Just War Theory   Tags: foreign relations, just war, military, wars  

Reference Books: Consult the reference books below or contact a librarian to find a general overview of a particular war which may include the causes or origins.

Circulating books: Search the Library Catalog for subjects like these:

• World War, 1939-1945 - Causes
• United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Causes

The SCC Library has the following reference book which lists wars from throughout history and provides a brief description.

Dictionary of Wars (R 904.7 KOHN)

 You can also search Britannica Online.  This library database contains the full contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica.  Type "war" in the search box to find articles about various wars.

Another strategy might be to browse history books in the 900s section.  You will find history books that check out on the second floor and reference books on the first floor.

Use Reference Books (located on the 1st floor) of Ethics, Philosophy, Military Science, Politics, Sociology, etc. to get an overview of your topic and to see references to other core research sources.

To find films in the SCC library, search the Library Catalog and add the word videorecording to your KEYWORD search.

(HINT: To find only films at the SCC Library, click the MORE LIMITS button in the Library Catalog, then select SCC Library as your Location.)

Use the Library Catalog to look for books on specific subjects. Books that check out are on the 2nd floor of the library. Try searches on subjects like these:

• War
• War and society
• Military-industrial complex
• United States--Foreign relations
• United States-History
• Military history

If books are located at other libraries click Request this item to have them sent to SCC for you. Remember to search WIN Borrow libraries to find 1000s more books.

Use any Library Databases appropriate for your topic. There are databases which cover History, Science, Health, Art, and more. The General Research databases cover all topics. Databases may contain:

• periodical articles
• primary sources
• book excerpts
• multimedia (video, audio)

Suggested databases are listed below or choose from a list of SCC Library Databases by Subject

  ProQuest Periodical articles from journals, magazines, & newspapers; all topics (view ProQuest Tutorial)

  History in Context Articles, book excerpts, multimedia, primary sources, and more about History and related topics 

  Health Reference Center Academic Periodical articles on Health, Medicine, & Psychology topics

  ARTstor Art, Architecture, Photography, Social History images from all time periods and cultures

Databases like ProQuest allow you to do complex searching like combining several concepts in one search. Use some of these tricks to get better search results:

Search Tips

 Use quotes to enclose a phrase: "military industrial complex"       "just war"

• Use the truncation trick to get various forms of similarly spelled words: hero*  (will retrieve: hero, heroes,  heroism, heroic, etc.)
• Combine similar concepts using parenthesis and OR:      (heroism OR altruism)
• Combine different concepts using AND: heroism AND females               

Combine several search techniques to get exactly what you want:

war AND christianity 

"vietnam war" AND ethics

"just war theory" AND catholicism

"war victims" AND children

(hiroshima OR nagasaki) AND cancer*

Work with a Librarian to choose databases & construct searches if you are not finding the what you need.