Skip to Main Content

History

A guide to some historical information and research resources.

Resource Sheet for HIS 3500 History of the Modern Middle East

HINT:  pdf of this is on the bottom of the page

DATABASES (REFERENCE MATERIALS / CONTEXT)

Country Studies (US Army) - [use for understanding geography, infrastructure, and natural resources – some are slightly out of date – use World Factbook for more current]

  1. Along the top, enter the name of your country
  2. Click title of correct book
  3. You can download the pdf OR just view/read online

World Factbook (CIA) - [use for understanding a country’s geography, infrastructure, natural resources, and government – updated daily – current information]

  1. Along the top, click “Countries”
  2. Click the name of your country
  3. Scroll down to “Contents” and read the appropriate sections.

Countries and Economies (World Bank)- [use for understanding the economies inside a country and region]

  1. Scroll and select your country
  2. Scroll through the “Overview” or “By Theme” to gather data points

International Monetary Fund eLibrary (IMF) - [use for understanding the economies inside a country and region and other aspects of a country’s wellbeing]

  1. Along the top, select “countries” dropdown
  2. Select “region” to select your country [weirdly, Israel is listed under “Europe”]
  3. Use one of the taxonomies to limit the results and then pick what you want to read

UN Data – [use for finding specific data points (literacy, cell phones, clean water, etc.)]

  1. Enter the name of your country and “search”
  2. Scroll through tables or data series to find what you are looking for OR
  3. On the right, look at related links and click the one that is a “country profile”

DATABASES (PRIMARY RESOURCES)

Internet History Sourcebooks (Fordham University) – [use for finding resources / books / documents / reports about a huge host of topics on the Middle East]

  1. On the left, select “Modern”
  2. Again, on the left, select either “search” or “Middle East since 1945”
  3. Scroll and find what you’d like to read

Euro Docs – [use for finding historical documents written in Europe that point toward policies toward the Middle East (colonialism, treaties, trade, etc.)]

  1. Select a country (obviously not your country, but another that had/has relationships to your country)
  2. Pick a time period to search (look for documents related to your country)

Original Sources - [use for finding historical documents that point toward policies toward the Middle East (colonialism, treaties, trade, etc.)]

  1. Log in, if you have to.
  2. Try search, but be specific what you are looking for.

** Difficult to use for non-American or ancient topics

DATABASES (SECONDARY RESOURCES)

ProQuest Databases – [use for finding academic articles (peer-reviewed) about any topic on the Middle East]

  1. Log in
  2. In the top search box, enter your country name
  3. In the second search box, enter a topic that needs clarification
  4. Use limiters (date, “peer review”, “scholarly journals”, language, and document type)

EBSCO Databases – [use for finding academic articles (peer-reviewed) about any topic on the Middle East]

  1. Log in
  2. Select all and “continue”
  3. In the top search box, enter your country name
  4. In the second search box, enter a topic that needs clarification
  5. Use limiters (date, “peer reviewed”, “academic journals”, language, and source types)

US Department of State - [use for understanding US policy toward a nation and the rationale for holding that view. Also has information on various issues (human trafficking, drugs, etc.)]

  1. Along the top, select the “countries & areas” dropdown
  2. Enter your country
  3. Scroll to find appropriate material (all is American political stance/relationship toward your country – so biased toward the US)

EBOOK COLLECTIONS (MIX OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY)

ACLS Humanities eBooks

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)

eBook Central (ProQuest)

EBSCOHost eBook Collection

NEWSPAPERS – Pay attention to the bias of the publisher

(major city) AND English Newspaper - [use for looking up current events]

  1. In search engine, enter the name of a major city
  2. Then enter “AND” (yes, in all caps)
  3. Then enter “English Newspaper”

California Digital Newspaper Collection - [use for looking up historically important dates and events]

  1. Search by date, if you know the date (it’s a newspaper, so try the day after) OR
  2. Try names of important people to your topic

Associated Press - [use for looking up historically important dates and events AND current events]

Christian Science Monitor - [use for looking up historically important dates and events AND current events]

Al Jazeera (Qatar) - [use for looking up current events]

Al Manar (Lebanon - Hezbollah) - [use for looking up current events]

Hespress (Morocco) - [use for looking up current events]

Ha Aretz (Israel) - [use for looking up current events]

OTHER RESOURCES

Missionary Organizations

  • Joshua Project [use for looking up religious breakdown, literacy rates, populations of ethnic groups]

NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)

  • Aid organizations
  • Peace Corps
  • Red Cross / Red Crescent
  • Doctors Without Borders

INDIVIDUAL CURRENT JOURNALS (SECONDARY RESOURCE)

Arab Studies Journal – ISSN: 2328-9627 / 1083-4753

Arab Studies Quarterly – ISSN: 2043-6920 / 0271-3519

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies – ISSN: 1469-3542 / 1353-0194

Domes: Digest of Middle East Studies – ISSN: 1060-4367

HAWWA: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World – ISSN: 1569-2078 / 1569-2086

International Journal of Middle East Studies – ISSN: 1471-6380 / 0020-7438

Islamic Studies – ISSN: 0578-8072

Journal of Arab Affairs – ISSN: 0275-3588

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies – ISSN: 0806-198X / 1748-3328

Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies – ISSN: 2470-7074 / 2470-7066

Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization – ISSN: 2520-0313 / 2075-0943

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies – ISSN: 1558-9579 / 1552-5864

Journal of Palestine Studies – ISSN: 1533-8614 / 0377-919X

Journal of Shi’ite Islamic Studies – ISSN: 2051-557X / 1748-9423

Middle East Law and Governance – ISSN: 1876-3375 / 1876-3367

Middle East Policy – ISSN: 1061-1924

Middle East Quarterly – ISSN: 2767-049X / 1073-9467

Middle Eastern Studies – ISSN: 1743-7881 / 0026-3206

Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture – ISSN: 0793-1395

The Middle East Journal – ISSN: 1940-3461 / 0026-3141

The Middle East – ISSN: 0305-0734

The Syria Report – ISSN: 1637-7133 / 1637-7125

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs – ISSN: 8755-4917