LibGuides: History: Journals

Historical journals serve as crucial platforms for scholarly discourse and the dissemination of historical research. These publications feature peer-reviewed articles, essays, and reviews authored by experts in the field, offering invaluable insights, analysis, and perspectives on various historical topics, periods, and regions. They are pivotal in advancing historical scholarship, fostering intellectual exchange, and shaping the trajectory of historical inquiry.

Researchers and students rely on these journals to stay abreast of current historiography, engage with cutting-edge research, and explore emerging trends in the field. Additionally, historical journals provide a forum for publishing original research, enabling scholars to share their findings, interpretations, and methodologies with a broader audience.

Through their rigorous editorial processes and commitment to academic excellence, historical journals significantly contribute to preserving, interpreting, and understanding the past. They are indispensable repositories of scholarly research, critical analysis, and intellectual discourse within history.

Covering diverse topics, periods, and regions, historical journals provide invaluable insights into the complexities of the past, fostering a deeper understanding of historical events, movements, and phenomena. By publishing articles, essays, and reviews authored by experts in the field, these journals contribute to advancing historical scholarship and refining historiographical debates.

Moreover, historical journals play a pivotal role in shaping the direction of historical inquiry, identifying emerging trends, and promoting interdisciplinary dialogue. Whether accessed in print or online, historical journals serve as essential resources for researchers, students, and enthusiasts seeking to engage critically with the complexities of human history.

