LibGuides: British History: Books, eBooks & Videos

Start Your Research

Welcome to the subject guide for British History! It is intended as an introduction to the resources the Library contains to help you with your research in this area. For information about Library resources for the history of other countries and areas please see: the World History Guide; Canadian History Guide; Chinese History Guide; Japanese History; Medieval History Guide

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text general and subject-specific reference titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.

The New A - Z of Empire: A Concise Handbook of British Imperial History
The British Empire, especially in its late-Victorian heyday, spanned the world and linked a quarter of world's population to Britain through a shared, official, allegiance to the Crown. In the long history of empires the British imperial state was among the most powerful ever and a major global player.
Twentieth-Century Britain: An Encyclopedia
The biographical and topical articles, each accompanied by a brief bibliography, cover a wide array of subjects from politics to the arts. Issues of gender and the impact of the two World Wars receive special emphasis. In contrast to the political focus of other guides, Twentieth-Century Britain gives comparable attention to literature, music, social currents, and family life, and also includes a chronology of significant events and a guide to further research.
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
Brings together more than 700 articles written by 150 top scholars that cover the people, places, activities, and creations of the Anglo-Saxons.

Try our Summon Search and find resources across our entire library collection - books, journal articles and more!

Find Books, eBooks & Videos

Search our Library Catalogue for books, eBooks & films

Hint: try to use just a few keywords to describe your topic - what are the main concepts?

Search Summon for eBooks only

Can't find the book at Kwantlen? You can submit an Interlibrary Loan request: we will borrow the book from another university.

What's New? Check out our New History Books list!

Call numbers are like a book's address on the shelf - they help you locate items in the library. You will always find books shelved together by subject so understanding call numbers can help you find many resources on the shelves. Your Kwantlen library - like most academic libraries worldwide - uses an alpha-numeric (letter and number) system to arrange books on the shelf.

DA: British History DA 774.5 S27 2011

Locating a book is a progressive process: for example, to find a book with the call number DA 774.5 S27 2011 follow these steps.

DA → first find the call numbers starting with D: following that will be DA, DB, DC etc

774.5 → now start looking for the number, starting with 1 and working your way up to 256

S → now start looking for the next letter, starting with A, B, C, etc.

27 → now start looking for the next number, starting with 1 and working your way up to 4,613

2011 → the year the book was published

The Location: This will tell you which campus has the item, or if it is available full text online. Most items can be transferred to another campus through the "Place Hold" links.

Reference books and circulating books are shelved separately. In the Surrey library reference books are on the ground floor and circulating books are on the second floor.

Who is the author?

holds an advanced degree in the subject covered by the book?
professional or researcher in the field?
is the author affiliated with a university / professional organization?

Purpose?

original research
literature review
advances research in discipline

Cited Sources?

bibliography / extensive notes
cites other scholarly sources
has an index

Publisher?

university press
scholarly publisher

Language?

uses terminology of the discipline
is written for other scholars / students

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Academic, career, and technical streaming videos. KPU's largest streaming video subscription.

Please use Google Chrome when playing videos on campus. When using PCs in e-classrooms, videos should be accessible through Internet Explorer.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
National Film Board This link opens in a new window
Streaming videos from Canada's National Film Board (NFB).

Please use Google Chrome when playing videos on campus. When using PCs in e-classrooms, videos should be accessible through Internet Explorer.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
Curio.ca This link opens in a new window
Streaming video, films, and audio content from CBC and Radio-Canada in both French and English.

Please use Google Chrome when playing videos on campus. When using PCs in e-classrooms, videos should be accessible through Internet Explorer.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.

KPU Library

British History

History Liaison Librarian

New Library Books

Start Your Research

Find Books, eBooks & Videos