Possible Topics

Still having trouble deciding what you would like your topic to be? Click here for advice on how to discover a topic that will fascinate you.  One of the best ways to discover what topic may be interesting to research is by flipping through the basic text of your class.  Look at the pictures.  Read some paragraphs.  Pause to decide if a certain topic is interesting to you.  The key to writing a good paper is your passion for the topic.  If you are truly interested, you will almost want to do your research and you will be more engaged in the writing process.

Below is a list of possible topics with secondary sources and sometimes primary sources as suggestions.  Primary sources are not always listed, because it's up to you to discover the primary sources as you read the secondary sources.  Look at the footnotes.  What primary sources is the historian using?  See if you can get a hold of them.  There are many possible topics--this list just scratches the surface!  Some people like to start researching their topic by looking at the secondary sources, which will direct them to what primary sources are available to research.  This list of very broad topics is to get you thinking about what route you would like to travel for your paper.  Good luck!

Sumerian Religion
    Jacobsen, T. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven, 1976).
    Sumerian Mythology FAQ

Egyptian Art and Religion
    Aldred, Cyril.  Akhenaton: Pharaoh of Egypt (London 1968).
    David, A. R.  The Ancient Egyptians: Religious Beliefs and Practices.
    Mendelssohn, Kurt.  The Riddle of the Pyramids.

Hebrew Law and Literature
    Baron, Salo W.  A Social and Religious History of the Jews (New York: 1952-1980).
    Anderson, Bernhard W.  Understanding the Old Testament (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1986).
    PS=The Old Testament and Apocrypha

Ancient India
    Beteille, Andre.  Caste, Class, and Power (Berkeley, 1969).
    Quigley, Declan.  The Interpretation of Caste.  (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
    PS=The Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada

Indian Art
    Huntington, Susan.  The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (New York: 1985).
    Kramrisch, Stella.  The Art of India: Traditions of Indian Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture, 3d ed. (London: 1965).

Sparta
    Sealey, Raphael.  A History of the Greek City States, ca. 700-338 B.C. (Berkeley: 1977).
    Demaratus on the Spartan Conception of Freedom.
    Kennell, Nigel M.  The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta (University of North Carolina Press, 1995).
    PS=Plutarch. Plutarch on Sparta (Penguin, 1988).
    Forrest, William George Grieve.  A History of Sparta, 950-192 B.C.  (Norton, 1969).
    PS=Here's a web site to help you with primary sources available on the web.

Athens
    Stockton, D.  The Classical Athenian Democracy (Oxford, 1990).
    Samons, Loren J.  Athenian Democracy and Imperialism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
    Yunis, Harvey.  Taming Democracy: Models of Political Rhetoric in Classical Athens (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996).
    Cohen, David.  Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
    Todd, Stephen.  The Shape of Athenian Law (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993).
    Meiggs, R.  The Athenian Empire (Oxford, 1979).
    Kagan, Donald.  Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (New York: 1991).
    PS=Aristotle, Constitution of Athens.
    PS=Thucydides, Pericles' Funeral Oration.
    PS=Here's a web site to help you with primary sources available on the web.

Women in Greece
    Pomeroy, Sarah B.  Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: 1975).
    PS=   web site with primary sources
    Foley, H. P.  Reflections of Women in Antiquity (New York: 1981).
    McAuslan, Ian and Peter Walcot, eds.  Women in Antiquity (Oxford University Press: 1996)
    Reeder, Ellen D.  Pandora: Women in Classical Greece (Trustrees of the Walters Art Gallery in association with Princeton University Press: 1995).
    Bundell, Sue.  Women in Ancient Greece (Harvard University Press: 1995)
    Fantham, Elaine et. al.  Women in the Classical World: Image and Text (Oxford University Press: 1994)
    PS=Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Maureen B. Fant, eds.  Women's Life in Greece & Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
    Cantarella, Eva.  Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Johns Hopkins University Press: 1987)

Alexander the Great
    Engels, Donald W.  Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army (Berkeley: 1978).
    Robin Lane Fox.  Alexander the Great (London: 1978).
    Hammond, N. G. L.  The Genius of Alexander the Great (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
    Dodge, Theodore Ayrault.  Alexander: A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996).
    Savill, Agnes Forbes.  Alexander the Great and His Time, 2d ed.  (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1993).
    Hammond, N. G. L.  Sources for Alexander the Great: An Analysis of Plutarch's Life and Arrian's Anabasis Alexandrou (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
    PS=Plutarch on life of Alexander; more here.
    PS=Roisman, Joseph, ed.  Alexander the Great: Ancient and Modern Perspectives (Lexington Mass: D.C. Heath, 1995).

