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Research Guides

HSTRY 494B: Imagining Africa: Secondary: Books & Journal Articles

Selected eBooks

book cover: In Search of Brightest Africa Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936
book cover: Africa's Media Image in the 21st Century : From the
book cover: Hollywood and Africa: Recycling the 'Dark Continent' Myth from 1908-2020
book cover: Early African Entertainments Abroad: From the Hottentot Venus to Africa's First Olympians
book cover: Anthropology goes to the fair : the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
book cover: H. Rider Haggard on the Imperial Frontier: The Political and Literary Contexts of His African Romances
book cover: Races on Display: French Representations of Colonized Peoples, 1886-1940
book cover: Images and Empires Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa
book cover: Black Venus: Sexualized Savages, Primal Fears, and Primitive Narratives in French
book cover: The Ones That Are Wanted : Communication and the Politics of Representation in a Photographic Exhibition
book cover: Hollywood's Africa after 1994
book cover: A Place in the Sun : Africa in Italian Colonial Culture from Post-Unification to the Present
book cover: Black on Black Twentieth-Century African American Writing about Africa
book cover: Africa in the American Imagination: Popular Culture, Radicalized Identities, and African Visual Culture
book cover: Representation and Black Womanhood : The Legacy of Sarah Baartman
book cover: The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment
book cover: Labeling People : French Scholars on Society, Race and Empire, 1815-1848
book cover: Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa
book cover: The Anatomy of Blackness Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment
book cover: Framing Africa Portrayals of a Continent in Contemporary Mainstream Cinema

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Articles: History & Interdisciplinary

Articles: Politics & Economics

Google Scholar

Because scholarly material for this class crosses disciplinary lines it can be useful to search the content of articles & books via Google Scholar. 

Articles: Africa Studies, Anthropology & Religion

Articles: Art, Film & Literature

Scholarly Books & Journals as Research Resources

The raison d'être of historians is to explore the past and attempt to describe, explain, interpret and analyze it. Historians use evidence from the past (primary sources) to support their interpretations which are most often published in the form of books and journal articles (secondary sources). So why should you use secondary sources?

Strengths

  • Written by expert scholars. Before publication academic books and articles are vetted by other scholars in a process known as peer review.
  • Peer review ensures that scholarly books and articles are more reliable and credible than other types of publications.
  • Provide historical/broader/in depth context and analysis of a topic. 
  • Scholarly articles and books are based on evidence (primary sources) that are cited in the footnotes and bibliography. They are often a quick way to identify important evidence that you too may wish to use in your research paper. You can use this evidence and present your own interpretation.
 

Keep in mind

  • Expert scholars are likely to use specialized terminology and theory in their analyses making scholarly articles and books sometimes difficult to understand.

How to Read Scholarly Books & Articles

Scholarly articles and books have a purpose -- an argument (also called a thesis) that they are attempting to make about an issue and present evidence to support this argument. As you read a scholarly article first check to see if there is an abstract, a brief overview of the article. This will give you an idea if the article will be relevant for your research. Then look for the author's argument. Ask yourself, does the author adequately support their argument with evidence.

For more information on reading a scholarly article see: Analyzing Scholarly ArticlesHow to Read an Academic Article & How to Read a Secondary Source.