History : Get Started

Current Database Trial

Snell Library is currently offering trial access to the British Online Archives collection of The British Union of Fascists 1933-1951. The British Union of Fascists: newspapers and secret files collection includes documents from the UK National Archives and the Imperial War Museum related to the 1930s British fascist movement led by Sir Oswald Mosley. Part of British Online Archives’ Politics and Protest series, the resources contained within this collection chart the rise and fall of fascism in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s, with a particular focus on Oswald Mosley’s blackshirt movement.

The trial for The British Union of Fascists ends on May 17th, 2023. Please take the time to let us know your thoughts on this resource by taking this short survey, and if you have a specific collection in mind in your comments, please let us know.

** Please note that keyword searching in this collection requires you to be in the document viewer before searching. Please see the tutorial linked below or set up a meeting with your librarian if you need help searching.**

Searching in British Online Archives Tutorial

Key resources

Journal Articles

Scholar OneSearch, the Northeastern library's catalog and discovery system, allows you to search books, journal articles, subscriptions, archival finding aids, and film/multimedia.

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
AnthroSource (Wiley) This link opens in a new window
Search for books and journal articles in anthropology, with links to Northeastern's full text subscriptions or ILL options.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
perhaps our most popular resource for scholarly articles in history and related disciplines.
Most journals include extended historic backfiles and not current issues. Arts and Sciences collections 1 thru XV are available, plus the Life Sciences collection, and Business III.

The Northeastern Library also purchases individual e-book titles from JSTOR. The books are available chapter-by-chapter as PDFs.

Arts and Sciences IV content is available courtesy of the Northeastern School of Law Library.

Social Sciences/Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Search scholarly books and articles, and examine the citation trail to find the most widely-cited works, view journal impact factors

Older article files

American Periodicals Series, 1741-1940 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable, scanned images of popular American periodicals, including advertising. Click for complete description and help.
View detailed information.
Get search help for this resource
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Search and link to periodical articles. Though not normally known as an index to scholarly content, there are a few scholarly sources included (eg Current, Monthly Labor Review, Science) in addition to popular and professional journals.
View Frequently Asked Questions about Readers' Guide, or a video on basic searching from Ebsco.

Background and Statistics

Britannica Academic (Encyclopedia Britannica) This link opens in a new window
High-quality overview articles.
Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
These e-books provide in-depth scholarly treatments of different regions of the world.
Explore American and British history, ancient history, Islamic history, economic history, the histories of philosophy, science, music, literature, religion, social histories, and much more. "My Histories" allows you to create and share a personalized library with your own bookmarks and notes.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
An update and expansion of summary census data: labor, law enforcement, population, military, and much more.
Tables of statistics include information about population, slavery, the economy, and much more. Download in Excel or .csv. Sorting, graphs and plots available.

See also: https://library.northeastern.edu/research/a-to-z-databases/database-policies-and-terms/historical-statistics-of-the-united-states
International Historical Statistics (Palgrave Connect) This link opens in a new window
Statistical data from around the world, covering a wide range of socio-economic topics.
The collection includes data on the Americas and Europe, but also hard-to-find data on Africa, Asia and Oceania. It is a truly interdisciplinary product that will prove a valuable resource to those researching and studying Business, Economics, Environmental Studies, Geography, History, Politics, Sociology and Statistical Studies.
International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition (2015) This link opens in a new window
based on topic rather than country or time period, useful for themes and approaches, e.g. "Race and Gender Intersections", "Historical Archaeology" etc.
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
gives you a list of the most important works on key history topics.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
learn the historical origins and meanings of words and phrases ("Jim Crow", "genocide", "antinomian", etc)

People and Biography

Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, some scholarly, mixed with news and encyclopedia entries. International in scope
HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
This resource is made available to the Northeastern University community with support from alumni donors.
These video oral history interviews highlight the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. A resource for students and scholars exploring African American history and culture. Over 2700 individuals are profiled. Transcripts available.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history.

Archives and Primary Sources

See specific regions and topics at the top of this guide for more sources

ArchiveGrid
A database of archival material descriptions, including WorldCat records and finding aids harvested from the web.

