The Cambridge Histories Collection includes multi-volume works on many geographical units and historical themes, and can help you with the general narrative of a time period and major academic debates on the issues.
Looking for background information and overviews, but want something more reliable than Wikipedia?
All of the reference tools below--encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, and more--have been designed by expert scholars to provide overviews, as well as help researchers get their bearings on key scholarly literature in a given area of study.
Credo Reference can be helpful for basic background information and overviews of countries, people, and major historical events:
Oxford Research Encyclopedias for History offer synopses of key historical topics and themes in different geographic regions. Each encyclopedia article includes overview information, a discussion of the scholarly literature, a list of key primary sources, links to digital resources, and suggestions for further reading.
