Time Periods Research

It is often a smart idea to start your research with a good encyclopedia to gain background information and fill in the gaps of your own knowledge.  

Search for books, ebooks, articles, and more

Having trouble finding a book covering a specific time period, for example, “fashions of 1912”? 

Some individual years, e.g. 1776, or 1968, are significant enough to have whole books written about them. 

But usually, you won't get many results if you try to search for an item only covering one specific year.  

SPECIFIC YEAR

You can always try a search for a specific year; just don't be discouraged if you come up with nothing. There are plenty of other ways to search. 

If you can't find what you need by a specific year, try broadening your search to searching by decade.

The following examples use "Advanced Search" mode in OneSearch

DECADES 

Remember that the 1940s is also called the 40s and even “nineteen forties.” To find all of these instances at the same time, try something like this in Advanced Search

Don’t forget to put ‘or’ between your search terms or the quotes around “nineteen forties”

CENTURIES

Entering the century in numerals (e.g. 18th century) will get the results for specific subjects, subdivided by century (e.g. Costume-- 18th century) BUT spelling out the time period will get results for books that are about that century in general (e.g. eighteenth century).

You can combine the two in Advanced Search. For example :

TIP: Don’t forget the ‘OR’ 
  
If searching by decade or century is too narrow, or too broad, or inexact, or you want to do a more exhaustive search of a specific time period, you can search for a DEFINED OR NAMED TIME PERIOD OR SPECIFIC HISTORICAL EVENT.

ERAS, HISTORICAL EVENTS AND MOVEMENTS

Some historically significant time periods are given names that relate to technological development (Bronze Age), events (“World War II, or rulers (“Han Dynasty”). Some historical time periods as they relate to the arts or ideas named after movements, schools of thought and expression. Art Deco, Renaissance, Age of Reason, Post-Modern Era
      
In other words, if you need to find information on architecture during the 1920s, you might try searching for “Art Deco” AND architecture, as well as by decade.