LibGuides: History: Home

Welcome!

This guide gives you an overview of recommended resources for History: reference works to orientate on a particular topic and to find references to literature, scholarly literature databases and search engines, and all kinds of resources containing digital or digitized primary sources.

Listed are both resources to which the Library has subscribed, as well as resources that are available via the National Library of the Netherlands (you can recognize those by the symbol), or are freely available online.

New & trial databases available

Gale Digital Scholar Lab
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Platform giving users the ability to create custom content sets containing as many as 10,000 documents. Users can search across the several primary source databases of Gale Cengage (see under 'More') and seamlessly select documents to be added to their custom content set. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

These can then be analyzed and interrogated with various text analysis and visualization tools. Digital humanities analysis methods such as Named Entity Recognition, Topic Modelling, Parts of Speech, and others are included in the tool. For an explanation of the various methods, see this support page.

Documents and other materials from the following primary source collections can be analyzed with GDSL:
- Archives Unbound
- Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence
- The Economist Historical Archive (1843-2015)
- Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2016
- The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003
- The Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
- International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1887-2013
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive: Slave trade in the Atlantic world
- The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
- The Times Digital Archive (1785-2019)
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online
- Women’s Studies Archive: Voice and Vision
For a short description of the content of each of these collections, click on the relevant link above.

Related database: TDM Studio
TDM Studio
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TDM Studio provides a platform for text and data mining and data visualization of EUR subscribed Proquest content. TDM studio comprises a data visualization platform - requiring no further knowledge of programming languages - and a TDM workbench , accessible with R and Python.

Users need to register at https://tdmstudio.proquest.com/home with their full EUR email address to get access to the data visualisation platform. If you want access to the TDM workbench, please send an email to edsc@eur.nl. Please explain briefly what you want to do as the nr. of accounts are limited. Note that Workbench access is targeted to experienced R/Python users.

The platform provides access to more than 16,000 resources! Examples of content included are, for instance, historical newspapers - the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Times of India -, scholarly journals, trade journals, books, reports, magazines, blogs, podcasts and websites.

Important! If you make use of the Lean Library plugin make sure the settings option "Automate my authentication and skip associated pop-ups" is deselected.
To do this: Click on the Lean Library icon in your browser, click on the settings wheel and then adjust the setting under Quick settings.

Related database: Gale Digital Scholar Lab
Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence
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Brings together files from the UK National Archives covering intelligence and security matters from 1905-2002. Material has been sourced from the UK Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, the Colonial Office, MI5 (British Domestic Security Service) and the SOE (Special Operations Executive), reflecting an intelligence network that spans the globe. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related database: U.S. Declassified Documents Online
Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2016
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The complete run of the London edition of the internationally known daily paper, from its first issue through 2016. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

Started as a City of London news sheet, the FT grew to become one of the best-known and most-respected newspapers in the world. Along the way, it chronicled the critical financial and economic events that shaped the world, from the late nineteenth and entire twentieth centuries to today.

The Financial Times Historical Archive includes:
- The Lex column: a sharp and authoritative voice on corporate and financial matters;
- All classified and display advertising;
- Access to thousands of daily price/stock indexes and currency tables;
- The complete contents of FT Magazine and How to Spend It.

The Library also provides access to the current content of the Financial Times.

Related database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003
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Full text and image access to the world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper. The publication presents a vivid picture of British and world events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

The Illustrated London News covered a wide range of subjects on its pages, making it an invaluable resource for multi-disciplinary research. Areas include:
- The Arts - reports and pictures of prominent art figures of the 19th and 20th centuries including: opera singers, vaudeville stars, painters and stars of stage and screen;
- Fashion - the ILN's fashion column provides a unique insight into the styles of the day, from corsets through to flapper dresses. The advertising pages provide a sociological view of fashion, with adverts for mourning clothes, undergarments, evening wear, jewelry and cosmetics;
- Industry and Trade - covers the growth of the industrial North, living conditions experienced by the working man, trade imports from the colonies, strikes, child employment, domestic servants and agriculture;
- Military History - ILN war artists were sent to all corners of the earth to cover the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries including: 1848 revolution in France, the Crimean War, American Civil War, the Boer War, World Wars I and II;
- Science, Medicine and Progress - ILN was keen to enlighten its readers about the latest advances providing engravings of the first letterbox in London, reporting of the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable and explanations of the workings of an early light bulb;
- Social History - illustrated coverage of servants, female suffrage, strikes, homes, crime, leisure, emigration, and religion;
- Sport - football, rugby, tennis, cricket to the more unusual cock-fighting, curling and pig-sticking.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times, the Economist and the Telegraph. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
The Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
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Full-text archive of a major British daily newspaper, launched in 1986. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

