COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES RESOURCES

 

Web resources on British empire are more plentiful than those related to the colonial empires of other European powers. Sites devoted to the French colonial empire are rapidly multiplying, although they tend to be more specialized (geographically, thematically, etc.).

 

Colonial & Imperial History

GENERAL/COMPARATIVE

Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History [Project Muse, requires UI login]

 

Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History [Online from 2003. Requires UI login]

 

Colonialism and Imperialism: A Working Bibliography, by Ashwani Vasishth (USC)

A wide-ranging bibliography of works in colonial and imperial history, a bit out of date at this point, since it was last updated in 2000.

 

H-Empire

H-Net discussion list for scholars of empire in all disciplinary, geographical, and chronological fields.

 

Imperialism section of The Internet Modern History Sourcebook, ed. Paul Halsall

Collection of links to primary documents related to 19th- and 20th-century empires.

 

Slave Trade Archives Project, UNESCO

The result of a six-year international project (1999-2005) to improve the conservation and accessibility of archives related to the Atlantic slave trade through preservation and digitization involving archives in eleven countries.

 

Slavery Resources, Sue Peabody (University of Vancouver)

A page of links to online resources for the study of slavery, compiled by Sue Peabody, distinguished historian of women and slavery and University of Iowa alumna!

 

BoondocksNet, Jim Zwick

Award-winning site with sharp analysis and extensive primary documentation of colonial issues around the turn of the 20th century, especially in the United States. Includes one of the largest digital collections of historical political cartoons from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as a wealth of resources (texts, cartoons, photographs) related to the Congo Reform Association and Rudyard Kiplings White Mans Burden.

 

 

FRANCE

French Colonial Historical Society

 

Socit franaise dhistoire doutre-mer

Society of French scholars of overseas history. Now includes a wonderful page of links to (mostly) French-language sites worldwide related to French overseas territories past and present.

 

Etudes Coloniales

Site of a new association founded by Daniel Lefeuvre (Universit de Paris VIII Seine-Saint-Denis) in response to recent polemics about Frances colonial history. Hosts an online journal, news blog, and directory of researchers dedicated to illuminating the historical diversity and complexity of Frances colonial past.

 

LEsprit conomique imprial?

New French page of conferences, seminars, and research programs investigating the relationships between economics, culture and the Outre-Mer.

 

Histoire et colonies, Toulon section of the Ligue des Droits de lHomme

A very good collection of articles on Frances colonial history, with an emphasis on human rights issues, representations, and memory.

 

Bibliographie: lhistoire coloniale de la France de 1871 a nos jours,  Bibliothque dinformation public (Centre Pompidou, Paris)

Annotated bibliography of works from the BPI collections, compiled in conjunction with the conference Histoires coloniales: hritages et transmissionsm, held at the library 18-19 Nov 2005.

 

Articles on the French colonies, from James Chastains Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions.

French Colonies, by Robert Aldrich

Senegal in 1848, by Bruce Vandevort

 

Association Connaissance de lhistoire de lAfrique contemporaine Collection, Special Collections, Getty Research Library

Important visual collection of popular culture, ephemera and photographs depicting the French African colonies, c. 1880-1975. Assembled by the ACHAC research group under the direction of Pascal Blanchard (f. 1990), donated to the Getty in 1997. The ACHAC site itself is no longer operational.

 

Colonial Algeria, A. Garcia

Personal website of A. Garcia devoted to colonial French Algeria, in French. Includes a selection of digitzed colonial-era texts, including a collection of twelve pamphlets published in 1930 by the Comit mtropolitain du Centenaire de lAlgrie, and links to other colonial Algeria-themed sites, many maintained by pied-noir organizations.

 

Algrie ancienne, Alain Spenatto

Another personal website from a bibliophile with a particular interest in Algeria. Offers a collection of over seventy digitized works related to Algeria, dating from the 14th to the 20th centuries and downloadable in .PDF format.

 

Francophone Africa, by Tony Chafer and Paul Wright (University of Portsmouth)

Excellent collection of resources on francophone West Africa: images, bibliographies, conferences and other scholarly initiatives, official government sites.

 

Voyages en Afrique, Bibliothque nationale de France

Dossier of travel accounts from Gallica, the BNFs virtual library.

 

Images et colonies, Archives nationales du Sngal

Selection of old postcards of the French colonies from the collections of the Senegalese national archives. The full collection of some 1,500 postcards is available on a CD-ROM edited by M. Adama Aly Pam of the Archives nationales du Sngal and the Universit Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar.

 

Images anciennes dAfrique, Association Images et Mmoire

Virtual exhibition of colonial-era postcards of the French Sudan (Mali) sponsored by the Association Images & Mmoires and UNESCOs Mmoire du Monde program. The full collection is available on a CD-ROM, Cartes postales dAfrique de louest (1895-1930) .

 

Nouvelle-France, Horizons Nouveaux: Histoire dune terre franaise en Amrique/New France, New Horizons: On French Soil in America,  Library and Archives of Canada

Beautifully-produced exhibition of 350 archival documents relating the history of New France from the first voyages of discovery to the end of the French Regime. Produced in conjuction to mark the quadricentenary of Samuel Champlains first voyage to North America.

 

La Louisiane franaise, 1682-1803, Ministre de la culture et de la communication de France

Another beautiful website of essays and primary documents developed to mark an important anniversary, this time the bicentenary of the Louisiana Purchase. Written by historian Gilles-Antoine Lenglois (Universit de Paris-XII).

 

The French Desire for Uranium, Nicholas Pedersen

A very interesting occasional paper on the colonial dimensions of French nuclear policy from the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

Riots in France, SSRC

An excellent collection of essays commissioned by the SSRC from leading scholars of French colonialism, immigration, and urban policy on the riots in suburban France of October-November 2005.

 

 

BRITAIN

British Empire Studies, at the British Library

 

The British Empire Gateway, Dr. Jane Samson (University of Calgary)

On-line resources for scholarship and teaching on the British Empire and Commonwealth.

 

History in Focus, Empire, Institute of Historical Research

A London-based gateway to carefully-selected resources in colonial and imperial studies.

 

The British Empire—An Overview, Victorian Web

Articles, primary sources, and other internet resources related to the British Empire.

 

South Asian Literature: Some Primary Sources, Frances Pritchett (Columbia University)

A wonderful site with links to electronic primary sources relating to South Asia, including an impressive collection of texts by South Asians and Britons from the colonial era. 

 

 

Postcolonial Studies

The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Criticism, ed. Michael Groden and Martin Kreisworth

 

Postcolonial Studies, developed by Deepika Bahri in the English Department, Emory University

Useful introduction to postcolonial studies and theory.

 

Contemporary and Postcolonial Literature in English, National University of Singapore

 

 

Resources of Interest to Colonial Historians

American Institute for Maghrib Studies

Interdisciplinary area studies organization that sponsors an annual conference, a dissertation workshop for graduate students, and fellowships for research and language study in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Administers three Council of American Overseas Research Centers in Tunis, Tangiers, and Oran.

 

MESA, Middle East Studies Association

 

African Studies Association

 

Africa Web Links: An Annotated Resource List, ed. Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar (University of Pennsylvania)

The leading online resource center for all things Africa-related, hosted by the Penn African Studies Center.

 

Animated Atlas of African History, 1879-2002, developed by Rolando Peata and Nancy Jacobs

Downloadable map tracks political, economic and demographic change and conflict in the African continent year-by-year from the age of imperialism to the present. Great for teaching.

 

South Asian Studies Organizations, a listing from the Columbia University Libraries

 

The Coombsweb for Asia-Pacific Studies, Australian National University

 

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