Primary sources include works of literature, newspaper archives, images, and films. Reference materials include dictionaries and encyclopedias.
You have access to a wide range of digital sources, and also printed materials in the main collections and our Special Collections.
Rare and hard-to-access printed sources, tracing the history of printing in Europe.
Electronic Enlightenment is a wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.
Holdings of the Arcadian Library, revealing the shared cultural heritage of Europe and the Middle East.
You have access to a wide range of online newspapers. A very handy overview of our newspaper content provides access to individual resources. See the list below for details of selected titles.
Music, Radio and the Stage includes 15 trade and popular magazines covering all aspects of the music industry, theatre and broadcast radio in the US and UK covering the period 1880-2000.
The TLS Historical Archive contains authoritative, expert reviews of books, films and music. Coverage includes the earliest issue from 1902 to 2014.
This resource provides recent content of the TLS (2010 onwards).
These resources are excellent for finding authoritative definitions of words and prhrases, and for researching the lives and contexts of writers and historical figures.
High quality bilingual dictionaries in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Provides definitions of words in English and the development of their use.
Via these resources you have access to millions of freeview TV and radio programmes, newsreels and screened performances of threatrical works.
Film adaptations of classic and contemporary plays.
Enables staff and students to record and watch freeview broadcasts, create clips from new and archived TV and radio broadcasts, and embed them into Blackboard/ presentations. Please note: it can only be accessed in the UK. It is each user’s responsibility to ensure that the materials made available are used strictly within the terms and conditions of the licence.
Movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films and educational videos.
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
These resources provide access to images of artworks, architecture, sculpture and related art forms.
A portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in teaching, learning and research in the UK.
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Archives Unbound provides access to rare primary source documents topically focused into digital collections covering US foreign policy, civil rights, global affairs, colonial studies, British history, Holocaust studies, LGBT studies, Latin America and Caribbean studies, Middle East studies, political science, religious studies, and women’s studies. Includes over 340 collections.
Border and Migration Studies Online is a collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others. Featuring at completion 100,000 pages of text, 175 hours of video, and 1,000 images.
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
This collection consists of newspapers and periodicals; broadsides; leaflets; and books and pamphlets and other documents produced by or relating to the underground resistance in France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy.
Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820 explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices. With a clear focus on bringing the voices of the colonized to the forefront, this highly-curated archive and database includes documents related to the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States Empires, and settler societies in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Women and Social Movements, International is a collection of primary materials. Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life.
See also the Newspapers/periodicals tab for newspaper content.
Video recording with sound and optional subtitles. Click on the image below to watch the recording.
The University's Special Collections encompass a wide range of material from different time periods and on numerous subjects.
Some material can be viewed online and you can consult physical items by appointment in the Special Collections Reading Room on the first floor of the Arts and Social Sciences Library.
