History of Empire and Colonialism - LAW 867 - Global Histories of Sovereignty (Prof. Ruskola, Fall 2019) - Research Guides at Emory University Libraries

General Secondary Sources for Historical Research

Emory Library Search: The catalog for the Emory libraries is your best source for finding treatises for your research. You can find print treatises from the Law Library and other campus libraries, and ebooks and other online resources in campus databases. For your research on the history of sovereignty in international law, try searching by subject:

Sovereignty - History
Nation-State - History
International Law - History
Colonization - History

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
PDF page images of the original journals, including many older titles. There are 343 titles listed for History, including books as well as journal articles.
Note: You may not be able to access the most current 2–7 years of certain journals—but many of these recent publications are found in Project MUSE.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Access scholarly journal articles, books reviews, and dissertations in modern world history (1450 to present) excluding the U.S. and Canada. Covers sources published from 1955 to present.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Includes the most recently published output of many major scholarly journals. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, cultural studies, education, political science, and more.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Sections include Section I on Cultural Contacts 1492-1969, Section II on Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire, and Section V on Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism 1607-2007.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Primarily but not exclusively books published in the United Kingdom. You can limit your to search by subject to Law, History and Geography, or Social Sciences.

Frye and Laurie video clip: The Treaty of Westphalia

British Sources

Emory Libraries include numerous databases on the United Kingdom and its colonial empire, including some with primary source documents from Parliament and the British government.

State Papers Online This link opens in a new window
The British State Papers in this online edition are predominately papers of the Secretaries of State from the reign of Henry VIII to the reign of George III These include correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Modules include House of Commons documents from the 18th through 21st centuries, House of Lords documents from 1800-1910, Public Petitions to Parliament 1833-1918, and Hansard Official Reports of Debates 1803-2005.
Sample categories: East India Company Reports; Government and Administration; Indian army; Indian society -- Christian churches, education, famine, population statistics, the press, public health, religious affairs, slavery.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Find books, periodicals, tracts, and pamphlets.
19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
On JSTOR at https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/site/19th-century-british-pamphlets/
Pamphlet collections include the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection 1544-1900 and collections from members of Parliament and from political groups.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Access primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
to records of commerce and trade, taxation, population and property; to art and architecture, science and the history of ideas; to historical and topographical sources relating to specific places; and to parliamentary history. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust.

French Sources

Because French was historically the language of diplomacy, and the French had their own colonial empire, you may want to search in French language sources.

Gallica This link opens in a new window
Access the digital library from the Bibliothque Nationale of France. Includes a variety of primary source materials and public domain resources. Mainly in French.
PERSEE This link opens in a new window
Provides full text to back issues of hundreds of journals in the humanities and social sciences. Three to five year embargo on some journals.
Les Annales Bibliothéque de léécole des chartes LéHomme Matériaux pour léhistoire de notre temps Revue économique Revue de léart Revue franéaise de science politique
CAIRN (Bouquet French Studies) This link opens in a new window
Contains French language periodicals in the social sciences and humanities. Materials are sourced from several European publishing houses.
This database represents a broad collaboration between several European publishing houses (Belin, De Boeck, La Decounverte and Eres). French Studies bouquet, covers topics in General Interest, History, Literature, and Philosophy, and includes such publishers as PUF, Belin, Vrin, La Découverte, and Les Belles Lettres. Several journals of interest are Revue française d'histoire des idées politiques, Dix-septième siècle, Le Français aujourd'hui, and Médiévales.

Sources on colonialism and empire in North America and Latin America

History databases include documents and secondary sources on colonialism and empire in North America and Latin America.

Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Access materials presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between 1574 and 1757 that relate to English colonial governance in the Americas.
Sabin Americana This link opens in a new window
Collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the 1500s to the early 1900s. Focuses on original accounts of discovery and exploration, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, and more.
Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Includes historical collections from the colonial period and from nineteenth century independence wars, plus US State Department records from the 20th century.
Formerly known as Gale World Scholar.

Library of Congress: Law Library Digitized Collections. Include American Indian Constitutions and Legal Materials and Spanish Legal Documents from the 15th to 19th centuries.

Sources on Asia and Africa

Find primary documents and journals in Emory libraries on history and culture of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries. These selected databases focus on colonialism and empire.

China: Trade, Politics & Culture 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window
This digital collection answers a need for English-language primary sources relating to China and the West, 1793-1980. With manuscripts encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, students are given an incredible insight into the changes wrought upon China during this period.
Ch'ing Palace Memorials and Archives of the Grand Council This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source material from the Qing Dynasty. Prominent themes include state affairs, finance, agriculture, industry, and more. Before searching, users need to log in: Group: EU17, ID: emory17, PW: emory17. 清代宮中檔奏摺及軍機處檔摺件

The new version of the integrated "Digital Collection Database of Books and Documents" integrates the old versions of "Rare Books", "Ming and Qing Maps", "Qing Dynasty Palace Archives and Military Plane Archives", "Qing Dynasty Literature Archives", "Great Qing Five kinds of full-text image databases, such as biographies of national history figures and archives of historical museums, can be searched by entering the original account password; new users can follow the "free registration" of "digital collection database of books and documents" As shown on the page, you can use it after completing the online registration procedure and obtaining the account password.
India, Raj and Empire: manuscripts from the National Library of Scotland This link opens in a new window
18th-19th century texts dealing with The East India Company; Society, Travel and Leisure; British Government and Administration of India; Indian Literature, History and Culture, etc.
Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
Records cover 1906 to the present, with subjects including history, political science, and the humanities.

Archives Collections

ArchiveGrid: Free resource to find archives collections by location, or search terms from archives descriptions to find collections on topics

Archive Explorer (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Search for primary documents within archives collections.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Collections vary widely by subject and include the following: Through the Camera Lens:" The Moving Picture World and the Silent Film Era Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910 Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 Federal Response to Radicalism James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant collection Newspapers of the French Revolution, 1848 Indochina, France and the Viet Minh War, 1945-1954: Records of the US State Department, 1945-1949 Czechoslovakia from Liberation to Communist State, 1945-63: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files East German from Stalinization to the New Economic Policy, 1950-1963