types of Sources

Different types of materials do different things

A book isn't just a long article.

A chapter isn't an article that lives in a book.

A reference book is not the same as an argumentative book/monograph.

Every type of scholarly source has a specific purpose and scope, and knowing what each publication is meant to do will help you know where to start. The general types are:

Reference Books: Broad overviews of a very large topic
Research Books: (monographs): Argumentative study of a reasonably large topic
Book Chapter: Narrow focus on a specific topic, but within the context of a larger topic/book. Can be both summary & argument)
Article: Narrow focus, very argumentative. Extremely specific. Not good for general information -- you need to know background info already.
Book Review: a brief summary of a book. Not a peer reviewed source
Dissertation: You shouldn't be using these in this class. A dissertation is an Extremely focused, book-level study of a very specific topic. These are not peer reviewed & not really considered "published."

Below are examples using the History of Women's Education in the 19th century as an example,

Reference Book Examples

Albala, Ken. The Food History Reader : Primary Sources. Edited by Ken Albala. London ;: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
"With the proliferation of food history courses and avid interest among scholars and the general public, the need for a solid comprehensive collection of key primary texts about food of the past is urgent. This collection spans the globe from classical antiquity to the present, offering substantive selections from cookbooks, fiction, gastronomic and dietary treatises and a wide range of food writing. Offering a solid introduction to each period with extensive commentary and suggestions for interpretive strategies, this reader provides extracts undigested, for the student who needs immediate and direct contact with the ideas of the past. Readings illustrate the various ways religion, politics, social structure, health and agricultural policy shaped what people ate in the past and offer instructive ways to think about our own food systems and how they have been shaped by historical forces"-- Provided by publisher.

Research Books (Monographs)

Salaman, Redcliffe N. (Redcliffe Nathan), W. G. Burton, J. G. Hawkes, W. G. (William Glynn) Burton, and J. G. (John Gregory) Hawkes. The History and Social Influence of the Potato. Rev. impression / edited by J.G. Hawkes. Cambridge ;: Cambridge University

Chapters

Chapt 2, The Problematic Potato in Wrenn, Corey Lee. Animals in Irish Society : Interspecies Oppression and Vegan Liberation in Britain’s First Colony. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021.

Articles

周幸君(Hsing-Chun Chou). “Poor Mamma’s Panacea＂ -The Potato in Ulysses.” EurAmerica 49, no. 1 (2019): 001–043.

Book review

Audant, A.B. “Reader, John. Potato: a History of the Propitious esculent.(Brief Article).” CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. American Library Association CHOICE, 2010.

Dissertations

O'Riordan, T. A. "Potatoes, Poverty and the Irish Peasantry : A History of the Potato in the Irish Diet, c. 1590-1900 AD." Order No. U107254, University College Cork (Ireland), 1998.