Questions about how to find secondary books and articles?
Check out our general History guide.
Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user dumbledad.
Books in libraries are assigned one or more subject headings. These are standardized terms that ensure books on the same topic can be found even if the keywords are different, as with The US Civil War and The War Between the States.
When you find a good book, look at its subject headings in the catalog record. Follow these to list other items on that topic. Or, use the subject heading terms in a new keyword search.
You can also use subject terms for keyword or subject searches in article databases, such as Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, or JSTOR.