The Gale Group has outdone itself with this superb online library of materials – primary, secondary and tertiary – relating to the modern world. This virtual library combines the resources needed for any study of world history with a flexible and easy‐to‐use search tool. History Resource Center: The Modern World focuses on Europe, Asia, Africa, India, and Latin America in the twentieth century. Of special note is the coverage of the two world wars. Furthermore, drawing on the Gale database History Resource Center: The US, The Modern World presents US issues and events that had worldwide impact.
The Modern World integrates 17 print reference sources from the Gale Group, Macmillan Reference USA and Charles Scribner’s Sons, along with full‐text articles from over 100 academic journals, such as East European Quarterly, Journal of African Studies, Journal of Social History, Middle Eastern Studies, and Victorian Studies. These resources, along with over 1,400 primary documents, 400 historical maps and over 900 images, combine to make this database a major resource for any high school or undergraduate student.
The Modern World excels with an easy‐to‐use search engine that will satisfy the novice as well as the more advanced researcher. At the beginning, users are presented with a basic search box. Users should simply type in search terms, click on the Search button, and the results will be displayed. The list of results is divided into the major categories of Reference Materials, Periodicals, Primary Sources and Maps and Images. These divisions are noted by different tags at the top of the result list. Users can refine their search to the format wanted or look at all possible resources. They must mark the resources they would like to see and view them as appropriate.
Searches may be refined by selecting Person, Subject or Advanced Search, where features can be combined. I especially liked the Chronology search. Having worked in a public library for many years, I recall that one of the questions we all hated dealt with “what happened in a certain year”. The Modern World makes this search easy. Users can simply select Chronology as a search feature and then choose a decade. They can keep refining their search until they reach the events in the year wanted. Then, they can choose to refine their search further to Arts & Ideas, Politics, Government & Economics, Science, Technology & Medicine or Society. This, however, is also the only problem that I had with this database. With the chronology listing, I would have liked to click on the entry to get access to the documents. No such luck. Related topics are active, but the entries themselves are not, meaning that users would need to return the search screen and re‐enter their search. A direct link to the documents would be a nice feature. One useful added extra is the ability to search Keesing’s Contemporary Archives for 1931 to 1945. Excellent for the war, but this just begs the question: why not the other years?
Overall, History Resource Center: The Modern World is an excellent resource for high school and undergraduate students. Added features such as a Research Guide, a Faculty Guide, List of Sources, and Dictionary only strengthen the excellence of this product. Highly recommended.
