Martell's PRIME SITES: World History

World History

Pre-History to the Present

Ancient World	Medieval World	Modern World
To 476 A.D.	476 - 1600 A.D.	1600 - Present

WORLD HISTORY SITES

Development of Western Civilization: World History

This impressive site by Nancy Mautz connects a selective list of countries and periods to a content outline that has a History Section -- people, places, events, and resources, and an Art Section -- art, music, drama, literature, daily life, and culture of the period. Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Recent (1945 to Present) History are covered in considerable detail. There are many sites. Some have brief but informative annotations.

Documents in Law, History, and Government

The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School is a valuable resource with thousands of original documents. There are over 100 documents translated into English from the Archives of the German Foreign Office on Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-41. The documents are organized by author/title, title of collection, and century starting with a pre 18th century category. The majority of documents are related to the United States.

Documents in Military History
	Contains information about battles fought from Ancient to Modern times. Some wars or engagements may have to 2 or 3 electronic documents while others such as the Napoleonic Wars may link to a dozen or more. The texts usually describe a battle from the perspective of a participant.

Electronic Text Collections
	Excellent list of sites organized by historical period, century and region or continent. Both comprehensive and specialized sites are included.

Historical Information Resources
	One hundred forty six sites with good reviews of selected new sites.

History of the World

This site provides a combination of graphics, lifelines, timelines, and maps for the last 3,000 years of world history. There are four major categories - history, events, people, and maps. These are arranged on a timeline or lifeline. Major world figures, for example, are listed on the lifeline. Click on a name and a small frame appears along the right margin. This frame provides extremely brief biographical information and occasionally links to other sites.

Humanities at the Data Center: Web Resources

An excellent annotated list of selected electronic text resources available on the web. The sites are divided by language and classified by project or collection. The textual editions listed under the appropriate language are often of high quality while the quality of those listed under General Collections: Universal varies greatly. This site is particularly b in literature; however, valuable historical texts are also accessible.

Index of Resources for Historians
	The size and the range of coverage of this site - Ancient to Modern – are impressive. About 3,000 sites are arranged alphabetically by subject and name. Major gateways are in boldface.

Repositories of Primary Sources
	A list of over 3,000 websites linked to holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary resources for scholars. The list is organized by continent, region, and country. There is no indication as to which sites have texts available electronically.

Voice of the Shuttle: History Page
	Extensive list of sites organized by continent, country, subject (economic history, military history, and history of the family) and general topics (conferences). Some sites are annotated.

World Civilization 101 Reader: Images and Texts of the Past
	A list of sites appropriate for a history course covering prehistoric times to 1500 A.D.

World Cultures: An Internet Classroom and Anthology
	A visually appealing, finely organized, online research textbook of world cultures and history. The articles by Richard Hooker and the full-text resources range from relatively brief to lengthy, e.g., the Native American Anthology's "origins of life" tales.

ANCIENT WORLD SITES

ABZU: Resources for the Study of the Ancient NearEast
	This large scholarly site associated with the Argos group is organized by Primary Indexes (author and project or institutional affiliation) and Secondary Indexes (regional - Egypt and Mesopotamia and subject - maps and atlases, online journals, and other categories). The sites are extremely varied including articles or book excerpts, book reviews, faculty home pages, and associations.

Amazing Ancient World of Western Civilization
	Visually appealing and attractive site with a long list of links to other sites. Short descriptions of valuable sites are written in a lively and engaging manner.

The Ancient World: Civilizations and Barbarianism; Philosophies and Changing Religions; Achievements and Limitations
	This electronic book by Frank Smitha has 30 chapters with multiple links to other sites. Some of these sites have lengthy textual material. The book has 30 maps and 8 photographs.

Ancient World Web
	Includes a mega index (a list of all sites), a geography index, and a short but selective subject index. The 1 to 4 line descriptions of each site are quite helpful.

Argos: Limited Area Search of the Ancient and Medieval Internet
	Very good site linked to a set of excellent associate sites via simple keyword searching. Each of the dozen or so sites can also be searched directly.

Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet
	This well-constructed site by Paul Halsall attempts to track all Byzantine material. It begins with 2 pages of background information about Byzantium. The resources are organized around themes including course outlines, bibliographies, articles, images, music, reference documents, and links to other sites.

Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology Home Page
	There are many links to resources of interest to classicists and archaeologists.

Exploring Ancient World Cultures: An Introduction to Ancient World Cultures on the World-Wide Web
	An attractive site with material on the Near East, India, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, Islam and Europe. There is a brief description of each country or theme with a corresponding list of full-text readings. Also includes an essay index, images index to scores of Internet sites, excellent annotated list of Internet sites, and index to many electronic texts.

