History

An index to journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on North American historical topics from prehistory to the present. See Historical Abstracts for historical coverage beyond the US and Canada.

The Black Studies Center brings together historical and contemporary material for researching the past, present, and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, which examines interdisciplinary topics on the African experience throughout the Americas via in-depth essays, accompanied by detailed timelines along with research articles, images, film clips and more; the International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), which has current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from multi-disciplinary scholarly journals and newsletters from the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean, and full-text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals; The Chicago Defender, with 1910 to 1975 full-text presented from this influential black newspaper; ProQuest Dissertations for Black Studies, containing a thousand doctoral dissertations and Masters’ theses examining a wide variety of topics and subject areas relating to Black Studies; and the Black Literature Index, which enables users to search over 70,000 bibliographic citations for fiction, poetry and literary reviews published in 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.

The original documents in this collection related to Empire Studies span five centuries and chart the rise and fall of empires, including the history of British imperialism and colonization. Topics range from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others through decolonization in the second half of the twentieth century and debates over American imperialism. Documents include manuscripts, rare printed materials, periodicals, diaries, letters, and photographs with writings by both women and men from European and non-European perspectives. Useful secondary materials include essays from leading academics in the field, interactive maps, images, and chronologies detailing cultural, economic, and political aspects of numerous empires.

Index to journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations covering world history from 1450 - present. Updated monthly. For US and Canadian history, see America: History and Life.

Covering both U.S. and world history, the History Reference Center contains full-text historical documents and articles from reference books, history magazines, journals, and newspapers. Additionally, it provides timelines, biographies, maps, photos and video clips.

The full-text materials in this collection cover 11 broad areas related to Native Americans from the time prior to North American colonization to the 20th century Rights Movement. Areas covered, related to indigenous peoples of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, include culture, history, education, religion, government relations, treaties, wars, trade, and 20th century political activism, among others. The primary source documents in this collection includes maps, atlases, visual images, art, photographs, linguistic and ethnographic accounts, 20th century American Indian newspapers, and more drawn from the Ayers Collection at the Newberry Library. Cross-searchable with the Library's subscription to The American West collection.

Use International Historical Statistics to find economic, financial, and social statistics for worldwide countries and territories, often spanning centuries and beginning as early as 1750. Find data for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania including countries whose borders have changed. Within each region are chapters on population demographics, vital statistics, labor force, agriculture, industry, external trade, transport & communications, finance, prices, education, and national accounts. Statistical tables can be downloaded as PDF or Excel files with the ability to merge tables and edit text.

Designed as a portal for trans-Atlantic slavery and abolition studies between 1490 and 2007, with original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, maps, images, and more. Close attention is paid to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social-justice perspective, and the continued existence of slavery today. Documents are presented alongside contextual essays contributed by leading academics in the field. Topics covered include the African Coast, the Middle Passage, and the varieties of slave experience, and includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.