Etruscans
    Grant, M.  The Etruscans (New York: 1980).
    Pallottino, M.  The Etruscans, rev. ed. (Baltimore, 1978).
    Suellard, H.H.  The Etruscan Cities and Rome (Ithaca, NY: 1967).
    Ogilvie, R.M.  Early Rome and the Etruscans (Atlantic Heights, NJ: 1976).

Roman Republic
    Beard, Mary.  Rome in the Late Republic (Cornell University Press, 1985)
    Crawford, Michael H. The Roman Republic.
    Fuhrmann, Manfred.  Cicero and the Roman Republic.
    Brunt, P.A.  Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993).
    PS= Web site with primary sources available on the web.

Roman Women
    Pomeroy, Sarah B.  Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity.
    PS=   web site with primary sources
    McAuslan, Ian and Peter Walcot, eds.  Women in Antiquity (Oxford University Press: 1996)
    Fantham, Elaine et. al.  Women in the Classical World: Image and Text (Oxford University Press: 1994)
    PS=Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Maureen B. Fant, eds.  Women's Life in Greece & Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
    Cantarella, Eva.  Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Johns Hopkins University Press: 1987)
    Bauman, Richard A.  Women and Politics in Ancient Rome.  (Routledge: 1994)
    Rawson, Beryl.  The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives  (Cornell University Press: 1986).

Roman Empire
    Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire.
    Scarre, Christopher. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995).
    Wiedemann, Thomas E.J. Emperors and Gladiators (London: Routledge, 1995).
    Adkins, Lesley and Roy A. Adkins.  Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (New York: Facts on File, 1994).
    PS=web site with primary sources

Fall of Rome
    Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan.  The Excellent Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Triumph of the Church (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987).
    Ferrill, Arthur.  The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1986).
    Kagan, Donald, ed.  The End of the Roman Empire: Decline or Transformation?  (Lexington, MASS: Heath, 1992).
    Thompson, E.A.  Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire (Madison, WI: 1982).
        web site on Fall of Rome

Constantine
    MacMullen, Ramsay.  Constantine (New York: 1969).
    PS= Eusebius, The Conversion of Constantine.
    Grant, Michael.  Constantine the Great: The Man and His Times (Maxwell MacMillan International, 1994).
    Jones, Arnold H. M.  Constantine and the Conversion of Europe (University of Toronto Press, 1978).
    PS=  Web site on early Christianity.

Middle East
    Gibb, H.A.R. Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey, 2d ed.  (Oxford: 1953).
    Lombard, Maurice.  The Golden Age of Islam (New York: 1975).
    Watt, W. Montgomery.  Islamic Philosophy and Theology, 2d ed.  (Edinburgh: 1988).
    Keddie, Nikki R.  Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (Yale University Press: 1992).
    Walther, Wiebke.  Women in Islam (Markus Wiener Publishing: 1993).
    PS=Zubaida, Sami.  Islam, the People and the State: Essays on Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East (St. Martin's Press: 1993).
    Momen, Moojan.  An Introduction to Shi'I Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi'Ism (Yale University Press: 1987).
    Humphreys, R. Stephen.  Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry (Princeton University Press: 1991).
    Sauvaget, Jean.  Introduction to the History of the Muslim East: A Bibliographical Guide (Greenwood Publishing Group: 1982).
    Lapidus, Ira M.  A History of Islamic Societies (Cambridge University Press: 1988).
    Cook, M.A.  Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East: From the Rise of Islam to the Present Day (Oxford University Press: 1970).
    PS=Koran

Feudalism
    Stephenson, Carl.  Mediaeval Feudalism (Cornell University Press: 1942).
    Southern, R.W.  The Making of the Middle Ages (Yale University Press: 1953).
    Speed, Peter, ed.  Those Who Fought (Italica Press: 1996).
    Abels, Richard Philip. Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England (University of California Press: 1988).
    Duby, Georges.  The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (University of Chicago Press: 1980).
    PS=Evergates, Theodore, ed.  Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the County of Champagne (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1993).
    PS=see Tierney, Brian, Donald Kagan and L. Pierce Williams, eds.  Great Issues in Western Civilization, 4th ed. Vol. 1 (McGraw-Hill: 1992), 337-82.

