Tag Archives: global history

Trial until 29 Nov 2019: Bloomsbury Medieval Studies

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Oxford medievalists are invited to trial Bloomsbury Medieval Studies.

This is a new interdisciplinary digital resource with a global perspective covering the medieval period. It brings together high-quality secondary content with visual primary sources, a new reference work and pedagogical resources into one cross-searchable platform, to support students and researchers across this rich field of study.

Specifically, the resource contains over 150 scholarly works (incl. primary texts, research monographs, companions) which have been published by Bloomsbury and other publishers such as IB Tauris, Arc Humanities Press, Amsterdam University Press.

It also contains a newly published reference work (The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Age) and over a 1000 images sourced from collections in the British Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Senate House Library (London).

The trial ends on 29 November 2019. Feedback should be sent to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New resources for global history: Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan (1836-1944) and SUR, 1931-1992

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The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items costing up to £125,000 which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets. The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1836-1944, together with their new Gale Digital Scholar Lab, which will allow digital research methods to be applied across all the primary sources published by them and acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1836-1944 (Archives Unbound)

This collection covers U.S. perspectives on Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Trans-Jordan, from Ottoman rule to the era of British and French mandates following the First World War. The archive is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

SUR, 1931-1992 (Archives Unbound)

In Public Domain. From Wikipedia (17 April 2019

SUR is one of the most important and influential literary magazines published in Latin America in the twentieth century. This collection includes images of the complete magazine, including covers, photographs and advertisements, more than 50,000 pages; a comprehensive electronic index of 6,300 entries, correcting mistakes and inconsistencies found in the index published in the magazine; and a set of images of manuscripts from the first issue as well as an unpublished set of letters by Victoria Ocampo.

Founded in 1931 by Argentine intellectual Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979), SUR is well known throughout Latin America and Europe. Over its long and distinguished history, SUR featured the writings of the leading figures in literature, philosophy, history and the plastic arts not only from Latin America, but also from North America and Western Europe. Contributors included LeCorbusier, Lacan, Sarte, and Woolf; and Argentine authors include Borges, Cortázar, Silvinia Ocampo, and Bioy Casares. Through Ocampo’s social commentary and choice of contributors, she advanced an Argentine version of Liberalism at a time when most Latin Americans confronted reactionary regimes, military rule, economic chaos and demagogues.

This important literary title featuring the century’s principal authors and intellectuals is vital for historical research.

While you are here:

New: Journal of Medieval Worlds, 2019-

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Medievalists will be pleased to learn that you have access to the very newly published Journal of Medieval Worlds (ISSN 2574-3988), joining two other global medieval journals already available in Oxford (The Medieval Globe, Medieval Worlds). The subscription is funded thanks to the Madeline Barber Bequest. It can be accessed via SOLO.

Journal of Medieval Worlds is a new peer-reviewed  academic journal, published quarterly by University of California Press. It aims to disseminate multi-disciplinary research on the global medieval world, primarily covering the period 750-1600. Its purpose is to “explore interconnections across regions and build meaningful comparisons across cultures”.

The geographical coverage includes Japan, China, Central Asia, South Asia, East and West Africa, North Africa, Oceans and Seas, the Americas, Middle East and Levant, and Europe, including Northern and Eastern Europe.

The strong multidisciplinary approach is evident: “Fields and topics addressed in the journal include, but are not limited to, Archaeology, Cultural Geography (including Cartography), Economics, Gender and Sexuality, History (including Cultural History), History of the Arts (including Architecture, Art, and Music), Law, Literature and Rhetoric, Material Culture (including Codicology, Epigraphy, Numismatics, and Papyrology), Historical Demography, Philology, Philosophy, Religion, Science (including Medicine and Technology), and Theology.”

As well as research articles, the journal will also publish reviews of books, textbooks, and relevant exhibitions, as well as essays and features on pedagogy.

In the inaugural issue, the Editor’s Remarks by Edward D. English and Oxford’s very own Peter Frankopan‘s “Why we need to think about the Global Middle Ages” set out the intellectual aims of the journal in more detail.