External Gateway to Humanities Resources, University of Cambridge

This site has 10 subject categories including Ancient History, Classical Journals & Bibliographic Databases, and Philosophy & Ancient Science. The Ancient History category includes subjects such as Greek, Religion, Roman, and Sexuality. The links for each category seem to be well chosen. As an Associate Site of the Argos search engine it is possible to use keywords to search the Internet for subjects of interest.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

The goal of this site is to provide organized texts for use in classroom situations for the study of the Ancient Near East,Greece, and Rome. Access to full-text materials is emphasized. Many hundreds of full-text resources can be found at the sites listed. The site also has links to ancient legal sources and visual and aural materials. The site is a companion to Halsall's Medieval Sourcebook and Modern History Sourcebook. His sites are recognized for their quality and the scope and organization of the material that they contain.

Lactus Curtius: Into the Roman World

A well developed site by Bill Thayer with many useful features: (1) gazetteer with 229 images and a brief commentary on Roman towns and monuments; (2) atlas with 29 maps; (3) links to over 1300 websites on the history, art, and literature of Ancient Rome; (4) Latin inscription site; (5) Thomas Codrington’s 1903 classic Roman Roads in Britain; (6) 28 chapters and 13 maps from the Geography of Claudius Ptolemy; and (7) Books 1-37 (Latin) of the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.

Perseus Project: An Evolving Digital Library

This site for the study of the ancient world includes ancient texts and translations, maps, secondary essays, and other well-organized information. The Primary Text Index contains the works of thirty Greek literary figures. The Overview of Archaic and Classical Greek History by Tom Martin is an exciting electronic book with cross-links to other factual and textual materials. In the Essays and Catalogs section under Secondary Sources there are electronic texts by and about Thucydides. As one of the Argos Associates there is a valuable keyword searching feature.

Virtual Tour of Rome

This engaging virtual tour consists of 80 photographs of the Roman Forum and the histories of 22 major buildings. There is a detailed chronology of the Roman Empire in 25 year intervals. The descriptions of each interval are brief but there are multiple cross-links to the people and events cited. A picture index, maps, and a list of related sites contribute to the value of this interesting resource.

MEDIEVAL WORLD SITES

Argos: Limited Area Search of the Ancient and Medieval Internet
	A very good site linked to a set of excellent associate sites via a simple keyword searching process. Each of the dozen or so sites can also be searched directly.

The Development of Western Civilization: World History: Medieval World
	This impressive site by Nancy Mautz uses a content outline to connect to people, places, events, and resources and to art, music, drama, literature, daily life, and culture of the period. Some of the many sites are provided with brief but informative descriptions.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe.
	Selected transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations of many important documents from Medieval and Renaissance Europe organized in chronological order.

The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources
	An attractive, well-designed site with information about many aspects of Medieval life. The History section includes "documents" and "military and warfare" with 11 and 22 entries respectively. The full-text of Sun Tzu's The Art of War is included. There are only 3 links to other general sites but they are among the best. This is an Argos Associate Site.

Internet Medieval Sourcebook

One of the great sites. Editor Paul Halsall emphasizes access to primary texts. The site is well-organized and the layout is exemplary. The 26 "subjects" sections include countries, periods, events, and themes. In each section there are lengthy lists of well-chosen sites. In addition there are major divisions by Full Text Sources, Saints' Lives, Medieval Legal History, and Maps and Images. The Full Text Sources contain many book length resources.

Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies

A thoughtfully organized site with links to selective resources of high quality. There are links to online journals and some full-length materials. The National Cultures index has nine entries by country. The International Cultures index has 10 entries including medieval, religious, and social history. There are 5 Special Topics including medieval women, medievalism in postmodern contexts, and Vikings, runes, and Norse culture. The Medieval Studies Text, Image, and Archival Database has some excellent sites. Labyrinth is encouraging contributions to its Pedagogical Resources database.

Medieval Life & The Hundred Years War

An electronic book with 200,000 words in hypertext. The chronological coverage is good but the book lacks a cohesive point of view that ties the various parts together. One of the ber sections, Medieval Society and Culture, is 3 pages long with 20 cross-links to subjects as varied as Pay Rates for Royal Officials and Fertility, Life Expectancy, and Survivability. Some original documents are included. Currently there are no links to other websites.

Medieval Literature and History Home Page
	A well-designed site with annotated descriptions of a fine selection of websites.

