LibGuides: History 200D: Music in History: Book Reviews

Where to Begin

The best place to begin searching for reviews of scholarly books (sometimes called "scholarly monographs") is with the same article databases you use to find scholarly articles (see Section IV of this guide). For this class, we recommend beginning with one or more of the following databases:

Historical Abstracts
Journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on all aspects of world history, excluding North America, from 1450. Includes links to the full text of some articles. Complements America: History and Life. Indexes publications from 1954-present.
America: History and Life
The main article database for researching American history. Use to find journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on all periods of North American history. Includes some links to full text. Complements Historical Abstracts. Indexes publications from 1964-present.
Music Periodicals Database
Journal articles, book reviews, book chapters, and conference proceedings, on all aspects of music. Indexes publications from 1874-present, with the majority from 1996-present.
Music Index
Journal articles, magazine articles, book reviews, and articles from trade publications on all aspects of music. Formerly Music Index Online. Indexes publications 1970-present.
RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) Abstracts of Music Literature
Journal articles, periodical articles, book reviews, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations, sound recordings on all aspects of music. Indexes publications 1800-present.

Other Online Sources

Book Review Index
Book reviews from thousands of journals, magazines, and newspapers. Emphasis on humanities, social sciences, general non-fiction, and fiction. Indexes book reviews from 1980-present.
Book Review Digest Retrospective, 1908-1982
Book reviews published in American and British periodicals, journals, trade magazines, and other books. Most reviews come from general periodicals, rather than specialized sources of the kind you would find in an article database like Historical Abstracts.
JSTOR
The full text of over 2,800 scholarly journals, with coverage back to the first issue for each, in some cases as far back as the 17th century. Recent issues of most journals in this database are embargoed by journal publishers, so to be certain you are also identifying the most recent publications, use an article index like Historical Abstracts or America: History, and Life.
Project MUSE
Over 600 scholarly journals, with emphasis on recent ten years of issues. Originally intended as a complement to JSTOR.

Print Sources

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974 by Evan Ira Farber
Call Number: 016.3 C733
ISBN: 0840801572
Publication Date: 1979
Indexes book reviews from the backfiles of 459 scholarly journals in history, political science, and sociology. 15 volumes. Volumes 1-12 are an author index (author of the book being reviewed), and volumes 13-15 are a title index (title of the book being reviewed).
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals 1802-1974 by Evan T. Farber
Call Number: 016.0013 C733
ISBN: 089235061X
Publication Date: 1983
A companion to the Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974 (q.v.). Indexes book reviews from an additional 150 journals not included in the original set.
Bibliographie der deutschen Rezensionen by Felix Dietrich
Call Number: 028.05 BID
Publication Date: 1901-1944
77 volumes that index both German-language book reviews as well as non-German language book reviews from the years 1901-1943. Covers thousands of journals and periodicals. A companion to Bibliographie der deutschen Zeitschriftenliteratur. Continued by Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen wissenschaftlicher Literature.
Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen wissenschaftlicher Literatur = International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature = Bibliographie internationale des recensions de la littérature savante
Call Number: 028.05 INT
Publication Date: 1971-
Covers 1968-present, with some coverage of earlier years. Intended as a companion to Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur aus allen Gebieten des Wissens, and a continuation of Bibliographie der Rezensionen. Title changes to Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen and then Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen wissenschaftlicher Literatur.
Guía a las reseñas de libros de y sobre Hispanoamérica = A Guide to Reviews of Books from and about Hispanic America by Antonio Matos
Call Number: 028 G94
Publication Date: 1960-1990
Includes both citations and summaries of book reviews.
Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities
Call Number: 028.05 IN
ISBN: 0073-5892
Publication Date: 1960-1990
Beginning with the volume for 1970, includes less representation of historical monographs. Though allied fields are still covered, focus became limited to reviews of books on art, architecture, biography, memoirs, drama, dance, folklore, language, literature, music, and philosophy.