You can set up RSS feeds or eToC alerts if you want to be kept informed of new articles, reviews, etc.

Other global medieval journals available in Oxford:

While you are here you might like to know about…

New ejournal: Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies, 1, 2019-

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Oxford historians will be pleased to know that online access to Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies (eISSN 2589-7454) is now available via SOLO.

This peer-reviewed journal publishes four fascicles each year on various thematic subjects. It has a global reach and covers early modern and modern history.

Vol.1, Issue 1 (2019): Jesuit Schools and Universities in Europe 1548–1773

Vol. 1, Issue 2 (2019): Gathering Souls: Jesuit Missions and Missionaries in Oceania (1668–1945)

While you are here, you might also be interested in:

  • Index Religiosus: International Bibliography of Theology, Church History and Religious Studies [subscription resource]: Index Religiosus is a reference bibliography for academic publications in Theology, Religious Studies and Church History. It covers publications written in various European languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, etc.) and is the result of collaboration between the Catholic University of Louvain and the KU Leuven, which are both recognized internationally for their excellence in the field of Theology and Religious Studies. The new bibliography starts on the basis of two existing bibliographies: the bibliography of the Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique and the Elenchus Bibliographicus from the journal Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. From January 2014 onwards, the printed version of the bibliography of the Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique and the Elenchus Bibliographicus will be no longer available. These printed bibliographies will be replaced by the Index Religiosus.
  • ATLA with ATLASerials [subscription resource]: ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials is the full text version of the ATLA Religion Database (ATLA). This database is a collection of major religion and theology journals selected by some of the major religion scholars in the United States. Coverage of this database dates back to 1949
  • Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation [subscription resource]: Catholic authors of the 16th and 17th centuries took advantage of print technology to create a vast treasury of published documents–a legacy that to this day has been but selectively sampled and appreciated. The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation makes the documentary riches of this era more accessible than ever, adding powerful functionalities that maximize the flexibility with which researchers can search, view, organize, and manipulate this historically important source material. With new content uploads occurring on a regular basis, the database offers a constantly growing treasury of documents, including papal and synodal decrees, catechisms and inquisitorial manuals, biblical commentaries, theological treatises and systems, liturgical writings, saints’ lives, and devotional works.
  • Catholic Encyclopedia: The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

Trial until 1 March: Foreign Office Files for the Middle East 1971-1981

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Colleagues in the Social Science Library (SSL) have arranged trial access to Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981 which is available until 1 March 2019.

This resource is an online collection of documents sourced from The National Archives, UK, which are useful for the understanding the events in the Middle East during the 1970s. It comprises formerly classified British government documents, including correspondence, annual reports, dispatches, maps, minutes of ministerial meetings and printed leaflets. The documents relate to a number of topics including the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Oil Crisis, the Lebanese Civil War and the Camp David Accords, the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. The resource also assesses military interventions and peace negotiations carried out by regional and foreign powers like the United States and Russia.

Commercial interests are also scrutinised, with in-depth analyses of Middle East nations’ economic stability and reviews of international arm sales policies. The activities of oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia are closely monitored, with particular reference to the Gulf States and members of OPEC.

Utilising the significant collection of diplomatic correspondence, minutes, reports, political summaries and personality profiles, users can explore a decade characterised by conflict.

The online archive will be of particular interest to researchers in International Relations, Politics, Global Governance and Diplomacy, Public Policy, International Development, Economics, Area Studies, History and more.

Please send any feedback about this trial to jo.gardner@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

While you are here…

… the following related source databases and guides are already available to Oxford researchers:

New: The Medieval Globe, 1 (2014)-

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Medievalists will be pleased to know that you now have online access to The Medieval Globe, v. 1(2014)- present. This subscription resource is funded thanks to the Madeline Barber Bequest.

The Medieval Globe [ISSN 2377-3553] is a peer-reviewed journal, published bi-annually, It was launched in November 2014 with a special issue on the Black Death as a global pandemic.