American Historical Review. The American Historical Review (AHR) is the official publication of the American Historical Association (AHA). The AHA was founded in 1884 and chartered by Congress in 1889 to serve the interests of the entire discipline of history. Aligning with the AHA’s mission, the AHR has been the journal of record for the historical profession in the United States since 1895—the only journal that brings together scholarship from every major field of historical study. The AHR is unparalleled in its efforts to choose articles that are new in content and interpretation and that make a contribution to historical knowledge. The journal also publishes approximately one thousand book reviews per year, surveying and reporting the most important contemporary historical scholarship in the discipline.
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies is a refereed academic journal published for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (popularly known as BRISMES). Founded in 1974 as the BRISMES Bulletin, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies assumed its present title in 1991 reflecting its growth into a fully-fledged scholarly journal.
Cliometrica Cliometrica is an academic journal about economic history. It follows the quantitative or formal approaches that have been called cliometrics or the new economic history, applied to any place and time. These formal approaches apply mathematical economic theory, model building, and statistical estimation.
Early Medieval Europe Early Medieval Europe provides an indispensable source of information and debate on the history of Europe from the later Roman Empire to the eleventh century. The journal is a thoroughly interdisciplinary forum, encouraging the discussion of all aspects of the early Middle Ages with a strong focus on Europe. It covers the entire continent, including insular Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland and the Mediterranean world, as well as interactions between Europe and places beyond it. Early Medieval Europe is unique in its chronological, methodological and geographical scope, and is essential reading for students and scholars of the early medieval world.
Economic History Review The Economic History Review is an invaluable source of information and is available free to members of the Economic History Society. Publishing reviews of books, periodicals and information technology, The Review will keep anyone interested in economic and social history abreast of current developments in the subject. It aims at broad coverage of themes of economic and social change, including the intellectual, political and cultural implications of these changes.
European History Quarterly European History Quarterly is a peer-reviewed journal which has earned an international reputation as an essential resource on European history, publishing articles by eminent historians on a range of subjects from the later Middle Ages to post-1945.
European Review of History The European Review of History - Revue européenne d'histoire is an international journal covering European history of all centuries and subdisciplines. It aims to create a forum for ideas across Europe, to encourage the most innovatory research, to make diverse historiographies better known and to practically assist exchanges between young historians.
Historical Methods Historical Methods reaches an international audience of historians and other social scientists concerned with historical problems. It explores interdisciplinary approaches to new data sources, new approaches to older questions and material, and practical discussions of computer and statistical methodology, data collection, and sampling procedures. Articles published in Historical Methods are often intended to describe a new data infrastructure project, offer insights on a new source of historical data to guide others in the use of the same data, or discuss ways to operationalize data or to implement new methodological approaches that others may emulate with similar data. In addition to its longtime interest in quantitative approaches to historical questions, Historical Methods also encourages submission of articles which address topics in the digital humanities and the rhetoric of social scientific history.
History and Theory History and Theory leads the way in exploring the nature of history. Prominent international thinkers contribute their reflections in the following areas: critical philosophy of history, speculative philosophy of history, historiography, history of historiography, historical methodology, critical theory, and time and culture. Related disciplines are also covered within the journal, including interactions between history and the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and psychology.
Irish Historical Studies Published for the Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd. Irish Historical Studies, founded in 1938, is the joint journal of the Irish Historical Society and the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies and is the authoritative voice in Irish history. It publishes articles embodying original research on Irish history; articles on the scope and teaching of Irish history; select documents, with editorial comment; select and critical bibliographies and guides to sources.
The Journal of African History The Journal of African History (JAH) publishes articles and book reviews ranging widely over the African past, from ancient times to the present. Historical approaches to all time periods are welcome. The thematic range is equally broad, covering social, economic, political, cultural, and intellectual history. Recent articles have explored diverse themes including: labour and class, gender and sexuality, health and medicine, ethnicity and race, migration and diaspora, nationalism and state politics, religion and ritual, and technology and the environment.
The Journal of American History In 1964 the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, published by the Organization of American Historians, became The Journal of American History. The change in title reflected not only an awareness of a growing national membership in the Association, but recognized a decided shift in contributor emphasis from regional to nationally-oriented history. The Journal of American History remains the leading scholarly publication and journal of record in the field of American history and is well known as the major resource for the study, investigation, and teaching of our country's heritage. Published quarterly in March, June, September and December, the Journal continues its distinguished career by publishing prize-winning and widely reprinted articles on American history. Each volume contains interpretive essays on all aspects of American history, plus reviews of books, films, movies, television programs, museum exhibits and resource guides, as well as microform, oral history, archive and manuscript collections, bibliographies of scholarship contained in recent scholarly periodicals and dissertations.
The Journal of Asian History The Journal of Asian History [abbreviated: JAH], founded in 1967, was formerly edited (vols. 1-45) by Denis Sinor (†2011), Indiana University, Bloomington, and from 2012-2014 (vols. 46-48) by Roderich Ptak, LMU Munich, and Claudius C. Müller, Hong Kong. Its present editors (beginning with vol. 49) are Dorothee Schaab-Hanke (OSTASIEN Verlag Gossenberg, Germany) and Achim Mittag (University of Tübingen). The journal is published by Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, Germany. The geographical scope of the JAH is as vast as Asia itself. Its historical scope encompasses all periods, yet with a focus on the time before 1900. It is the editors' hope that contributors will freely develop the “Through the Looking-Glass” aspect of history by implementing a variety of methodological approaches and utilizing a wide range of textual and non-textual sources. In particular, we welcome explorations of particular phenomena or events that provide insight into the dynamics of historical processes, elucidate historical change at turning points of history, and illuminate the conditions of all things that follow them. The journal publishes contributions in English and German.
