Guides: HIST 364: Canada 1914-1945: Home

Getting Started

Canadian History
by Kristen Howard Last Updated Feb 18, 2025 1402 views this year

Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada
An excellent research to familiarize yourself with important people in the history of Canada.

Find Secondary Sources

Find books and eBooks

Library Catalogue

Find peer-reviewed articles

America: History and Life (EBSCO)
Provides historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes information abstracted from over 2,000 journals published worldwide.
CBCA (Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database) (ProQuest)
A longstanding, comprehensive Canadian periodical collection covering multiple subjects and topics, with millions of full-text records. Accessible to readers and researchers at every level, it features a diversified mix of publications, including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, reports, radio and television transcripts, news, and dissertations. - Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Erudit
Multidisciplinary social science and humanities publications containing journals and e-book collections from Quebec University Presses including: Presses de l'Université de Montréal, Presses de l'Université Laval, Publications du CRIR. Erudit Cultural Magazines collection is not included in McGill's subscription.

Find Primary Sources

Collections at McGill

McGill Archival Collections Catalogue
Search for primary sources held in McGill's archival collections. Some, but not all, items are digitized.
Canadian War Poster Collection
The holdings of the Print Collection in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division include some 250 Canadian posters from the two World Wars.

Newspapers

Proquest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail (ProQuest)
Coverage 1844-2018

Historical Canadian Newspapers
Access single titles and multi-newspaper databases from all over Canada.
SFU Digitized Newspapers
A resource for digitized immigrant and foreign-language papers. By Simon Fraser University.

General Collections

Canadiana
Virtual library of full-text historical content about Canada, including books, magazines and government documents.

BAnQ Numérique
Digital collections from the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
Canadian Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 1901-2019 via LiPaD
Digitized transcripts of Canadian Parliamentary Debates ("Hansard"), 1901-2019, available via the Linked Parliamentary Data Project at the University of Toronto.
Canada Year Book Historical Collection, 1867-1967
These year books from Stats Can include historical data as well as interpretations of current events that could inform your research.

NFB (National Film Board of Canada)
Contains documentaries, animated films, interactive productions, and short films in English and French.
Try searching the NFB database by keyword or phrase (e.g., "world war"), then sorting results by Publication Date (older first).

Society, Culture & Politics in Canada: Canadiana Pamphlets, 1818-1929
This collection of pamphlets at McMaster University Library deal with many aspects of Canadian history, literature, social and political conditions. Included are pamphlets on religion and churches, all levels of government, elections, peace movements and war service, Communism, local communities and labor organizations to name but a few of the topics covered. From Archives Unbound.

To best use the McMaster pamphlets collection, consider first exploring the associated Finding Aid. Tip: use ctrl or command + F to keyword search.

Note: after conducting an initial search within the collection, using the new Search box will search all of Archives Unbound rather than just the pamphlet collection. To more easily limit, use the 'Filter Your Results' option at the right to limit to McMaster University.

WWI & WWII

Canadian Military Oral Histories (University of Victoria)
The Canadian Military Oral History Collection is composed of more than 300 interviews of veterans of WWI, WWII, the Korean War and the War in Afghanistan.
Canadian Letters and Images Project
The Canadian Letters and Images Project is an online archive of the Canadian war experience, from any war, home front and battlefront, as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves. Includes collections for WWI and WWII, as well as other conflicts.
WWI Diaries (LAC)
From the start of the First World War, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) units were required to maintain a daily account of their "Actions in the Field." This log was called a war diary. This collection contains the digitized war diaries of CEF infantry, artillery and cavalry units, brigade, division and corps commands and support units such as railway and forestry troops.

First World War Portal (Adam Matthew)
Focuses on items from Britain, but includes many posters and other items related to Canada and the Great War.
Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War (ProQuest)
Archival research resource containing rare magazines by and for servicemen and women of all nations during the First World War. Coverage: 1914 - 1919
Includes 63 publications for Canadian units. Identify these by clicking "Publications", then "Unit Origin" and select Canada.
Subject coverage: English , French, German & American Literature / Writing / Periodicals, Women’s Literature / Women’s Writing, The First World War / World War 1, Trench Journalism, Popular Culture, Military, Armed Forces, Military History,
The Periodical Press, Illustrated Periodicals, Political Satire, Politics/Political Science, English Poetry, Military Veterans, History of Medicine / Caregiving / Welfare.
Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Service Newspapers of World War Two (Adam Matthew)
This digital resource reveals the story of war as told by the newspapers that brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas.
Includes 16 newspapers with Canada as the Country of Origin.

Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War (Canadian War Museum)
Collection of more than 140,000 clippings, arranged by subject and date, includes news stories and editorials from newspapers, mostly Canadian, documenting every aspect of the war. English articles are drawn from the Hamilton Spectator; French articles are drawn from Le Devoir.

America in World War Two (Adam Matthew)
This digital resource focuses on American military personnel and civilians during WW2, but includes over 300 items relevant to Canada or Canadians including photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and over 30 oral histories.

Citations

History as a discipline uses the Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition) for citations, and usually the Notes-Bibliography form. This requires creating properly formatted footnotes footnotes and a Bibliography for your assignments. Resources to understand the Chicago style of citations are included below.

Note: Chicago Manual of Style updated to the 18th edition in September 2024.

HCS Guide to the Chicago Manual of Style
A guide to the Chicago Manual of Style developed for students in History and Classics (18th edition).

The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition
Publication Date: 2024
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition by Kate L. Turabian
Call Number: LB2369 T8 2018
Publication Date: 2018
A guide to Chicago Manual of Style with more information on hard-to-cite or unusual sources than the original manual. Note that this manual has not yet been updated to reflect the changes in the 18th edition of Chicago.

Guides

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Quick Guide
McGill Library Citation Subject Guide
Under "citation styles by subject", select "History" for more resources on Chicago style.

Library Support

Chicago Workshops
McGill Librarians offer virtual Chicago Citation Style workshops every term. Follow this link to find and register for upcoming workshops!
Citation Management
Attend a workshop to learn how to use Zotero or EndNote, useful citation management systems. Zotero is highly recommended for History students!

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