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Recent books
Early Modern Privacy: Sources and Approaches by
Privacy is often considered a modern phenomenon. Early Modern Privacy: Sources and Approacheschallenges this view. This collection examines instances, experiences, and spaces of early modern privacy, and opens new avenues to understanding the structures and dynamics that shape early modern societies. Scholars of architectural history, art history, church history, economic history, gender history, history of law, history of literature, history of medicine, history of science, and social history detail how privacy and the private manifest within a wide array of sources, discourses, practices, and spatial programmes. In doing so, they tackle the methodological challenges of early modern privacy, in all its rich, historical specificity.Contributors: Ivana Bičak, Mette Birkedal Bruun, Maarten Delbeke, Willem Frijhoff, Michael Green, Mia Korpiola, Mathieu Laflamme, Natacha Klein Käfer, Hang Lin, Walter S. Melion, Hélène Merlin-Kajman, Lars Cyril Nørgaard, Anne Régent-Susini, Marian Rothstein, Thomas Max Safley, Valeria Viola, Lee Palmer Wandel, and Heide Wunder.
Making Sense of World History by
Making Sense of World History is a comprehensive and accessible textbook that helps students understand the key themes of world history within a chronological framework stretching from ancient times to the present day. To lend coherence to its narrative, the book employs a set of organizing devices that connect times, places, and/or themes. This narrative is supported by: Flowcharts that show how phenomena within diverse broad themes interact in generating key processes and events in world history. A discussion of the common challenges faced by different types of agent, including rulers, merchants, farmers, and parents, and a comparison of how these challenges were addressed in different times and places. An exhaustive and balanced treatment of themes such as culture, politics, and economy, with an emphasis on interaction. Explicit attention to skill acquisition in organizing information, cultural sensitivity, comparison, visual literacy, integration, interrogating primary sources, and critical thinking. A focus on historical "episodes" that are carefully related to each other. Through the use of such devices, the book shows the cumulative effect of thematic interactions through time, communicates the many ways in which societies have influenced each other through history, and allows us to compare and contrast how they have reacted to similar challenges. They also allow the reader to transcend historical controversies and can be used to stimulate class discussions and guide student assignments. With a unified authorial voice and offering a narrative from the ancient to the present, this is the go-to textbook for World History courses and students. The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
National Geographic Ultimate Visual History of the World by
Follow the fascinating threads of human history in this monumental volume, amply illustrated with maps, archival imagery, and revealing photographs. History comes to life in this comprehensive overview of humankind, from earliest times to the present day. Each page is filled with stunning visuals and thought-provoking text that make this book an instant classic. From the Babylonian Empire to the Persian Gulf War, from the Xia and Shang Dynasties of Bronze Age China to the new space race, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the digital age--here, in vivid color and crisp narrative, is the sweeping story of the history of civilization. Every chapter includes: Notable dates Salient quotations from the time Explanatory maps Fascinating sidebar stories Photographs of artifacts & landscapes Art works depicting dramatic scenes Visually driven, rich and far-reaching yet friendly and browsable, with iconic National Geographic maps, illustrations, and images enhancing the pages, this new book is a history-lover's dream. You can complete your collection of recent National Geographic history books with National Geographic History at a Glance and More Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar -- and you will treasure earlier National Geographic titles by this author, including The Biblical World,In the Footsteps of Jesus, and Archaeology of the Bible.
Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by
"Not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our not-really-so-'new' present . . . All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated . . . The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even some poems."--Wall Street Journal "A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic. As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world gradually comes into view . . . Powers and Thrones provides the reader with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells the story of an essential era of world history with skill and style."--The New York Times The New York Times bestselling author returns with an epic history of the medieval world--a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine--Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and culminates in the first European voyages to the Americas. The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European nationalities were formed; when the basic Western systems of law and governance were codified; when the Christian Churches matured as both powerful institutions and the regulators of Western public morality; and when art, architecture, philosophical inquiry and scientific invention went through periods of massive, revolutionary change. The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state of crisis and collapse to dominate the world. Every sphere of human life and activity was transformed in the thousand years covered by Powers and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium, Dan Jones shows that how we got here matters more than ever.
Time's Witness: History in the Age of Romanticism by
Between the fall of the Bastille in 1789 and the opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851, history changed. The grand narratives of the Enlightenment, concerned with kings and statesmen, gave way to a new interest in the lives of ordinary people. Oral history, costume history, the history of food and furniture, of Gothic architecture, theatre and much else were explored as never before. Antiquarianism, the study of the material remains of the past, was not new, but now hundreds of men - and some women - became antiquaries and set about rediscovering their national history, in Britain, France and Germany.
The Romantic age valued facts, but it also valued imagination and it brought both to the study of history. Among its achievements were the preservation of the Bayeux Tapestry, the analysis and dating of Gothic architecture, and the first publication of Beowulf. It dispelled old myths, and gave us new ones- Shakespeare's birthplace, clan tartans and the arrow in Harold's eye are among their legacies. From scholars to imposters the dozen or so antiquaries at the heart of this book show us history in the making.
Finding books on a topic in OneSearch
You can start looking for books about a topic by using OneSearch's basic search on the University Libraries' homepage.
Type your search terms in the OneSearch search box, then click the red button.
A number of filters are available in the column on the left side of the results page. Near the top of this column, find the "Content Type" filter and check the box for "Book/eBook." If book/ebook does not appear among the top four or five options within the filter, type "book" in the text box above the filter, then check "Book/eBook."
OR 
Optionally, you can check one or two additional boxes in the "Refine your search" filter.
- "Library Catalog" will ensure your list of results is restricted only to books available at Ball State University Libraries.
- "eBook Full Text Online" will restrict your results to electronic books, which you can link to and read online.
- Alternately, "Physical Books in Library Catalog" will restrict your results to printed books, removing ebooks from your list.
On your list of search terms, electronic items will be marked with a "Full Text Online" button. Printed items on your lists of results will be accompanied by location information: One of the campus' four libraries, a collection (or area) within that library, and the item's call number.
You will find more filters on the left side of the search page, such as "discipline" and "subject terms," which you can optionally use to continue refining your search.
Finding a specific book in OneSearch
You can find a specific book using OneSearch's advanced search.
Searching by title and author works well for finding a known book. On the advanced search page, type the title of the book you're looking for into one of the text boxes. Change the adjacent pull-down menu from "all fields" to "title." In another box, type the author's name - their last name is usually enough - and change the accompanying pull-down menu from "all fields" to "author."
If the University Libraries own a copy of the book you're looking for, it will appear near the top of your search results.
If you do not see the book you are looking for, the Libraries might not have it. A librarian can double check. If the Libraries do not have a copy of the book, you might be able to borrow it though interlibrary loan.
Finding books in WorldCat
WorldCat allows you to search for books and other items not available at Ball State's libraries. Books will be delivered to the Bracken Library, usually within two weeks. You will receive an email when the books is available for pick up.
To begin requesting items through WorldCat, complete the one-time free registration for ILLiad, the University Libraries' interlibrary loan service.
For help searching for items in WorldCat, please ask a librarian.