An introduction and table of contents that describes and provides access to the different learning modules in the Egyptian Red Book course. The course itself is a virtual research project that centers on the nineteenth-century political satire "The Egyptian Red Book," which is part of the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). The course introduces methods of historical research and resources available from research libraries.
Introduction
The
"Egyptian Red Book" is a collection of nineteenth-century British
political cartoons and a serious criticism of the Liberal Government led by Prime MinisterGladstone in London in the 1880's. It tells the sad story of the demise of General Charles
"Chinese" Gordon at the hands of the Mahdi of Sudan in the winter of 1885. It also offers aunique perspective on the media's perspective on the British Government at the end of the
nineteenth century. This module uses "The Egyptian Red Book" as a case study to introduce avariety of library resources and research strategies, which are laid out in the list of
questions that follows this introduction. We hope to show that many of the questionshistorians come to ask originate or are refined during the research process itself. This
project is a guided exploration of the research process that will enhance your knowledge ofthe tools of the trade and your ability to advance your own projects productively.
Timea
The
"Egyptian Red Book" is one of many artifacts and texts that have been
digitized and published online by
TIMEA . TIMEA
(Travelers In the Middle East Archive) is a digital archive of narratives documenting travelto the Middle East published between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, along with
images and interactive GIS maps. This course contributes to the project by organizing avirtual research project around the digitized text of the
"Egyptian Red Book" . The electronic
text and images of the book in the digital archive can be used to demonstrate the practicalapplication of certain research methods.
The following are specific versions of the basic questions typically asked at
the beginning of many research projects. They are also the titles of several modules thatdemonstrate how to conduct research. Select any of the questions you see to be taken to a
short description of the content and aims of the modules they represent. While you arebrowsing the descriptions, select any of the links in the paragraphs to be taken directly to
that section of the module you are reading about.
What is a "Red Book"? How to categorize your work in relation to
others.
Who are these guys? How to identify the unnamed historical figures in
the cartoons.
What is the whole story? How to get to the historical events behind
the political criticism.
What are
microfiche ,
microfilm , and
microcards ?
How do I study the political context by accessing
and using the British Parliamentary Papers?
Other questions addressed in specific modules
The following list of questions are
addressed through examples contained in any one of the modules related to this project. If oneof the questions below interests you, select it and you will be taken directly to the location
in one of our modules that seeks to answer it.
How do I access online reference resources?
How do I find periodicals and call them up from storage?
How do I construct a balanced bibliography for a
specific subject?
How do I follow a historical event in newspapers?
What is a red book?
In
What is a "Red
Book"? we look at the work we are researching in comparison with other, similar works.
To do this we first
categorize the work . We begin
with an introduction to
online reference tools including
Dictionary.com and
The Oxford English Dictionary , as well as
Library of Congress Subject Headings ,
WorldCat , and
the online library catalog . Then we begin
gathering similar works for comparison with the Red Book. We guide
you through locating periodicals in the stacks and also show you
how to call periodicals up from storage , if necessary. We then
guide you through a
comparison of the work you are
researching to similar works in order to better understand its intended purpose,
audience and impact on publication.
Identifying the characters in the egyptian red book
In
Identifying the Characters in the Egyptian Red Book we begin with
the unidentified faces in the cartoons and we search for their names and other biographicalinformation by combining the resources we discover along the way. We begin by looking for
related material in other
works by the same
publisher , which we sort by their subject headings. Once we have accumulated enough
information from our sources, we then search for the biographies of the characters in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
This module highlights the importance of using your resources in concert to bring to lightinformation that would be impossible to glean from one source alone.
Getting the whole story from the egyptian red book
In
Getting the Whole Story from the Egyptian Red Book , we search for
different angles on the story the Red Book aims to tell. We begin by introducing a
sketch of the historical events that we have
gathered from reliable sources. Then we begin
excavating
the story from the Red Book , but only the minimum amount of information we need to
find other works on the subject. Once we have the information we need, namely the importantkey words necessary to
call up related material in a
catalog search , we can begin looking for different perspectives on it in other
works. Having found a number of related works, we then guide you through the
building a balanced bibliography . We then
follow the events described from day to day in
archived
editions of the London Times . Finally we establish the
context of the quotes we find in the Red Book by locating them in
the minutes of the
British Parliamentary Debates .
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Source:
OpenStax, Studying political satire: "the egyptian red book". OpenStax CNX. Sep 19, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10290/1.6
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