HSTRY 498B: Cities in the Modern Middle East: Primary: Articles

Many 19th century magazines included articles about the Middle East. When using a fulltext database of articles it is especially important to use the geographical names of the time period you are searching. For example Tel Aviv was not founded until 1909, Istanbul was Constantinople, Beirut could also be spelled Bayrut and even Bairout.

Magazine Articles

American Antiquarian Society Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
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Wide array of North American magazines published between 1684 and 1912
American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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18th, 19th & early 20th century American magazines
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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18th, 19th & early 20th century British magazines
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Because JSTOR includes journals going back to their first issue, it can be used to find primary source articles from older journals in fields such as anthropology & geography

National Geographic Magazine Archive 1888-2015
Complete archive of the magazine issues

Periodicals Archive Collection This link opens in a new window
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Collection of back issues of American, British and European magazines and journals in the arts, humanities & social sciences.

Magazine Indexes

Use indexes to identify articles written a topic. You will then have an additional step (usually just clicking on the "Check for full text" button) to see if a copy of the article is available.

Articles on the Middle East, 1947-1971 : a cumulation of the bibliographies from the Middle East journal

Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Subject Index to Periodicals/British Humanities Index

Selected Digitized Newspapers

For additional digitized newspapers see the eNewspapers guide.

Access World News 1980s-
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al-Ahrām, 1876-2019
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Historical Jewish Press
Middle Eastern & North African Newspapers
Proquest Historical Newspapers
Times of London 1785-1985
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Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)

US Government translations of radio and print (via JPRS) publications dating back to 1941 and ending in 1996. The UW holdings on microfiche for the Middle East date from 1980 to 1996. Indexes are available to point you to the correct fiche. Check with librarians at the Information desk on the ground floor of Suzzallo Library for help locating and using the microfiche.

Travel-Related Magazines Available in Print

Newspapers & Magazines as Historical Evidence

Strengths

Newspapers focus more on local or national issues and events rather than foreign countries
Commentary, cartoons and letters to the editor provide local public opinion information
Photographs and other graphics
Display and classified advertising provide Information about local prices, rents, jobs

Keep in mind

Western magazines and newspapers will reflect similar biases as travel accounts -- a view of non-western societies as exotic and/or primitive.
Newspapers do not provide in-depth analysis nor do they provide scholarly context for an issue. They really do focus on the who, what, where and when rather than the why of an issue or event.

For more information on using newspapers see: Analyzing Newspapers, Newspapers & Learning to Do Historical Research Prowling the Periodicals