Issues & Controversies in History

Issues & Controversies in History is an Infobase database. It offers varying viewpoints on contentious topics ranging in date from antiquity to the present. This resource can be used to find primary sources, images (e.g., maps and pictures), videos, and/or articles on various topics. The latter includes pro/con articles, spotlight articles, chronologies, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters. The subjects covered here relate to international history (though they are designed to best serve an American or Western audience), and as such address a wide variety of topics, including lynching, income tax, the Scopes Trial, the Cold War, Israel’s founding, the Vietnam War, World War I, slave revolts, and much more. Enlarging, reducing, and navigating documents and images can be done easily, though within a limited range of movement and magnification. Documents, images and video can be browsed and/or searched for by era, region, subject or type (e.g. primary sources, images, and articles of various kinds). The multiple search and browse options available here are understandable and often effective. However, the search options are just as likely to produce results that are of no apparent value as those that are on-point for the query submitted.

Pricing for this resource is determined by library or school/university size, and consortia discounts are available (contact Infobase for a specific pricing). Its licensing agreement is the same as for other Infobase databases, and in its length, composition, and conditions it is quite average. Database content is, for the most part, formulated by Infobase and is therefore largely unique to it. All things considered, it will certainly be of use to those researching controversial issues in Western history. However, any institution considering a subscription will have to weigh the potential cost of this database against the need of its students and faculty to research the topics covered here, which at some colleges/universities may not be in high demand.