Skip to Main Content
The University of Massachusetts Amherst

History 592A: The Scramble for Africa

Arts databases

Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew

Art Abstracts
An index to articles and reproductions of works of art in art-related magazines, journals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, 1984-present.

Art Index Retrospective
An index to articles and reproductions of works of art in art-related magazines, journals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, 1929-1984.

Bibliography of the History of Art
Articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and exhibition and dealer's catalogs on European and American art and art history, 1973-present.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
Articles on architecture, planning, landscape architecture, interior design, and historic preservation, from journals published worldwide. Date coverage varies by title; some 1912-present.

Finding other scholarly articles

Historical Abstracts
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books and dissertations on world history from 1450 to present, 1954-present.

JSTOR
Core scholarly journals from a range of disciplines, dating from the earliest issue of each journal to a few years before present.

Academic Search Premier
A good starting point: articles from key journals in many scholarly disciplines, with some trade journals and magazines, 1975-present.

Humanities International Complete
Journal articles in archaeology, classics, cultural studies, arts, philosophy, history, linguistics, and literature, plus literary magazines, 1975-present.

ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
A bibliography of scholarly publications on the Middle Ages and Renaissance; the ITER Italia manuscript catalog; and three journals. Covers the period 400-1700; citations date back to 1784.

MLA International Bibliography
An index to journal articles and other scholarly literature on literature, literary theory and criticism, linguistics, folklore, and (since 1996) film, 1920’s -

Books on Caravaggio

History databases

Punch cartoonColonial AfricaLeopold caricatureEmaciated Africans

Historical Abstracts
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books and dissertations on world history from 1450 to present, 1954-present.

JSTOR
Core scholarly journals from a range of disciplines, dating from the earliest issue of each journal to a few years before the present.

Project Muse
Scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences published by university presses; searchable by journal issue, author, and keyword, 1996-present.

AllAfrica.com
News stories from a full range of local newspapers from all over the African continent, 1997-present.

Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature
Indexes over 300 mostly scholarly periodicals from 29 African countries, 1991-present.

America: History and Life
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, dissertations, and book reviews relating to United States and Canadian history and prehistory, 1954-present. Important for U.S.-African relations.

Finding other scholarly and contemporaneous articles

Academic Search Premier
A good starting point: articles from key journals in many scholarly disciplines, with some trade journals and magazines, 1975-present.

Humanities International Complete
Journal articles in archaeology, classics, cultural studies, arts, philosophy, history, linguistics, and literature, plus literary magazines, 1975-present.

Anthropology Plus
The scholarly literature of archeology and anthropology (biological, physical, linguistic, social and cultural) in several languages, late 1800s to present.

AnthroSource
The full text of the 32 journals published by the American Anthropological Association, some dating back to the nineteenth century.

EHRAF World Cultures
Thousands of ethnographies originally published as articles, books and dissertations. Its indexing traces social features across cultures, 1983-present.

Countries and their cultures
Information on food, rituals, pastimes, arts, etc. of 200 nations.

International Political Science Abstracts
Citations to articles from international political science periodicals, 1951-present.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
The international scholarly literature of political science, including articles, books, chapters, and reports, 1975-present.

PAIS International
Public and social policy literature in political science, international relations, social sciences. Articles, government documents, reports, 1915-.

Historical New York Times
The entire New York Times, searchable, in image files, from 1851 to three years ago.

Historical Boston Globe
The entire Boston Globe, searchable, in image files, 1872-1979.

Readers' Guide Retrospective
Citations to articles in 600 popular U.S. magazines, 1890-1982.

The last three databases allow students to access news stories from the late 19th and early 20th-centuries as events in Africa were reported in American magazines and newspapers of the period.

NOT ONLINE:

Palmer's index to the Times    AI21.T5
Index to the London Times;  film number for the  microfilm of the paper is A9 (Must be retrived from storage for users). Click here for online retrieval form.

Books on colonialism in Africa

Benin engraving

The principle subject headings in the Five Colleges Library Catalog for the "Scramble for Africa" are

Europe--Colonies--Africa--History--19th century
Europe--Colonies--Africa--History--20th century
Africa--Colonization--History--19th century
Africa--Colonization--History--20th century
Africa--History--To 1884
Africa--History--1884-1918

UMA WorldCat also has thousands of books, articles, websites, films, art, etc. on the European colonization of Africa. Use Interlibrary Loan to have these materials brought here for your papers.

Primary sources

Colonies: Africa.
JV1004 .A3A  70v.
Reprints of British parliamentary papers on Britain's African colonies.

British documents on foreign affairs: Africa, 1848-1914.
JZ632.B747 1995   30v.

Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States.
JX233.A3

Sub-Saharan Africa: A guide to research resources.

Reference Resources

The Africana section in the Reference Collection runs from DT1 to DT791. It includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks, including

New Encyclopedia of Africa (online)

Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students (online)

Peoples & cultures of Africa.  DT14.P46 2006

Encyclopedia of African peoples.  DT15.E53 2000

Encyclopedia of African history. DT20.E53 2005

An African biographical dictionary.   DT18.B76 2006

Africa on file. DT6.7.A34

Key events in African history: a reference guide. DT20.F35 2002

Encyclopedia of twentieth-century African history.   DT29.E53 2003

Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience   DT14.A37435 2005

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa DT3.C35 1980

Encyclopedia of African history and culture  DT3.P27 2005

Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara   DT351.E53 1997