Center for Research Libraries This link opens in a new window
Northeastern is a member of this shared library of primary source material located in Chicago. Strengths include historic newspapers and magazines and international documents, reports, rare books, and dissertations. Some is digitized, some can be sent to you in print using interlibrary loan.
The collections are so varied as to include an unpublished manuscript music collection from Oxford, the vast engineering library of Linda Hall, and rare monograph and pamphlet area collections from various regions of the world. These collections are made available in print, in microfilm, and, in many cases, online. Faculty, students, and staff are eligible to borrow resources through an extended delivery system or, when available, through electronic delivery or online. See our Subject Guide to the Center for Research Libraries
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
An online library of primary source materials related to the history of empires from 1607. The focus is on essays and grey literature such as travel writings, missionary reports, maps and drawings, and less on official reports. There are some secondary sources including chronologies and scholarly essays.
View nature and scope information.
Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980 (Adam Matthew Digital) This link opens in a new window
British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980. These formerly restricted British government documents, consisting of diplomatic dispatches, letters, newspaper cuttings, maps, reports of court cases, biographies of leading personalities, summaries of events and diverse other materials
These formerly restricted British government documents, consisting of diplomatic dispatches, letters, newspaper cuttings, maps, reports of court cases, biographies of leading personalities, summaries of events and diverse other materials, provide unprecedented levels of detail into one of the most turbulent centuries of Chinese history.
History Vault (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
online archival collections on US history, mostly from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries. Notable: NAACP papers, records on the Woman Suffrage movement, oral histories from Ellis Island, US government commissions and records on the Weather Underground, the Kennedy Assassination, American Indian Movements and Wounded Knee, Watergate, and more.
Collections include: Immigration Records from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Papers, Women's Rights Collections with documents from organizations like the Women's Party and League of Women Voters. From the ProQuest University Publications of America (UPA) Collection.
Roper Center Public Opinion Archives (with iPOLL) This link opens in a new window
Search opinion polls from all over the world, using this database from Cornell University. Poll results from news organizations, governments, private foundations, academic institutions, and more. The scope of topics spans politics, culture, workplaces, and social life. 1930s to the present.
To learn more, view Roper's video tutorials.
State Papers Online, Great Britain 1509-1714 (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Original historical materials from Tudor and Stuart Britain, from high level international politics and diplomacy to the charges against a steward for poisoning a dozen or more people. The correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators. Northeastern users have access to Parts I-IV.
World War 1: British Foreign Office Political Correspondence This link opens in a new window
Confidential British Foreign Office Political Correspondence: World War I contains the working papers of the British Foreign Office used in the development of British foreign policy, much of it classified for many years subsequently.
This collection consists of records relating to the diplomatic business of the Foreign Office, which includes not only the formal relations between two countries but also the information needed by the British government in order to conduct diplomatic relations. This includes the domestic political, economic, social, and cultural relations of another country plus that country's relations with other nations, as well as British internal political concerns.

Historical Newspapers

If you have a specific newspaper in mind, search the title in Scholar OneSearch to find if Northeastern has access. Here are some highlights from our collections:

17th - 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The 700 or so bound volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets were published mostly in London, however there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the American colonies, Europe and India.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
African Newspapers Series I (Readex/Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
Covers about 1800-1922. This collection of historical African newspapers provides coverage of the people, cultures, issues and events that shaped the continent. Themes include the first world war, Zulu Wars, settler colonialism and the rejection of Western imperialism.
Newspaper text is in English, Sotho, German, Portuguese, Xhosa, and more.
Boston Globe (link to all Northeastern Library access points) This link opens in a new window
Boston Phoenix (2012-2013) (Northeastern University) This link opens in a new window
Back issues of the alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, plus sister newspapers from Worcester, Portland, Providence, and Miami, digitized through the Northeastern University Libraries. See the Internet Archive for the digitized version, 1973-2013. The print collection in the Northeastern Archives and Special collections in Snell Library may be viewed by appointment.
British Library Newspapers (Gale Cengage) This link opens in a new window
This new collection includes national and regional newspapers, as well as those from both established country or university towns and the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing Midlands, as well as Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. The penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also present in the collection. Formerly called 19th Century British Newspapers.
Historical Black Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A rich collection important to a full understanding of Unites States history. Includes the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1910-1975),Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), and the Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).
New York Times (1851-2010) with Index (1851-1993) (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
South China Morning Post 1903-2001 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides news coverage of the politics, society and events of China and Hong Kong. In addition to article content, the full-image newspapers offer searchable access to advertisements, editorials, cartoons, and classified ads.
Times of London Digital Archive (Gale Cengage) 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Also known as the London Times. Access not including the Sunday edition from 1785. An invaluable source for primary historical research on Great Britain and its interests.
Get help on this collection and primary source research in Gale (video)
Times of India 1838-2010 This link opens in a new window
Based in Bombay the Times of India offers full page and article images with searchable full text.

Your Librarian - Boston & Online

Tamara Uhaze

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Email Me

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(617) 373-4646

Subjects: History

Your Librarian - Oakland

Rebecca Leung

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510-430-2021