Students of World War II will find a great deal of information to begin their research from the resources listed below. Resources include a wide array of coverage from broad topics like the origin of war to specific ones like the Munich Pact. The information is presented in a variety of formats including personal narratives, chronologies, primary documents, photographs, oral histories, and general encyclopedias. The terms and phrases listed in the subject headings below can be used to search for more materials in the library’s catalog and research databases. If you need further assistance, please ask a librarian.
Biographical Dictionary of World War II by Mark Mayo Boatner. Novato, CA: Presidio Press,
1996. ISBN: 0891415483.
Authoritative accounts of more than 1,000 key personalities from the war years.
A Dictionary of the Second World War by Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Stephen Pope, and James
Taylor. New York: P. Bedrick Books, 1990. ISBN: 0872263371.
Covers more than 1,600 detailed and analytical entries including theaters, weapons, tactics and strategies and politicos and diplomacy.
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust by Israel Gutman. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference USA,
1995. ISBN: 0028645278.
Covers all aspects of the Holocaust in over 1,000 articles. Includes photographs, drawings, and maps.
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. New York: Random House, 1998. ISBN: 0375502025.
Personal narratives of Americans born in the 1920s who came of age during the Great
Depression and fought in World War II.
Louis L. Snyder’s Historical Guide to World War II . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982. ISBN:
0313232164.
Brief entries cover individuals, concepts, and events of the economic, social, cultural, psychological, political, and military aspects of the war.
The Oxford Companion to World War II by Ian Dear and M. R. D. Foot. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0198662254.
Covers all aspect of the conduct and experience of the war in over 1,700 entries ranging from brief identifications to in-depth articles on complex subjects from 140 experts.
Historical Atlas of the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. New York:
Macmillan, 1996. ISBN: 0028974514.
This book features maps that illustrate Europe before the war; the Holocaust in Eastern Europe;
Western, Central Europe, Southern Europe, and Hungary; Nazi extermination camps; Jewish armed resistance; death marches; liberation; and postwar Europe from 1945 –1950.
The Historical Atlas of World War II by John Pimlott and Alan Bullock. New York: Henry Holt,
1995. ISBN: 0805039295.
This atlas chronicles the major and minor campaigns of the war in Europe, Africa, the Middle
East, Asia, and the Pacific in over one hundred full-color maps with more than one hundred captioned color and black-and-white photographs.
The Times Atlas of the Second World War by John Keegan. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
ISBN: 0060161787.

This atlas plots the exact course, on ground, at sea, and in the air, of the Second World War through hundreds of maps, charts, and commentaries.
Experiencing War: Stories from the Veteran’s History Project www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/stories/ex-war-home.html
Personal narratives recorded from veterans of various wars.
The Perilous Fight: America’s World War II in Color www.pbs.org/perilousfight/
Combines original color film footage with compelling passages from diaries and letters.
Second World War Encyclopaedia www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WW.htm
Includes a great deal of general information but also information not readily available, such as war photographers, journalists, and artists.
A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/
An overview of the people and events of the Holocaust through photographs, documents, art, music, movies, and literature.
World War II Historical Text Archive www.historicaltextarchive.com
Choose from full text articles, e-books, and links about World War II.
World War II: The Homefront http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/
A great resource including a time line in photographs, an online museum displays medals and memorabilia, and much more. Great resource for self-guided study.
World War II Timeline http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html
Chronology of events in words and photos.
• Americans—evacuation and relocation, 1942–1945
• Holocaust—Jewish (1939–1945)
• Japanese-Americans—evacuation and relocation, 1942–1945
• World War, 1939–1945
• World War, 1939–1945—aerial operations (naval operations)
• World War, 1939–1945—biography
• World War, 1939–1945—fiction
• World War, 1939–1945—Jews
• For biographies, search under the person’s name, e.g., Hitler, Adolf or Patton, George.