Frederick II “the Great”
King of Prussia, 1740-1786
A Pathfinder
[Introduction][LC Subject Headings][Browsing Areas][Bibliographies]
[Dictionaries/Encyclopedias][Atlases][Abstracts/Indexes][Other Online Sources]
[Other Reference Sources][Miscellaneous Sources][Conclusion]
Introduction
Frederick
II of Prussia
was a monumental figure in the eighteenth century. He was an enlightened monarch, shrewd
diplomat, accomplished writer and flutist, and one of the foremost military
captains of all time. When he came to
power, Prussia was a second
rate power with lands scattered across north central Europe. By the time of his death, Frederick had greatly expanded Prussian
territory, linking many of the parts into one contiguous area. His invasion and subsequent conquest of the
Austrian province
of Silesia in 1740
sparked a series of wars between the two nations. At the end of the wars, Frederick
held on to his prize, making Prussia
the foremost power in the northern Holy Roman Empire. This work laid the foundation for the
eventual unification of Germany
around Prussia
a century later. For his accomplishments
at laying the foundation for the modern state of Germany,
Frederick was
and still is considered a German hero.
This
pathfinder is intended to serve as a guide for university students doing
research on the life of Frederick. It includes numerous sources including
monographs, articles, databases, biographies, and assorted reference materials. Because the wide range of aspects to
Frederick’s character—political, cultural, diplomatic, and more—is too much to
cover in one pathfinder, the scope of this presentation is directed primarily
at only Frederick’s military career, while still offering some guidelines into
finding the other topics concerning Frederick.
The pathfinder is prepared specifically for students at the University of Central
Florida Library in Orlando,
Florida. However, researchers at other libraries could
also benefit from some of the information.
[Back
to top]
Library
of Congress Subject Headings
The
following list of subject headings can be used when searching for monographs
and other sources on Frederick
the Great. It is by no means an exhaustive
list as topics covering Frederick
are wide-ranging. A number of these
subject headings can be modified to produce more sources. (For example, instead of using “18th
Century”, one may use “1648-1789” which may reveal additional sources.)
Frederick
II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786
Military
Art and Science—Europe—History—18th
Century
Prussia (Germany)—History
Europe—Politics and Government—18th Century
Great
Powers—History—18th Century
Europe—History, Military—18th Century
Enlightenment—Germany
Seven Years’
War, 1756-1763
Military Biography—Dictionaries
[Back
to top]
Browsing
Areas
Once
again, this is hardly a comprehensive list.
However, these are the most common call number ranges covering the
topic. It is recommended that the
researcher spend considerable time perusing the sources in these sections as it
is through monographs that researchers will gain most of their information.
DD403-DD404—Frederick
II
DD370-DD399—Prussian
History
DD101—German
Military History
D284-D297—18th
Century European History
U27-U43—History
of Military Science
D291-D294—War
of the Austrian Succession
D297—Seven Years’ War
[Back
to top]
Bibliographies
These references
will point the researcher to other sources on the topic.
Cook, C., & Stevenson,
J. (2005). The Routledge companion to modern European history since 1763.
London:
Routledge.
REF D286 .C58
Whereas this source
contains some information on Frederick throughout,
the most valuable part is the “Topic Bibliography” chapter that contains one section on Frederick
and his era.
Messenger, C. (2001). Reader's guide to
military history. London:
Fitzroy Dearborn.
REF D25 R35
Although not strictly a
bibliography, this source evaluates some of the prominent literature written on
various military topics including Frederick.
Showalter, D. E. (1984). German military history,
1648-1982: A critical bibliography. Military history bibliographies, vol.
3. New York: Garland.
DD101 .S5
This is a thorough bibliography on the time period. The
early chapters contain considerable references on Frederick.
[Back to top]
Dictionaries/ Encyclopedias
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
are questionable as to their usefulness.
Although some of the lengthier entries give a good background to Frederick’s life, it is
still simply introductory matter. None
of these sources can replace a good monograph or scholarly article. Nonetheless, these sources can be a good
starting place for the researcher to collect information regarding some of the
components of Frederick’s
life. They vary greatly on length with
the longer ones tending to be most valuable.
I have listed only a few of the better ones. Others can typically be found by checking the
reference section in the listed browsing areas.
The McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world biography; An
international reference work. (1973). New York: McGraw-Hill.
REF CT103 .M27
Margiotta, F. D. (1994). Brassey's encyclopedia of
military history and biography. Washington:
Brassey's.
REF U24 .B73
Black, J., & Porter, R. (1994). A dictionary of
eighteenth-century world history. Oxford:
Blackwell Reference.
REF D286 .D53
Zophy, J. W. (1980). The Holy
Roman Empire: A dictionary handbook. Westport,
Conn: Greenwood
Press.
REF DD84 .Z66
Dupuy, T. N., Johnson, C., & Bongard, D. L. (1995). The
Harper encyclopedia of military biography. Edison, N.J.:
Castle Books.
REF U51 .D87
[Back to top]
Atlases
Atlases can be very valuable in
studying Frederick’s
military career as they give a visual presentation of his campaigns and
battles. These two atlases are
particularly recommended.
Holmes, R. (1988). The World atlas of warfare:
Military innovations that changed the course of history. New York, N.Y.:
Viking Studio Books.