The Journal of Asian Studies The Journal of Asian Studies (JAS) has played a defining role in the field of Asian studies for over 75 years. JAS publishes the very best empirical and multidisciplinary work on Asia, spanning the arts, history, literature, the social sciences, and cultural studies. Experts around the world turn to this quarterly journal for the latest in-depth scholarship on Asia's past and present, for its extensive book reviews, and for its state-of-the-field essays on established and emerging topics. With coverage reaching from South and Southeast Asia to China, Inner Asia, and Northeast Asia, JAS welcomes broad comparative and transnational studies as well as essays emanating from fine-grained historical, cultural, political, and literary research. The journal also publishes clusters of papers that present new and vibrant discussions on specific themes and issues.
The Journal of Economic History The Journal of Economic History is devoted to the multidisciplinary study of history and economics, and is of interest not only to economic historians but to social and demographic historians, as well as economists in general. The journal has broad coverage, in terms of both methodology and geographic scope. Topics covered include money and banking, trade, manufacturing, technology, transportation, industrial organisation, labour, agriculture, servitude, demography, education, economic growth, and the role of government and regulation. In addition, an extensive book review section keeps readers informed about the latest work in economic history and related fields.
The Journal of Global History The Journal of Global History aims to be the leading scholarly outlet for innovative analyses of global historical phenomena. JGH publishes articles that examine structures, processes, actors, and theories of global change; and that study connections and disconnections on a trans-regional scale, or on smaller scales that nevertheless transcend the boundaries of individual polities or environments. JGH particularly values creativity and originality in approaches to global history, as well as debates on the theories, methods, and evidence underpinning global historical narratives.
The William and Mary Quarterly A leading journal in early American history and culture, the William and Mary Quarterly publishes refereed scholarship in history and related disciplines from initial Old World–New World contacts to the early nineteenth century. Its articles, sources and interpretations, and reviews of books range from British North America and the United States to Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Spanish American borderlands. Forums and special issues address topics of active interest in the field.
The Journal of World History Devoted to historical analysis from a global point of view, the Journal of World History features a range of comparative and cross-cultural scholarship and encourages research on forces that work their influences across cultures and civilizations. Themes examined include large-scale population movements and economic fluctuations; cross-cultural transfers of technology; the spread of infectious diseases; long-distance trade; and the spread of religious faiths, ideas, and ideals. Individual subscription is by membership in the World History Association
Nations and Nationalism The journal has thus a uniquely broad scope, promoting international research and exchange of ideas on all aspects of ethnicity, nationalism and nation formation, across the globe and both in the past and in the present. It explores the associational, political, legal, cultural, economic, historical, archaeological, psychological, ethnic and anthropological dimensions of the phenomena of nations and nationalism. It deals with inter-ethnic, inter-national and trans-national relations of conflict, accommodation and cooperation, and the various processes and types of nation-state formation. It addresses the diversity of forms that ethnic and national mobilisation movements can take, as well as everyday expressions of national identification. The journal encompasses studies of nations as carriers and agents of cultural value and as sources of cultural creativity, e.g., in literature, music, architecture and the visual arts, and the role of memory and tradition in shaping national identities, communities and states.
Past & Present Founded in 1952, Past & Present is widely acknowledged to be the liveliest and most stimulating historical journal in the English-speaking world. The journal offers: A wide variety of scholarly and original articles on historical, social and cultural change in all parts of the world; Four issues a year, each containing five or six major articles plus occasional debates and review essays; Challenging work by young historians as well as seminal articles by internationally regarded scholars; A range of articles that appeal to specialists and non-specialists, and communicate the results of the most recent historical research in a readable and lively form; A forum for debate, encouraging productive controversy; The examination of particular problems and periods as well as wider issues of historical change.
Politics Religion & Ideology For nearly two decades, Politics, Religion & Ideology has provided the leading international forum for the scholarly exploration of the politics of illiberal ideologies, both religious and secular. The journal is multi-disciplinary, cutting-edge and truly international in scope, having to date received submissions from authors located in over 30 different countries.
Renaissance Quarterly Renaissance Quarterly is the leading international and interdisciplinary journal of Renaissance studies, encouraging connections between different scholarly approaches to bring together material spanning the period from 1300 to 1650. The official journal of The Renaissance Society of America, the journal publishes international scholarship from diverse disciplines such as art history; architecture; book history; classical tradition; comparative literature; English, French, Germanic, Hispanic, and Italian literature; Hebraica; history; humanism; legal and political thought; religion; medicine and science; paleography and manuscript tradition; musicology; and many, many more.
Victorian Studies For more than half a century, Victorian Studies has been devoted to the study of British culture of the Victorian age. It regularly includes interdisciplinary articles on comparative literature, social and political history, and the histories of education, philosophy, fine arts, economics, law, and science, as well as review essays and an extensive book review section. Victorian Studies is the official publication of the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA). For information on becoming a member in NAVSA, visit: http://navsa.org/members/join-navsa/

To find a specific academic journal, use the Journal Finder link and enter the journal title.

Journal Finder This link will allow you to see if we have a particular journal in your area of interest.

An Electronic Journal (or E-journal) is a traditional journal that is in an electronic format; either because it was originally created that way, or because someone took a print journal article and scanned it to make it available electronically.

A Database is what is created when a large number of electronic journals are put in one place and a search interface (usually a search box) is added to help find what you need. Both databases and electronic journals can be subject specific. When you have a database that only has the title or abstract, but not the full text, it is usually referred to as an Index.