Women in the Middle Ages
    Gies, Joseph and Frances Gies.  Women in the Middle Ages (New York: 1978).
    Keen, Maurce.  Chivalry (New Haven: 1984).
    Power, Eileen.  Medieval Women (Cambridge: 1975).
    Hopkins, Andrea.  Most Wise and Valiant Ladies (1997).
    PS=Emilie Zum Brunn and Georgett Epiney-Burgard, eds.  Women Mystics in Medieval Europe.
    PS=Petroff, Elizabeth Alvilda, ed.  Medieval Women's Visionary Literature (1986).

Joan of Arc
    Wheeler, Bonnie and Charles T. Wood, eds.  Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc (New York: 1996).
    Pernoud, Regine.  Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (Lanham, MD: Scarborough House: 1994).
    Silver, Arnold Jacques. Saint Joan: Playing with Fire (New York: Twayne Publishers: 1993).
    Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Joan of Arc: Heretic, Mystic, Shaman (Lewiston: E. Mellen Press: 1986).
    Hopkins, Andrea.  Most Wise and Valiant Ladies (1997).

Crusades
    Runciman, Steven.  A History of the Crusades, 3 vols.  (Cambridge: 1951-1954).
    Mayer, Hans Eberhard.  The Crusades, 2d ed.  (New York: 1988).
    Riley-Smith, Jonathan.  The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (Philadelphia: 1986).
    PS=Brundage, James A. The Crusades: A Documentary Survey (Milwaukee: 1962).
    PS=Peters, Edward, ed.  The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).

Late Medieval Christianity and the Church
    Duffy, Eamon.  The Stripping of Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 (1994).
    Kieckhefer, Richard. Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and their Religious Milieu (1984).
    Oakley, Francis.  The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (1979).
    Peters, Edward.  Inquisition (1989).
    Renouard, Yves.  The Avignon Papacy, 1305-1403 (1970).
    Swanson, R.N.  Church and Society in Late Medieval England (1989).
    PS=Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ.

Renaissance
    Brown, Patricia Fortini.  Art and Life in Renaissance Venice (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997).
    Welch, Evelyn S.  Art and Society in Italy, 1350-1500 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
    Tracy, James D.  Erasmus of the Low Countries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
    PS=Erasmus, Desiderius. The Erasmus Reader, Erika Rummel ed.  (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990).
    Thompson, Stephen D., ed.  The Renaissance (San Diego, Greenhaven Press: 2000).
    PS=Catherine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, or The Book of the Three Virtues.
    PS=McLaughlin, M.M. The Portable Renaissance Reader (1953).

Reformation: Martin Luther
    PS=Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed.  The Protestant Reformation (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1968).  includes primary sources
    PS=Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985).
    Edwards, Mark U.  Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
    Oberman, Heiko Augustinus.  The Reformation: Roots and Ramifications (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1994).
    Brendler, Gerhard.  Martin Luther: Theology and Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
    Marius, Richard.  Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death (Cambridge, MASS: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1999).

Enlightenment
    Brown, Stuart, ed.  British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment (New York: Routledge, 1996).
    Mell, Donald C., Jr, Theodore E.D. Braun, Lucia M. Palmer, eds.  Man, God, and Nature in the Enlightenment (East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1988).
    Schlereth, Thomas J.  The Cosmopolitan Ideal in Enlightenment Thought, its Form and Function in the Ideas of Franklin, Hume, and Voltaire, 1694-1790 (University of Notre Dame Press, 1977).
    Voltaire, Candide.

French Revolution
    Doyle, William.  The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford: 1989).
    --------.  Origins of the French Revolution, 3d ed. (New York: 1999).
    Lyons, Martyn.  Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution (New York: 1994).
    Nardo, Don, ed.  The French Revolution (San Diego: 1999).
    Cobban, Alfred.  The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution, 2d ed. (New York: 1999).
    Furet, Francois.  Revolutionary France, 1770-1880 (Oxford: 1992).
    PS=Mason, Laura. The French Revolution: A Documents Collection (Boston: 1999).
    PS=Hunt, Jocelyn.  The French Revolution (London: Routledge, 1998).

