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Research Guides

History : Science & Medicine: Books & eBooks

A research guide to primary and secondary sources for the history of science and medicine.

Selected eBooks

Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome
Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy from the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain
Medicine and Politics in Colonial Peru: Population Growth and the Bourbon Reforms
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter
To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle against HIV/AIDS
The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction
Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History
In the Herbarium: The Hidden World of Collecting and Preserving Plants
Health in the City: Race, Poverty, and the Negotiation of Women’s Health in New York City, 1915–1930
Our NHS: A History of Britain's Best Loved Institution
Publics and Their Health: Historical Problems and Perspectives
Leprosy: Past and Present
Monkey to Man: The Evolution of the March of Progress Image
American Illuminations: Urban Lighting, 1800–1920
Beyond the Asylum: Mental Illness in French Colonial Vietnam
A New History of Modern Computing
Technologies of the Human Corpse

Using UW Libraries Search to Find Books

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Advanced Search | FAQ | Known Issues

Find eBooks

You can find eBooks in two ways:

  • Do your search and then on the results screen, filter your results by using the toolbar:
    • Choose Availability: "Available Online" and Resource Type: "eBooks"
    • And then click on the green "Apply Filters" button
       
  • Use the Advanced Search option
    • Change "Show Only" to "UW Libraries" and "Material Type" to "eBooks"
       
  • See the eBook FAQ for more information

Search Tips

 

  • By Topic - Type in the keywords that broadly describe your topic. For example: hygiene london history
     
  • By Title - search for a specific book by title. Type in the first few words of the book title in quotations. For example: "atomic frontier days"
     
  • By Author - search for books written by a specific author. Type in the last name followed by the first name of the author in quotations. For example: "warren adam"

History eBook Collections

 Additional collections of eBooks can be found on eBook Collections guide. The following collections have strong history content:

Finding Books Beyond the UW

If you can't find the books you need at the UW or through our Summit partner libraries (Summit material can be found in UW Libraries Search), use the following catalogs. Books not available at the UW can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. 

Browsing Medical History

The UW Libraries arranges medical books by National Library of Medicine call numbers. Though history is covered in every sub-category of medicine (e.g., history of tuberculosis is in the section dealing with the respiratory system), the major section for medical history is listed below.

WZ General History of Medicine Allen 1S


For a more specific breakdown of the call numbers see the Outline of the NLM Classification.