Political Science: Find Books

Try to make the most out of the subject headings in the library catalogs. Some examples of official subject headings are listed below:

Subject headings can be subdivided in one or more elements. The first element is the main heading and tells you what the book is about; the subsequent elements are called subdivisions, they follow the main heading, and add specificity to the main topic.

Some subdivisions can be very helpful for improving your research. Here are some examples:

-- Politics and government  is used when you want to find  the history of political events of a country or critical analysis of political institutions. You can build the subject pattern in the following way:

[Name of the country] - Politics and Government - [dates]

ex.: Italy -- Politics and government -- 1976-1994

-- Political activity is used to find out how individuals and groups participate in politics.

ex.: Labor Unions -- Poland -- Political activity

-- Political aspects is used when you want to identify the political dimension of a non-political topic.

ex.: Media -- Political aspects

-- Foreign relations  is used to describe diplomatic relations between countries.

ex.: Mexico -- Foreign relations -- United States

Most of the books on political science can be found on the shelves:

JA 1-92: Political science (general)

JC: Political theory

JC 311-314: Nationalism

JC328.6-.65: Political violence

JK1-9593: Political institutions and public administration (United States)

JN5201-5690: Political institutions and public administration (Italy)

JZ: International relations

JZ4835-5490: International organizations and associations

JZ4935-5160: United Nations

HV6430-6433: Terrorism

HV6322.7: Genocide

Historical aspects of a country might be grouped under the D section (history), in the appropriate subsection:

DG: History of Italy

E: History of the United States

For materials that are not available via the Frohring Library, you can submit an interlibrary loan request and ask for a copy of the item to be sent here.