Research Guides: East Asian History: Overview

Background Information

When searching, think about your topic and change your search terms. Don't just search for "East Asia" (EA) or "Northeast Asia" (NEA); you will find materials that are broadly about the region, from all time periods.

Consider what search terms are relevant to your research. Use your class readings to help you find more specific terms, or look at a reference work (like an encyclopedia or handbook) for background information and context.

Choose a geographical area/city to research or a specific country (e.g., China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, or Taiwan.)
Choose a specific time period (e.g. Shang Dynasty, Han Dynasty, etc.). Ask yourself if there were other names for the country, city or region you are interested in used during the time period you are researching; if so, use those names as search terms
Chose a specific person or event.

Recommended Resources

World History

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
World history from 1450-
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals, as well as books and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Fulltext scholarly journals covering various topics
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A scholarly, multidisciplinary database
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Overviews & annotated bibliographies on a variety of subjects

East Asian History

Foreign Office Files for Southeast Asia, 1963-1980 This link opens in a new window
Government documents from the U.K. National Archives about Southeast Asia
Bibliography of Asian Studies (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Contains records on all subjects (especially the humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.