African History: Starting Points
A guide to online resources for the study of African history.
Last Updated: Sep 14, 2020 11:45 AM
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
Librarian
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 AbstractsResearch 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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JSTORFull-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 MuseMajor full-text archive of journals in the humanities and social sciences.
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Periodicals Archive OnlineArchive 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 OnlineIndex of major journals in the humanities and social sciences, from as far back as 1660 up to the present.
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Humanities SourceProvides full text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world.
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Fulltext Sources Online (FSO)A directory of publications in multiple subject areas that are accessible online in full text.
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Academic OneFileFull-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 CompleteComprehensive, full-text database covering more than 6,000 journals in all disciplines.
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General OneFileA collection of general interest periodicals not typically found in academic databases.
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MasterFILE PremierGeneral database with coverage in all subject areas.
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PERSÉEOnline access to the complete back runs of numerous journals in the social and human sciences from France. (In French)