Background and Context / Biography
This is a selected list of specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks. Consult them to get background information or a summary of a topic within a particular context. They generally provide information on important people, places, and concepts.
List of French colonies/possessions (Scroll down to bottom)
The international encyclopedia of revolution and protest: 1500 to the present, ed. by Immanuel Ness. Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 1 online resource (8 volumes)
Encyclopedia of Western colonialism since 1450, ed. by Thomas Benjamin. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 3 v.
HOLLIS Record
The Cambridge companion to modern French culture, ed. by Nicholas Hewitt. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003, 353 p.
HOLLIS Record with Online Version
Historical dictionary of France, by Gino Raymond. Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 1998, 347 p.
HOLLIS Record
French culture, 1900-1975, ed, by Catherine Savage Brosman et al.
Detroit : Gale Research, 1995, 449 p.
HOLLIS Record
Historical dictionary of the Third French Republic, 1870-1940, ed. by Patrick H. Hutton et al. New York : Greenwood Press, 1986. 2 v.
HOLLIS Record
Hommes et destins: dictionnaire biographique d'outre-mer. Paris: Académie des sciences d'outre-mer, 1975-1995. 10 v.
Widener | WID-LC | CT1014 .H65
--Covers French colonial figures, including explorers, administrators, missionaries, doctors, anthropologists, engineers, etc. Vols. 1-5 cover the colonies in general; v. 6, Asia; v. 7, Northern Africa; v. 8, Colonial governors, administrators, and magistrates; v. 9, Africa south of the Sahara. Each volume has a cumulative index of biographees. Included full text in the World Biographical Information System
Bibliography of published work by colonial administrators in Mondes et cultures: comptes rendus trimestriels des séances de l'Académie des sciences d'outre-mer, v. 46, pp. 71-167
Widener | LSoc 1621.87.5 vol. 46
World Biographical Information System includes full text of thousands of biographical dictionaries accessible by name of biographee. Partly online full text, partly microfiche or print.
Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) indexes thousands of English-language biographical dictionaries and other compendia. Not full text; one must do HOLLIS searches for retrieved sources.
Dictionnaire de biographie française offers very numerous short (paragraph-page length) articles with source lists. Covers French overseas possessions and French Flanders. In progress, covers A- Lefèvre only. For coverage of the later part of the alphabet, other sources must be used, including Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne and Nouvelle biographie generale, both for pre1870s figures (see below).
Dictionnaire des intellectuels français: les personnes, les lieux, les moments... . Most entries are biographies of about 600 public intellectuals, living and deceased, writing since the beginning of the Dreyfus Affair. Articles with short lists of works and sources.
Who's who in France (1953- ) (1994-2014 only available) includes French persons overseas and French-speaking peoples in African nations, etc. All text in French. Introductory section lists government officials and diplomatic corps. 1st ed. was restricted to persons living in Paris. Full text of 4th ed. (1959/60) in World Biographical Information System. An earlier, similar publication, Qui êtes-vous? appeared in three editions: 1908, 1909, 1924. Full text (1924 ed. only) in World Biographical Information System.
Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français includes 103,000 individuals connected with the labor movement, socialism, unions, etc. Most articles paragraph length, with references.
Dictionnaire des parlementaires français, comprenant tous les membres des assembles françaises et tous les ministres français depuis le l. mai 1789 jusqu'au l. mai 1889, avec leurs noms, état civil, états de services, actes politiques, votes parlementaires, etc.
--Continued by: Dictionnarie des parlementaires français; notices biographiques sur les ministres, sénateurs et députés français de 1889 à 1940.
--Continued by: Dictionnaire des parlementaires français: notices biographiques sur les parlementaires français de 1940 à 1958.