Over the last thirty years, The Independent has taken strong campaigning positions on issues such as drug legislation, the War on Terror, and the environment.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times, The Telegraph and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related databases: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1887-2013
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Originally set up as the European edition of the New York Herald and having the expatriate American community living in Paris as a reading audience, it was the first “global” newspaper. As such it had an independent editorial spirit and a strong focus on objective reporting of international news. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

After the New York Times company took ownership of the newspaper in 2003, the IHT continued to produce a large amount of unique content until its closure in 2013.

Related databases: The New York Times, The Times Digital Archive.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive: Slave trade in the Atlantic world
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Charts the practice of slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, with particular focus on the involvement of England/the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, but also containing materials pertaining to Portugal/Brazil, Spain and Denmark. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

This database features a wide range of materials, from monographs and individual papers to company records, newspapers, and a variety of government documents, and stemming from archives in the UK and the US. The available materials cover a wide spectrum of subjects related to the history of slavery: legal issues; economics; children and women under slavery; modes of resistance; and much more, from 1490 to 1896. For an overview of the collections and a detailed description of the content of each collection, see this page.

With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

For related databases, see Resources per subdiscipline/History of slavery in the History Guide.
The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
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Fully searchable digital archive of what was once the world's largest-selling newspaper. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

Directed at a wealthy, well-educated readership, the newspaper is commonly associated with traditional Toryism despite its more liberal beginnings, especially in regard to foreign policy.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the library collection, such as The Independent and The Times. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online
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Database containing formerly classified records dating from the early twentieth century up to 2018, providing a behind-the-scenes view of the highest level of American policy-making on the most sensitive issues of national security and foreign policy. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

Documents selected for this database come mostly from presidential libraries, but also from executive agencies such as the Atomic Energy Commission, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Council, and the White House. Presidential records make up the majority of the documents.

Included materials are:
- Cabinet meeting minutes
- CIA intelligence studies and reports
- Correspondence
- Diary entries
- FBI surveillance and intelligence correspondence and memoranda
- Full texts of letters, instructions, and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel
- Joint Chiefs papers
- National Security Council policy statements
- Presidential conferences
- State Department political analyses
- Technical studies
- Trade treaties, studies and analyses
- U.S. briefing materials for meetings with foreign heads of state and government officials
- White House Confidential File materials

With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related database: Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence
Women’s Studies Archive: Voice and Vision
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Collection of primary sources created by women and on women’s experiences in and impact on British and American society between 1820 and 2000. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023

Of particular importance are the materials that focus solely on female authors, magazines and journals produced by women, and materials from minority groups in the United States. For a quick overview of the collections in this database, click here.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search a range of primary source databases, including several UK newspapers, such as The Independent and The Times. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

For related databases, see Resources per subdiscipline/Women's/Gender History in the History Guide.

AVAILABLE TILL 31/12/2022: eBooks in History at Oxford Scholarship Online, including:

Muslims and the making of modern Europe (2021)

Only the clothes on her back. Clothing and the hidden history of power in the nineteenth-century United States (2022)

Dissenting daughters. Reformed women in the Dutch Republic, 1572-1725 (2022)

Sisters and sisterhood. The Kenney family, class, and suffrage, 1890-1965 (2021)

Beer: a global journey through the past and present (2022)

Educating Palestine. Teaching and Learning History under the Mandate (2020)

Capitalisms. Towards a Global History

The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom, and Islam in the Black Atlantic (2020)

A Long, Long Way. Hollywood's Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation

Transregional Trade and Traders. Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from Early Times to 1900

Forging a British World of Trade. Culture, Ethnicity, and Market in the Empire-Commonwealth, 1880-1975