Old English Pages

An encyclopedic compendium of resources for the study of Old English and Anglo-Saxon England. Among the sections are Texts & MSS, History, and More Links. The Text Collections and Texts & Translations subsections in Texts & MSS are selective and reference resources on diskette and other formats as well as Internet sites. There are many links to the Labyrinth Library: Old English. The annotations are excellent. The More Links section has a good selection of sites. These are not annotated.

Online Medieval and Classical Library
	This collection includes 35 full-length texts of some of the most important literary works of Classical and Medieval Civilization. Each of the texts can be searched by title, author, genre, and language.

On-Line Reference Book (ORB): On-Line Text Materials for Medieval Studies

The ORB Encyclopedia is an index of original essays arranged by topic. The ORB Library Connection links to texts on this and other servers. Among the links are the first-rate Halsall sites, the Global Catholic Network Library with 9,000 files, and as many as 100 full-text resources. The ORB Reference Shelf includes online bibliographies at other sites, graphics, and other useful sites sorted by subject, e.g., general medieval resources, history, and literature and manuscripts.

Sources for Medieval Studies on the WWW
	The coverage of medieval life is extensive. The index has 12 categories including literature, music, art and architecture, and history.

Texts and Documents: Europe
	Each period is organized by subject - Ancient Mediterranean (16), Medieval Europe (15), Early Modern Europe (15), and Modern Europe (24). There are links from the subjects to hundreds of full-text materials at this and other sites.

World History Compass: Europe: Medieval
	A very large list of sites accessible through a simple to use alphabetical index organized primarily by country and continent.

WWW Medieval Resources
	A fine selection of sites with coverage of Medieval Life. The menu offers links to Medieval History, Archaeology & Architecture, texts from and about the Medieval Period, discussion lists, archives of manuscript facsimiles, and other resources.

MODERN WORLD SITES

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
	The History of Europe as a Supernational Region is one of the two "modern" categories at this site. There are links directly to transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations at this site and to major document collections at other sites. The other category links to an index of documents organized chronologically by country. The number of documents that are accessible appears to be in the thousands.

Great Speeches
	Listen to excerpts from Winston Churchill's "this is their finest hour" speech and seven others from the decade of the 1940s to the present. The longest speech is about five minutes. The layout is attractive and well designed. Real Player 3.0 audio and a 28.8 connection orgreater are required to hear the speeches.

The Great War 1914-1918
	A creative and visually inspiring site with a wonderful mixture of graphics, images, and text. The poetry of Wilfred Owens and Siegfried Sassoon is included. There is a fine section on Poetry, Photos and Art of the Great War. The links chosen by Tony Novosel are very selective and typically annotated. This site is a member of the WW1 Web Ring, War Ring, and History Ring.

Modern History Sourcebook

The goal of this site is to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures. Access to full-text materials is emphasized. Hundreds can be found at this site and hundreds more through links to other sites. The site is a companion to Halsall's Ancient History and Medieval Sourcebooks. Paul Halsall's sites are recognized for their quality and the scope and organization of the material that they contain.

Notes on the 20th Century: A World History
	This electronic book by Frank Smitha has 30 chapters ranging from a few pages to as many as 20 pages. Three maps and some recommended readings are included. There are no cross-links.

An Overview of World War I
	This is an attractive site with a 4-page overview of the war, a fine selection of other sites, and a good mix of images and text.

Texts and Documents: Europe
	Each period is organized by subject - Ancient Mediterranean (16), Medieval Europe (15), Early Modern Europe (15), and Modern Europe (24). There are links from the 24 Modern Europe subjects to many full-text materials at this and other sites.

The World War I Document Archive

An excellent site. This archive of primary documents is organized by Conventions, Treaties and Official Papers, Documents byYear, Memorials and Personal Reminiscences, WW 1 Biographical Dictionary, WW 1 Image Archive (over 1000 images, including flags, maps, medals, and photos), Special Topics and Commentary Articles, and finally World War 1Sites: Links to Other Resources. This last site located at the University of Kansas (http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ ww_one/links.html) provides an extensive list of resources by country with brief descriptions of some entries.

World War I: Trenches on the Web
	A visually stunning highly sophisticated site with excellent images, brief biographies with cross-links, and an abundance of features including weapons of war, maps, photos and posters, documents archive, and list of other sites.

WW II Resources

Contains an impressive number of original documents regarding all aspects of the war. The Japanese Monographs section lists 187 studies of Japan's role in WW II written by the Japanese participants in the war's events. 6 of the studies are available as full-text. The On-Line Books from the U.S. Center of Military History section has 25 full-text publications. French (Yellow Book) and British (War Blue Book) sections have important state documents about pre-war political strategies.