What’s new in BBIH?
The June and November 2021 updates to the Bibliography of British and Irish History combined add 5490 new publications. The new content includes books, journal articles, book chapters and edited collections covering all areas of British and Irish history, from 55 BCE to the present day.
These updates would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Simon Baker and Peter Salt. Simon’s editorship of the Bibliography ended in early 2021 but they have very generously assisted in the handover to a new editor, Jenny Lelkes-Rarugal, who started in July 2021.
These updates bring the total number of BBIH records to 633,053. The June and November 2021 updates include:
- 2954 titles that were published in 2020-2021
- 421 publications relating to Scottish history
- 168 publications about the history of Wales
- 574 publications focusing on Irish history, including 60 publications focusing on Northern Ireland
- 1066 new records for ‘Imperial and Commonwealth’, of which 197 records refer to the histories of colonial India and 141 records refer to histories of the American colonies
Environmental history and BBIH
The June and November 2021 updates combined contain 146 publications focusing on the environment, with the completed reading list being available to view online here. The full reading list contains 575 books, articles and chapters published between 2016 and 2021.
For History Day 2021, the Bibliography’s editors and Brepols created a list of BBIH records relating to this year’s theme: environmental history.
Phipps, Constantine John (1774) A voyage towards the North Pole : undertaken by His Majesty’s command, 1773. London : Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols for J. Nourse, p. 106. Source: Internet Archive
Urban history and BBIH
October was Urban History Month and the Bibliography contains over 37,000 resources for urban history. The June and November 2021 updates combined contain 279 new publications focusing on a wide variety of topics within urban history.
Grant, James (1881) Cassell’s Old and new Edinburgh: its history, its people, and its places. London, New York : Cassell, Petter, Galpin, p. 151. Source: Internet Archive
You can learn more about using BBIH by visiting our page of online tutorials, which include:
- The basics for searching
- How to use your results
- How to keep up-to-date with the latest published research in your field or manage your reference lists or bibliographies
- Behind-the-scenes guide to how BBIH is compiled.
Short video guides are designed for:
- New undergraduates and those planning and researching a final year dissertation
- MA and PhD students for whom BBIH is essential for writing a literature review and studying secondary fields of interest.
For lecturers, teachers and librarians, there are also tutorial videos the Bibliography’s online tutorials can all be embedded in a virtual learning environment (VLE). Presentations are also available here to promote the Bibliography to your students and staff.
About the Bibliography of British and Irish History
The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) is the largest and most comprehensive guide available to what’s been written about British and Irish history, from the early 1900s to 2021.
It’s an essential resource for research and teaching, providing up-to-date information (and links) on over 633,000 history books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses. New records are added in three annual updates. These records are searchable by a wide range of facets including: title, author, chronology, date and form of publication, historical topic and geographical region.
The Bibliography is a research project of the UK’s Institute of Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society, and is published by Brepols. BBIH is a subscription service and is available remotely via university and research libraries worldwide.