Love at Last Sight: Dating, Intimacy, and Risk in Turn-of-the-Century Berlin

Politics in the Marketplace. Work, Gender, and Citizenship in Revolutionary France

Slave Traders by Invitation. West Africa's Slave Coast in the Precolonial Era

A Dream of the Future. Race, Empire, and Modernity at the Atlanta and Nashville World's Fairs

Feeling Things. Objects and Emotions through History

Schooling Diaspora. Women, Education, and the Overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s

The Market Makers. Creating Mass Markets for Consumer Durables in Inter-war Britain

The Reinvention of Atlantic Slavery. Technology, Labor, Race, and Capitalism in the Greater Caribbean

Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire. Europe and the Transformation of the Tropical World

The Spread of Modern Industry to the Periphery Since 1871

Memoirs of Roads. Calcutta from Colonial Urbanization to Global Modernization

AVAILABLE TILL 31/12/2022: Springer/Palgrave eBooks in History published 2019-2022, including:

Trauma, experience and narrative in Europe after World War II (2022)

Protest in the Vietnam War era (2022)

Cold War civil defence in Western Europe. Sociotechnical imaginaries of survival and preparedness (open access, 2022)

Key Terms in Comics Studies (2022)

Shopping and the senses, 1800-1970. A sensory history of retail and consumption (2022)

Global History with Chinese Characteristics. Autocratic States along the Silk Road in the Decline of the Spanish and Qing Empires 1680-1796 (Open Access, 2021)

Disease Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World (2020)

Regenerating cities: reviving places and planet (2022)

History, disrupted: how social media and the world wide web have changed the past (2022)

The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Science Since 1660 (2022)

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism (2ed edition, 2021)

Food Culture Studies in India. Consumption, Representation and Mediation (2021)

Gendered stereotypes and female entrepreneurship in Southern Europe, 1700-1900 (2021)

Holocaust memory and national museums in Britain (2022)

The 21st Century Singularity and Global Futures. A Big History Perspective (2020)

Nationalism and the politicization of history in the former Yugoslavia (2021)

Britain, Germany and colonial violence in South-West Africa, 1884-1919. The Herero and Nama genocide (2022)

Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age. Memorialization Unmoored (2020)

A Big History of Globalization. The Emergence of a Global World System (2019)

The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France (2021)

The town of Vichy and the politics of identity. Stigma, victimhood and decline (2022)

Public History and Culture in South Africa. Memorialisation and Liberation Heritage Sites in Johannesburg and the Township Space (2019)

History, Historians and the Immigration Debate. Going Back to Where We Came From (2019)

Eurovisions: Identity and the International Politics of the Eurovision Song Contest Since 1956 (2019)

Dissonant Heritages and Memories in Contemporary Europe (Open Access book, 2019)

Amsterdam's Sephardic Merchants and the Atlantic Sugar Trade in the Seventeenth Century (2019)

Sources and Skills Literature for History students

Information skills

Learn how to search, find and manage scholarly information and data in an efficient way. Visit the library's Information Skills Portfoliol for more online modules!

Search techniques
Successful searching is largely about being precise. Search techniques can help you search with precision and find what you need.
Use a reference manager
Manually collecting the information you need to create correct references can be a lot of work. There are tools available, called reference managers, to make this easier. They enable you to export the bibliographical data you need (title, author name(s), publication year, etc.) from online sources such as Google Scholar, sEURch, and almost all scholarly literature databases.

The University Library supports RefWorks. When you see the RefWorks symbol next to a resource title somewhere in this Guide, you know it is possible to export references from that resource to RefWorks. The Library has created an e-course on how to use RefWorks.

Chicago Manual of Style online
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Online version of the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style citation guide.

'The bible of the publishing and research community' for economists, reflects extensive revision of the Manual's content, topics, and perspectives on editing, the editorial process, and publishing. Content includes new coverage of journals and electronic publications; a comprehensive new chapter on American English grammar and usage; reorganized and updated chapters on documentation, including guidance on citing electronic sources; and new diagrams of the editing and production processes for both books and journals. Much used in economic and management publications.

Date range: 2017 (17th edition)