Collection of respected sources which provide country-by-country data and analysis. Some offer broad overviews of conditions and issues, while others focus on narrower issues -- human rights, business, press freedom, energy, etc.
Reference Works -- Politics and Social Sciences
Important politics and social science encyclopedias and similar sources, useful for topic overviews in academic research.
Five-colume set (2010) was prepared with the assistance of the American Political Science Association. It contains about 1,500 alphabetically-arranged, signed entries (including one contributed by Washington and Lee Professor Mark Rush) on "political theories, concepts, research frameworks, and political practices from across the world."
Three-volume set (2010) "examines the ideas of the major political theorists from before Plato to our own times; the main schools of political thought; the concepts and issues that have captured the imagination and attention of political theorists; and some of the main institutions and practices inspired by political thought."
Second edition (2012) "reviews the many historical, philosophical, analytical and normative roots to the discipline and the key contemporary topics of research and debate today." [ preview ]
The IESBS (2002) is the largest reference work on the social and behavioral sciences ever published -- over 4,000 signed articles in 26 printed volumes.
This second edition (2008), consisting of nine volumes, is the major revision of the first edition and its printed predecessor. [ Preview ] Acquisition was made possible by the McCrum Palmer Book Fund.
The authors of this 2011 volume outline about 40 "central concepts and core theories" of international relations, relating them to contemporary issues and debates. [ preview ]
2012 two-volume set contains about 300 signed essays which focus on the "major theories, concepts, and conclusions that define the field, analyzing the similarities and differences between political units..." [ preview ]
2010 volume contains 28 commissioned scholarly essays, presenting an "authoritative overview of the theoretical, methodological, and substantive elements of comparative political science. [ preview ]