REF U27 .H65
Chandler, D. G., Watson, R. A., & Watson, H. R. (1980). Atlas
of military strategy 1618-1878. Don Mills, Ontario:
Collier Macmillan Canada.
REF U162 .C44
[Back to top]
Abstracts/Indexes
The library’s vast collection of
abstracts and indexes is immensely helpful for finding more detailed sources on
Frederick. They will help the researcher pinpoint
articles on his or her specific topic.
These can be accessed through the databases that appear on the Library’s database page by
choosing the letter of the wanted database and then clicking on the database
name on the resulting list. Some of the
more pertinent databases are listed below.
When searching these databases, it is often useful to
enclose search terms in quotes, i.e. “Frederick
the Great” rather than simply Frederick
the Great. Once the researcher knows the specific aspect of Frederick that he is researching, it is
obviously a good idea to add those terms into the search as well. There are several things to keep in mind
while executing the search. The searches
will bring up numerous reviews of monographs on Frederick.
To eliminate these, it is a good idea to do an advanced search where one can enter the term “book review” using the
Boolean “not”. Another point to consider
is that many of the articles that are retrieved will be in foreign
languages. These can usually be
eliminated through the advanced search option that allows the researcher to choose an English only option for
results.
EBSCOhost. (2009). Academic
search premier. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from the University of Central
Florida Library website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
EBSCOhost. (2009). Historical
abstracts. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from the University of Central
Florida Library website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
Wilson Web. (2009). Humanities
full text. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from the University of Central
Florida Library website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
JSTOR. (2009). JSTOR.
Retrieved April 24, 2009 from the University
of Central Florida Library
website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
[Back to top]
Other Online Sources
There are other online sources that
will bring up information other than articles.
The best of these by far is Credo Reference. This also can be accessed from the University of Central
Florida Library’s database page. Unlike the abstracts and indexes, Credo
Reference gives the researcher access to various resources on Frederick including artwork, biographies, and
even anecdotes. As with the dictionaries
and encyclopedias, many of the resources are only fit to serve as background
information. However, Credo’s Concept
Map could be very useful in helping students find topic ideas for their
research projects.
Credo Reference. (2009). Credo reference. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from the University of Central Florida Library website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
Another useful online source is the Biography Resource Center. Entering Frederick’s name here will bring up several
different online biographies. Some of
these biographies can be found in print and are listed elsewhere in this
pathfinder, but some are unique to the database.
Gale. (2009). Biography
resource center. Retrieved from the University of Central
Florida Library website http://library.ucf.edu/Databases/.
[Back to top]
Other Reference Sources
This section includes some other
reference items that contain some useful information on Frederick, especially regarding his military
career. Like many of the other reference
sources, however, they should only be used as a source of gathering background
information for the researcher’s primary investigation into monographs and
articles.
Holmes, R., Strachan, H., Bellamy, C., & Bicheno, H.
(2001). The Oxford
companion to military history. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
REF D25 .A2 O94
Powell, J. (2001). Magill's guide to military history.
Pasadena, Calif:
Salem Press.
REF D25 .A2 M34
Commire, A., & Klezmer, D. (1994). Historic world
leaders. Detroit:
Gale Research.
REF D412 .H57
Cowley, R., & Parker, G. (1996). The Reader's
companion to military history. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
REF U27 .R348
[Back to top]
Miscellaneous Sources
In this section, I have included a few items that do not fit anywhere else.
Harlan, V., Gebühr, O., & Söderbaum,
K. (1985). Der Grosse König The great king. Chicago:
International Historic Films.
PN 1997 .G773
This is a Nazi propaganda film showing Frederick’s struggle for victory during the
Seven Years’ War. Although it is entirely
in German, this film portrays
a number of battle scenes which can give the researcher an idea of what warfare
would have been like at the time.
Bizon, J. (1998). An
analysis of the Russian military involvement in the Seven Years’ War. Unpublished
master’s thesis, University of Central Florida, Orlando.
LD1772.
F96 T45 1998 no.66
Even though this work concentrates on Russian operations during the Seven
Years’ War, there is information regarding Frederick’s actions in the war.
Frederick. (1967). The musical works of Frederick the Great. Da Capo Press music
reprint series. New York:
Da Capo Press.
M3
.F9
These are scores for a number of Frederick’s pieces for the flute.
Schlusnus, H., Foveau, E., Mortimer, H., Swift, G., &
Eskdale, G. (2005). European cornet and trumpet soloists, 1899-1950 Europäische Kornett- und Trompetensolisten = Cornetistes et
trompettistes solistes Européens. [S.l.]: International Trumpet Guild.
M5 .E87
Frederick’s piece, the Hohenfriedberger March, written to
commemorate his victory at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, can be found on this
CD.
[Back to top]
Conclusion
By
using the resources listed in this pathfinder, the researcher should have
sufficient materials to do a scholarly work on Frederick the Great. Further, any items found through the various
searches but not in the University of Central
Florida Library’s collection can be acquired
through the Interlibrary Loan Department.
This
pathfinder was created by Joe Bizon, MLIS student at the University of South Florida,
April 24, 2009. Dedicated to my dad.
[Back
to top]
