HIST 490C: Politics and Religion in Early Modern Britain (Fall 2024)

1. Start by writing out your question or topic.
2. identify key terms
3. identify potential synonyms
4. Use AND OR NOT to create search phrases. 
5. Conduct several searches, revising keywords backed on subject terms & commonly used language in the articles/books.

Tips

• Start with keywords.
• Use Subject databases!
• Pay attention to Subject terms!
  • Once you find the subject terms for your topic, you can find every recent book on your topic
• Keep it simple!

• Thomas More and English enclosure

  • Thomas More ; English Enclosure

    • "Thomas More" AND enclosure* AND (england OR english)

• Levellers and rural-urban divides in civil war print culture

  • Levelllers, rural-urban, civil war, print culture

    • Leveller* AND "Civil war" AND "print culture"

• the 39 Articles and Pelagianism

  • 39 articles, pelagianism

    • ("39 articles" OR "thirty-nine articles") AND pelagian*

• conceptions of paganism/heathenism in Irish and Scottish lit

  • Paganism, heathenism, irish literature, scottish literature

    • (Pegan* OR heathen*) AND ("irish literature" OR "Scottish Literature")

• women in the 18th century, eg Mary Wollstonecraft.

  • women, 18th century,

    • Women AND 18th AND Britain

    • Women AND literature AND 18th AND Britain

    • Women AND literature AND 18th AND Britain AND religion

    • Mary Wollstonecraft

• Thomas More and English enclosure

  • Thomas More ; English Enclosure

    • "Thomas More" AND enclosure* AND (england OR english)

      • Books

      • HA

      • MLA

      • ATLA

        • really stuck? try WorldCat

• Levellers and rural-urban divides in civil war print culture

  • Levelllers, rural-urban, civil war, print culture

    • Leveller* AND "Civil war" AND "print culture"

      • ATLA

      • MLA

      • HA

      • Books

        • Worlcat

    • Try different search terms, 

      • Leveller* AND literature

        • MLA

      • Leveller* AND rural AND urban

        • WorldCat

• the 39 Articles and Pelagianism

  • 39 articles, pelagianism

    • ("39 articles" OR "thirty-nine articles") AND pelagian*

      • ATLA 

      • MLA

      • WorldCat

        • Stuck? try JSTOR

    • Possibly revise to "39 articles" OR "thirty-nine articles") AND grace

• conceptions of paganism/heathenism in Irish and Scottish lit

  • Paganism, heathenism, irish literature, scottish literature

    • (Pegan* OR heathen*) AND ("irish literature" OR "Scottish Literature")

      • ALTA

• women in the 18th century, eg Mary Wollstonecraft.

  • women, 18th century,

    • Women AND 18th AND Britain

      • Here is a case where we want to use SUBJECT terms

    • Women AND literature AND 18th AND Britain

      • Books

    • Women AND literature AND 18th AND Britain AND religion

      • revised previous search

    • Mary Wollstonecraft

      • If you have a specific author or work in mind, search them in the databases, limited to peer reviewed articles. Materials about that individual will show up.

        • MLA

        • books

        • atla

• Searching is iterative
• You'll need to try different combinations of terms
• you'll need to try different databases
• pay attention to citations
• Use GoogleScholar to find who cited a book or article you like (ex)