The journal explores the modes of communication, materials of exchange, and myriad interconnections among regions, communities, and individuals in an era central to human history. It promotes scholarship in three related areas of study:

  • the direct and indirect means by which peoples, goods, and ideas came into contact
  • the deep roots of global developments
  • the ways in which perceptions of the medieval past have been (and are) constructed around the world.

It is relevant to those working on Medieval Studies, Areas Studies and Global History. The materials published in this journal include articles, review essays, scholarly dialogues, multi-authored discussions, and editions or translations of source materials.

The Medieval Globe is the latest in a series of scholarly journals following the global shift and which are available in Oxford. These are:

  • Medieval Worlds is an Open Access double‐blind peer reviewed journal covering interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages.
  • Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies publishes comparative studies, which systematically reflect the entanglement and the interconnection of European, African, Asian and American cultures.
  • Journal of Medieval Worlds (University of California Press) is due to start publication in March 2019. Watch out for further news that access is enabled.

Other HFL news on medieval resources.

New: Virtual History Archive (USC Shoah Foundation)

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I am very pleased to announce that thanks to a generous donation of Ms Cecilia Chan to the University China Centre, Oxford researchers now have access to the Virtual History Archive (USC Shoah Foundation) until 30 September 2019.

The resource can be accessed from Databases A-Z and soon also via SOLO.

Visual History Archive® is USC Shoah Foundation’s online portal that allows users to search through and view more than 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. Initially, and still overwhelmingly, a repository of Holocaust testimony, the Archive has expanded significantly to include survivor and witness testimony from four other genocidal events the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), the Nanjing Massacre (1937), the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda (1994), the Guatemalan Genocide (1978-1996), as well as more recent testimonies relating to the Anti-Rohingya Mass Violence (August-October 2017).

This very rich resource can be searched and browsed in various ways. There are indexes for themes and names. Places can be found, using a zoomable map, for geographical locations as well as types of locations (e.g. concentration camps, refugee camps). The interviews have been indexed to quite a deep level. Even if you don’t have any names of individuals you can locate testimonies by browsing by experience:

As this resource provides access to a huge amount of oral history material, you will need to make sure that you can listen to sound, and, if you are using it in a library, please use head- or earphones.

Also useful:

  • Jewish survivors of the Holocaust A freely available collection of 186 life story interviews and oral testimonies from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their children in the British Library. Includes audio files and transcripts collected between 1987 and 2000. This resource documents the moving testimonies of Jewish immigrants to Britain, many of whom survived Nazi concentration camps. Over 440 hours of life story recordings explore personal experiences of persecution across war-torn Europe and the impact of the Holocaust, covering anti-semitism before the Second World War; ghettos and concentration camps; resistance and liberation; searching for family in the aftermath; building a new life in Britain and the legacy of the Holocaust.
  • Post War Europe (Archives Unbound) [Oxford researchers only]: An online archive of primary sources for the study and understanding of the challenges facing the European peoples in the aftermath of World War II, it covers the politics and administration of the refugee crisis in Europe after World War II as well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves. The selection of materials is based on holdings in the National Archives and the Wiener Library, London, and includes documents and letters in the original language. The archive includes the working papers of Rose Henriques from 1945-1950, which comprises perhaps the most complete record of the effort to improve the lives of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and Displaced Persons in the British Zone of Occupation. It also includes papers of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad (JCRA), the Jewish Relief Units (JRUs) and copious documentation on other aspects of the Jewish refugee situation in the period 1945 to 1950.This resource is relevant to those studying World War II, Holocaust and Jewish studies, post-war history of Germany, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy.
  • To find secondary readings on the Holocaust, use the following subject searches in SOLO: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Trials until 31 Oct: Chatham House Online Archive 1920-2008 & Political Extremism and Radicalism in the 20th Century

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Colleagues in the SSL have arranged trial access to two databases from Gale Cengage until 31 October 2018

  • Chatham House Online Archive 1920-2008
  • Political Extremism and Radicalism in the 20th Century

Both databases will be of particular interest to researchers in International Relations, Politics, Global Governance and Diplomacy, Public Policy, International Development, Economics, Area Studies, History and more.

