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HIST 214: Global History of Food

Why Consult a Reference Resource?

Reference resources are a great place to begin your research.  They can help you define terms as well as to find basic information about a topic, a chronicle of its history, theories, key people and sometimes a bibliography of additional sources. 

There are many different types of reference sources, which include dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, bibliographies, handbooks, style manuals to name a few.

Encyclopedias

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
REF GT2850 .E53 2003 (Education and Engineering & Science libraries)

Dictionary of Food and Nutrition

The Oxford Handbook of Food, Politics and Society

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Food, Agriculture & Nutrition
REF TX349 .M2 (Stauffer Library) 

Bibliographies like Oxford Bibliographies offer authoritative research guides helping you to narrow the vast number of citations to the best scholarship on a given topic.

For example, there is a separate guide on Sugar and bananas are mentioned in a number of guides, e,g. Latin American Studies, African Studies. 

Bibliographies...

Food Bibliography
A bibliographical database of citations only for researchers in the field of food history.