Romantic Movement, 19th Century
    Clark, Kenneth.  The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic Versus Classical Art (London: 1973).
    Hemmings, F. W. J.  Culture and Society in France 1789-1848 (Leicester: 1987).
    Honour, Hugh.  Romanticism (Harmondsworth: 1979).
    Christensen, Jerome.  Romanticism at the End of History (Baltimore: 2000).

World War I
    Stevenson, David.  The First World War in International Politics (Oxford: 1989).
    Tate, Trudi.  Modernism, History and the First World War (Manchester: 1998).
    Russell, Bertrand.  Pacifism and Revolution: 1916-18 (New York: 1995).
    Braybon, Gail.  Women Workers in the First World War: The British Experience (London: 1981).
    Williams, John.  The Other Battleground: The Home Fronts Britain, France, and Germany, 1914-1918 (Chicago: 1972).

World War II--Europe
    Bullock, Allan.  Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 2d ed.  (Harmondsworth: 1962).
    Mack Smith, Denis.  Mussolini's Roman Empire (London: 1976).
    Peukert, Detlev J.K.  Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life (Harmondsworth: 1989).
    Deutscher, Isaac.  Stalin: A Political Biography, 2d ed.  (Oxford: 1967).
    Strawson, John.  Churchill and Hitler: In Victory and Defeat (New York: 1998).
    Parker, Robert Alexander Clarke.  Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War (New York: 1993).

World War II--U.S.
    Blum, John M.  V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture during World War II (1976).
    Hartman, Susan.  The Homefront and Beyond: Women in World War II (Twayne Publishers: 1982).
    Honey, Maureen.  Creating Rosie the Riveter (Rutgers University Press: 1989).
    PS=Lomax, Eric. The Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality, and Forgiveness (New York: 1995).
    PS=Kimball, Warren F., ed.  Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (Princeton: 1984).

The Holocaust
    Dinnerstein, Leonard.  America and the Survivors of the Holocaust (1982).
    Berenbaum, Michael and Abraham J. Peck, eds. The Holocaust and History: The Known, The Unknown, The Disputed, and the Reexamined (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998).
    Brenner, Michael.  After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany (Princeton: 1997).
    PS=Abzug, Robert H. America Views the Holocaust, 1933-1945: A Brief Documentary History (Boston: 1999).
    PS=Halter, Marek. Stories of Deliverance: Speaking with Men and Women Who Rescued Jews from the Holocaust (Chicago: 1998).
    PS=Wiesel, Elie. Night.

Vietnam War
    Herring, George.  America's Longest War (Wiley: 1979).
    PS=Herr, Michael. Dispatches (Vintage Books: 1991).
    PS=Hayslip, Le Ly with Jay Wurts.  When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (Plume: 1990).
    PS=Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War (Holt, Rinehart & Winston: 1977).
    Halberstam, David.  The Best and the Brightest (Random House: 1972).

Slavery in the United States
    Kolchin, Peter.  American Slavery, 1619-1877 (New York: Hill & Wang, 1993).
    Countryman, Edward, ed.  How Did American Slavery Begin? (Boston: 1999).
    Berlin, Ira.  Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (Cambridge: 1998).
    Morton, Patricia.  Discovering the Women in Slavery (Athens: 1996).
    White, Deborah Gray.  Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (Norton: 1985).
    Stevenson, Brenda E.  Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South (New York: 1996).
    PS=Finkelman, Paul. Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: 1997).
    PS=Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Civil Rights
    Weisbrot, Robert.  Freedom Bound (Plume: 1990).
    Winters, Paul A.  The Civil Rights Movement (San Diego: 2000).
    Halberstam, David.  The Children (New York: 1998).
    Kohn, Howard.  We Had a Dream: A Tale of the Struggle for Integration in America (New York: 1998).
    Van Deburg, William L.  New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975 (Chicago: 1992).
    PS=King, Martin Luther, Jr.  The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: 1998).
    PS=Rakove, Jack. Declaring Rights: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: 1998).
    PS=The chapter on the Civil Rights movement in Albert, Stewart and Judith Albert, The Sixties Papers (Praeger: 1984).
 
 
 
 

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