Skip to Main Content Albertsons Library Reservations

Historical Fiction

Resources that provide background information about people, places, settings, events and daily life.

Find...current news

Where you look for news that was happening during your story will depend on time period.  The following sources cover the more recent news but check the time periods covered by each database for your time period.

Find... old news

Where you look for news that was happening during your story will depend on the time period.  The following sources cover a variety of time periods so check the date range to see if your time period is covered.  The further back in time you go, the fewer resources that are available in these news sources.  For 1435 through 1780, there are databases covering materials from England or "the colonies" or both.  Before 1400, your best sources will be books covering the history of the time period.   Chronologies can give you a brief outline of major events throughout recorded history--some are listed in another box on this page.

To find additional sources, search Subject Headings like these:

Current events—Periodicals
Boise (Idaho)—Newspapers
History, Modern—20th century—Periodicals

Searching History Journals

Historians research various topics and write about them in history journals.  Perhaps one of the historians wrote an article about your topic.  To search the history literature for such articles, choose one of the following databases--depending on your geographic location and time period. 

Note: these sources also give information about book reviews and dissertations.  You will probably find these sources less useful, although a dissertation does have a wealth of information.  If you do find a book review, look the book up in WorldCat Local to see if it is available to you.  For a dissertation, look in the database Dissertation and Theses on the Articles, Databases page.  More recent dissertations are available in full in the Dissertation and Theses database. 

Chronologies