Chatham House Online Archive 1920-2008 is a searchable online database covering 88

Garle, H. E.. “Judicial Reform and the Egyptian Settlement.” RIIA/8/181. Chatham House, London. 28 Jan. 1932. Web access 3/10/18. Gale Document Number:
NWSXWZ987066976

years of the institute’s expert analysis and commentary on international policy. Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute based in London where world leaders and policy-makers are invited to discuss their views in an impartial environment. The online archive includes briefing papers, special reports, pamphlets, conference papers, monographs.

Additionally, the archive offers unique access to thousands of hours of audio recordings of Chatham House lectures and their fully searchable transcripts, offering valuable insight into the experiences and opinions of key figures in international affairs, including Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Willy Brandt, King Hussein of Jordan, François Mitterrand, Henry Kissinger, Prof. A.J. Toynbee, Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Andreas Papandreou, Caspar Weinberger, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, HE Yousuf Al-Alawi Abdullah, Dr. Zhores Medvedev, and Hans Blix.

Political Extremism and Radicalism in the 20th Century is an online archive of briefing papers, reports, pamphlets and other publications from various Far-Right and Far-Left Political Groups in the US, Europe and Australia. Having this primary source material all together in one searchable database enables researchers to explore the origins and development of present-day issues, including the resurgence of right-wing politics, evolution of various civil rights movements and the nature of radical political thought.

Please send your feedback about these online archives to jo.gardner@bodleian.ox.ac.uk: Are they useful to you? Would you recommend them?  Do they offer you anything new? Would you use them for teaching at all?

New: Arcadian Library Online: History of Science and Medicine collection

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I am delighted to announce that thanks to a generous donation, the Bodleian Libraries has been able to purchase Arcadian Library Online: History of Science and Medicine collection.

This online resource enables easy exploration of the rich holdings of the Arcadian Library. A privately-owned collection of rare ancient manuscripts, early printed books, and documents from the 10th to 20th centuries, the Arcadian Library collects the shared cultural heritage of Europe and the Middle East.

The first module of this online resource, the History of Science and Medicine collection, contains the contributions of early Arab and Persian scientists, doctors and thinkers; their translation, reception and influence in Europe and their lasting influence on the development of Western scientific and medical knowledge. It also brings together 19th and 20th century records of science, medicine and natural history from across the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions.

There are texts on

Content highlights include:

  • Ibn Baklarish’s Kitab al-Musta’ini – Book of simple medicines
  • Haly Abbas’s (Al Majūsī) seminal tenth century medical text Liber Totius Medicine Necessaria Continens
  • Liber de cirurgia by Albucasis (Al-Zahrawi) – a pivotal fifteenth century medical treatise detailing early Arab surgical practices and instruments
  • An early edition of Serapion the Younger’s book of medical botany, Liber aggregatus in medicinis simplicibus
  • Reports of European scientific explorations documenting the animals, plants and geology of countries including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria

I recommend browsing by period, place, people, topic, language and content type to get a sense of the scope of this curated collection.

The vast majority of the content comes from printed works and are in Latin. Texts are also in Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Persian and Spanish. The medieval and early modern periods are particularly strong.

In due course the bibliographical details of each item in this collection will also be discoverable in SOLO.

Features include:

  • High-resolution, full-colour images (400ppi)
  • Searchable in either English or Arabic
  • Dedicated taxonomy enables filtered search by topic, place, period, people, language or content type
  • Commentary articles linked to primary texts
  • Full catalogue records include available provenance and condition notes
  • Integrated Arabic keyboard

British History Online and the Bibliography of British and Irish History – not just British

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Read this great blogpost from the Institute of Historical Research on the global coverage of British History Online and the Bibliography of British and Irish History.

They are wonderful resources and easy to use. Take a look now!

From the titles of some of the IHR’s digital resources, you might think that they have limited geographical reach: British History Online…the Bibliography of British and Irish History. …

Source: British History Online and the Bibliography of British and Irish History – not just British