Question

Hi everyone. I have to research Jewish history in Europe from the Middle Ages to WWII, and discuss whether or not the holocaust was in the making for over 700 years. Do you have any tips on how I can write this topic into an essay? Please and thank you! I chose this topic because I think Jews have rich history.

Answer 1

You might look to see whether someone has already addressed this topic, or aspects of it. Once you've found one scholarly book on the subject, you've started down the path of finding your sources. Look to see who else that author has cited by scanning through the bibliography (or works cited) at the back, and checking endnotes or footnotes, and that will give you other books to look for. You'll need to read, at least in part, several books and quite possibly many more articles. Articles often capture the latest thinking -- if this happens to be an active topic -- because they are written and published much more quickly than books, but articles generally focus on one smaller aspect of your topic, since they are so much shorter.

Once you've done some reading, you'll begin to get a feel for the various lines of thought, the various arguments, and you can begin to formulate how you want to approach the topic. You will be (I assume) making an argument of your own and working the research you've done into the paper. This is generally the way it works. Or are you being asked simply to report? Once you've consulted many sources, you will also begin to get a feel for who the big names are in this field, particularly with respect to your topic, because you will see those names cited repeatedly in the sources of what you're reading and you may even see their arguments addressed within the text.

So, how do you find that first source? Normally, I would have said you head to a very good library -- a large public library might do to start, a university library would do it for sure -- and begin there. There are guides to periodicals you'll want to check. You look up by broad topic (holocaust, Jewish history, and so forth) and the guide will list periodicals. You can then scan through those issues and begin to find articles, the articles will lead you to other sources (both books and articles) and you're on your way. I don't know that much about scholarly research online, not in this general way to get started. You can find the titles of periodical articles, but you'll generally not be able to read them without a subscription to that site. Does your school have something set up online for you to use? Jagatuba or others may know something more about this aspect of it. Your teacher also should know. Hasn't she or he provided you with a way to get started researching?