LibGuides: History: Databases

Getting Started: Recommended Electronic Resources

See the curated list below, or see all history-related electronic databases here.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Updated daily. A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
1964 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Contains citations with abstracts to social science and humanities literature on all aspects of U.S. and Canadian history, culture and current affairs from prehistoric times to the present. Covers books, book reviews, journals and dissertations. Also reviews films and video projects. The database corresponds to the print America: History and Life, which is produced by ABC-CLIO. The database covers history, interdisciplinary studies of historical interest and history-related topics in the social sciences and humanities.
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
ArchiveGrid includes over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, it helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Provides instant access to the renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series. All the available volumes are grouped into broad topics for quick and easy browsing (see the list below), or the entire series can be searched using the basic or advanced search features. Specific histories consist of either one volume or a numered series and cover all major regions of the world (i.e. Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge History of Latin America).
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
1955 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Contains citations and abstracts of worldwide literature (excluding the United States and Canada) from approximately 2,100 journals and (since 1980) books and dissertations on political, diplomatic, economic, social, cultural and intellectual history and related areas of the social sciences and humanities. Covers history dating from 1450 to the present. The database corresponds to the print Historical Abstracts, which was produced by ABC-CLIO.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.
Members of the public can read online up to three articles for free every two weeks from a large subset of JSTOR journals via the Register & Read program. This program allows remote access. Non-UT students, faculty and staff who need more articles can contact library staff for other access options.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Coverage varies. Unlimited.
These Bibliographies provide an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, expert recommendations and authoritative commentary on the best works available in the discipline covered, making them particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
UT Austin has access to the all bibliographies in all subject areas.
Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
Coverage varies by collection. Unlimited.
The Oxford Handbooks contain in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. Each Handbook offers thorough introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship, creating an original conception of the field and setting the agenda for new research. Handbook articles review the key issues and cutting-edge debates, as well as providing arguments for how those debates might evolve.
UT Austin currently has access to Handbooks in all available subject through 2021.

Looking for film?

Documentaries can be found by searching Kanopy, a film database.

Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
This streaming service has a catalog of over 30,000 titles covering various educational topics and feature films for some 800 producers including Criterion, Documentary Educational Resources, New Day Films, Media Education, California Newsreel, PBS and others.
Titles streamed by Kanopy are available either directly from the library catalog or from the UT Kanopy interface linked above. Some titles on the UT Kanopy interface are not immediately available to UT community for streaming. Those titles for which we do not hold streaming rights could be requested by filling in a request form. This form would appear on your screen and forwarded to a staff member for consideration. Given our limited funds, we emphasize study and research needs when making purchase decisions.