Ladies and Gentlemen of AskHistorians,
I am not a collegiate student of History (though I am considering a MSc/PhD), but am a passionate amateur. My question is: how do you search and discover “legitimate” (read: scholarly) historical texts outside of the Univeristy library system? I’ve done quite a bit of googling, and looked through the sticky thread on recommended books, but haven’t found any reliable repositories of solid, scholarly history in my areas of interest.
My best finds so far have been academic presses such as Oxford University Press, but I am curious if the brain trust here had other recommendations that may be obfuscated by google.
If it is relevant, my primary areas of interest are Jewish History (especially European/Middle Ages), Medieval/Middle Ages Europe political/economic, and the Balkans/former Soviet Socialist Republics; especially as these particular areas crossed from antiquity into the Middle Ages.
Thank you for your time!
For myself, books I have will have sources and (at least if of good quality and relatively new) gives me some overview of relevant literature. Also at least my fields have several overview works that are used for things like undergrad or intro classes, which while often very readable and useful in themselves, provide a good variety of further reading.
Of course, i use my university library a lot, so i'm not too used to your dilemma, hehe... I'm not looking forward to the day i don't have access to it.
Considering you said "sticky threads" i suspect you perhaps missed the booklist, which has a section both on jewish history, on political/economic history in the mieddle ages and there are sections for Russia, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia that might be of interest to your last area.
Other options in this subreddit is looking up a profile of a flaired user within your topics, many users recommend books on their profiles, you can also check their former questions and see what sources they give. A third option is to ask for specific book suggestions, both as a comment or in the Thursday Reading thread or Friday Free for All, or search for/ask specific questions and see what sources are given.