Teaching with the Oxford DNB

Below are some further suggestions for using the Oxford DNB, and how three of its key features can contribute to university teaching and studying.

1. Individual biographies


The Oxford DNB includes entries on more than 55,000 men and women who shaped British history. Biographies are written by 10,000 specialist historians and scholars and have been peer reviewed by a network of 400 advisors and editors.

But what can Oxford DNB biographies offer, especially if you're studying a historical theme, rather than the life of a single person?

• biographies introduce a topic: Oxford DNB articles provide concise and authoritative introductions to a subject through the lives who shaped or were affected by the subject. For example, you have a week to master Geoffrey Chaucer: why not start with Douglas Gray's article? You're studying Leviathan: why not use Noel Malcolm's essay on Thomas Hobbes as a guide?

• biographies offer historical context: Oxford DNB entries on well-known figures provide detailed and rounded studies of a person's professional and private life. They offer useful context for your work, even if the principal focus is on a text or an event: for example, what was Emily Bronte's upbringing, and what prompted her to write Wuthering Heights? What lay behind William Gladstone's support of franchise extension; what was his vision for Britain and how did it differ from that of Benjamin Disraeli? What was Neville Chamberlain's attitude to foreign policy and what other issues did he face alongside German expansionism in the late 1930s?

• Oxford DNB entries on well-known historical figures are also important secondary sources in their own right, being both detailed (typically 10,000–30,000 words in length) and written by leading experts in the field. However, entries are easily navigated online, so you can quickly find the relevant section of a biography, providing important context and background information. For example, click here for the section on Elizabeth I's attitude to Mary, queen of Scots in the Oxford DNB biography by Patrick Collinson.

• read together biographies throw light on events: if you're studying British responses to the French revolution, why not read Mark Philp on Tom Paine and then follow it up with some of the 50 political radicals in the Dictionary active between 1780 and 1800? Or why not combine Kenneth O. Morgan's life of David Lloyd George with the biographies of cabinet ministers in 1916-18 to study political responses to the First World War?

• reputations and historical opinions change: many entries provide a concluding assessment of a person's historical significance and changing posthumous reputation. Since Oxford DNB entries are written by leading scholars, these reviews provide excellent and stimulating perspectives which often distil a lifetime's study. In the Oxford DNB, for example, you'll also find John Morrill on Oliver Cromwell, Lyndall Gordon on Virginia Woolf, Peter Wiseman on Julius Caesar, Paul Addison on Winston Churchill, Rosemary Ashton on George Eliot, Roy Foster on W.B. Yeats, Eric Hobsbawm on Karl Marx, and many others.

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In addition to individual biographies, the search facilities of the online Oxford DNB allow you to create groups of people in history. You can search all 56,000 lives to find quickly those who share common attributes, such as place of birth, education, and residence or the same gender, occupation, and religious affiliation. All searches can be combined and further refined. For example (search links require subscriber access):

• everyone in the dictionary who was active in politics in the late nineteenth century

• or restrict the group to just women active in politics in this period

• or just political women resident in Manchester in the late nineteenth century.

Place and occupation searching make the Oxford DNB an excellent resource for project work by creating sets of historically significant people that may form the basis of your research. There are many types of search you can perform as a starting point for a project. For example:

• find Roman Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth I: who were they? why are they remembered in history? how did their religious affiliation shape their lives?

• or: find all the supporters of the Jacobites between 1689 and 1745: why did they support the Stuarts? how active were they in the Jacobite cause? did they take part in the rising of 1745 and if not, why not?

• or: men and women who lived and worked in India between 1900 and 1949: who were they, and why were they there? what role did they have in promoting or resisting Indian independence?

The Oxford DNB also provides ideas for individual research in subjects other than history. For instance:

• publishers and booksellers working in Jacobean England


• poets and novelists writing during the First World War


• people whose portraits were painted by a famous artist, such as Hans Holbein or Joshua Reynolds: what were their backgrounds, how did they know the artist? how does the portrait reflect the sitter's status and profession?

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As well as its 55,000 biographies, the online Oxford DNB also includes a 'Themes' area which acts as a handbook to British history, both in the UK and overseas.

If you have subscriber access you can see a full list of Themes here.

If not, a number of Themes are available 'On the open shelves' via Free Oxford DNB.

Here are several ways that Themes can be used for university teaching and study:

• quick fact-checking and problem solving: use the Dictionary's 'reference lists' to find authoritative answers to questions that arise when teaching or reading for an essay. For example, who succeeded Gladstone as prime minister in 1894? And who was chancellor at this time, and also poet laureate?

  
  It's easy to find out using reference lists of all UK prime ministers, chancellors of the Exchequer, and poets laureate.

• well-known historical groups: Themes also include 'reference groups': articles written by leading historians on famous groups in history such as the barons who enforced Magna Carta, the women reformers in the Langham Place Circle, or the Guilty Men who appeased Hitler.


Reference groups explain the membership and activities of a group and provide subscribers with links to members' full biographies for further reading. They're an ideal way to set individuals in the context of those with whom they worked, as well as for learning more about groups you may come across in other secondary sources.


For more free reference lists click here.

• topics and anniversaries in history: a third aspect of Themes is a range of special 'feature essays' on popular historical subjects and history in the news.

  Recent essays include the accounts of Roman Britain, the Gunpowder Plot, Makers of the British empire, Slavery and abolition, Lloyd George and the Liberals, Appeasement, and the Home Front 1939–1945. Feature essays are written by expert scholars for a wide readership and provide excellent introductions to a subject. As with all Themes, there are links to full biographies for further reading.

  
  Further feature essays are available 'On the open shelves' via Free Oxford DNB.

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