African History: Starting Points
A guide to online resources for the study of African history.
Last Updated: May 5, 2025 12:34 PM
A bronze plaque depicting an oba, the traditional ruler of the Edo people of the Empire of Benin, with attendants. Late 16th-early 17th century CE. Source.
Research Guides
The best and most comprehensive guides to research on African history prepared by librarians at other institutions.
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Penn Libraries: African Collection
Associate Librarian for the Humanities
Top Databases in History
In these resources you can find abstracts, citations, or the full text of articles published in scholarly and popular journals on topics in world history.
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Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowResearch database for world history exclusive of U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present, extending to related disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, and sociology.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text of the most important journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as thousands of books and copious primary source material.
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Project Muse This link opens in a new windowMajor full-text archive of journals in the humanities and social sciences.
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Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to thousands of leading journals in biology, chemistry, criminal justice, economics, environmental science, history, marketing, political science, and psychology, as well as access to thousands of podcasts and videos. Topic-level access to world history content on the History page.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive, full-text database covering more than 6,000 journals in all disciplines.
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Fulltext Sources Online (FSO) This link opens in a new windowA directory of publications in multiple subject areas that are accessible online in full text.
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General OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new windowA collection of general interest periodicals not typically found in academic databases.
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Humanities Source This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world.
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MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new windowGeneral database with coverage in all subject areas.
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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowArchive of hundreds of journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, offering full-text access to more and more of the journals indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online.
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Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new windowIndex of major journals in the humanities and social sciences, from as far back as 1660 up to the present.
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PERSÉE This link opens in a new windowOnline access to the complete back runs of numerous journals in the social and human sciences from France. (In French)