LibGuides: History: Political Thought and Intellectual History

Introduction to Political Thought and Intellectual History

The Faculty of History at Cambridge has long been distinguished for study of the history of political thought and the broad field of intellectual history. The interests of our researchers engage with the multiple contexts, intellectual, political, and institutional in which past political, historical and philosophical texts were written. Specific interests of Cambridge scholars include the dialogue between the history of political thought and modern political philosophy, the connections between legal, moral and political thought, the interface between the histories of international law and political thought, global intellectual history, historiography, the history of natural philosophy, and the history of scholarship. Our researchers remain at the forefront of teaching and scholarship in the field, continually taking the distinctive Cambridge approach to the history of political thought and intellectual history in new directions.

Cambridge University Libraries boasts a large and varied collection of both physical and digital resources to help you in your studies. This includes books, online databases, newspapers, official publications, journals, and much more. Here in the Seeley, texts on Political Thought and Intellectual History can be found across the library, though the following sections may be of specific interest: 'B - Philosophy. Psychology. Religion', 'J - Political Science', 'K - Law', 'LA - History of Education', for History ; '36 - Sociology of Knowledge', '37 - Political Theory and Philosophy' in POL-SOC ; '9.1 - Political Theory' in Land Economy ; and 'Politics and Sociology' in the Latin American Studies collection.

You also have access to the University Library (UL), where the classmark range 500-698 covers Geography and History and is then organised by region, all Faculty Department Libraries (FDLs), and your own College Library, so explore these for useful books and resources as well.

As with any library, searching on iDiscover for the text, journal or database that you require is a good starting point, and if you have any questions then please reach out to a member of staff who would be happy to assist.

Seeley Library Political Thought and Intellectual History Collection

Intervention Podcast

What do intellectual historians currently investigate? And why is this relevant for us today? These are some of the questions this podcast series, led by graduate students at the University of Cambridge, seeks to explore. It aims to introduce intellectual historians and their work to everyone with an interest in history and politics. Do join in on our conversations!

History of Political Thought Journal

Modern intellectual history : MIH

Related University of Cambridge Department sites

Journals

American Political Thought Bridging the gap between historical, empirical, and theoretical research, American Political Thought (APT) is the only journal dedicated exclusively to the study of the American political tradition. Interdisciplinary in scope, APT features research by political scientists, historians, literary scholars, economists, and philosophers who study the foundation and political tradition of concepts such as democracy, constitutionalism, equality, liberty, citizenship, political identity, and the role of the state.
Chinese Literature and Thought Today The mission of Chinese Literature and Thought Today ( CLTT) is to provide the finest English translations of and fresh critical essays about contemporary Chinese literature, culture, philosophy, and intellectual history. CLTT grants the English-speaking world direct access to the latest developments and top-notch research in contemporary Chinese culture and offers readers exclusive coverage of the biannual Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, hosted at the University of Oklahoma. CLTT’s rich text and vibrant art design invite you to explore the figures, places, experiences, memories, thoughts, and emotions that make the intellectual landscape of contemporary Chinese literature and thought so dynamic and consequential. CLTT represents the merger of two forerunners of Chinese humanities scholarly publication, Contemporary Chinese Thought and Chinese Literature Today. Our editors, contributors, and translators continue to aim at deepening the global understanding of our diverse yet shared humanity.
Contemporary Pragmatism Contemporary Pragmatism (COPR) is an interdisciplinary, international journal for discussions of applying pragmatism, broadly understood, to today's issues. Contemporary Pragmatism will consider articles about pragmatism written from the standpoint of any tradition and perspective. Contemporary Pragmatism especially seeks original explorations and critiques of pragmatism, and also of pragmatism's relations with humanism, naturalism, and analytic philosophy. Contemporary Pragmatism cannot consider submissions that principally interpret or critique historical figures of American philosophy, although applications of past thought to contemporary issues are sought. Contemporary Pragmatism welcomes contributions dealing with current issues in any field of philosophical inquiry, from epistemology, philosophy of language, metaphysics and philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind and action, to the areas of theoretical and applied ethics, aesthetics, social & political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of the social sciences. Contemporary Pragmatism encourages work having an interdisciplinary orientation, establishing bridges between pragmatic philosophy and, for example, theology, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, economics, medicine, political science, or international relations.
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy (EJPAP) European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy-EJPAP publishes articles which explore the American tradition in philosophy, with a special focus on pragmatism and on the relationships of pragmatism to the social sciences. EJPAP promotes exploration of interdisciplinary issues and approaches and favors the mutual dialogue among different traditions in philosophy and in the social sciences. EJPAP is indexed in Scopus (since 2019), Erih Plus, and Web of Science Core Collection.
Global Intellectual History How can we define intellectual history? At present scholars who call themselves intellectual historians, or who express an interest in intellectual history, can be found working on a variety of topics, such as the history of identities, time and space, empire and race, sex and gender, natural and popular sciences, the body and its functions, the movements of peoples and the transmission of ideas, the history of publishing and the history of objects, art history and the history of the book, planetary, maritime, and oceanic histories, in addition to the subjects traditionally associated with intellectual history, such as political theory, political economy, and international relations. Intellectual history as a subject has thrived because it gives people the skills to understand an alien persona, the product of cultures and beliefs that are likely to have been altogether at odds with their own. Indeed, to employ the metaphors of John Burrow, the intellectual historian can be described as an eavesdropper on past conversations, as a translator between cultures, and as an explorer of unfamiliar worlds. Intellectual historians can learn to appreciate the different values held by societies whose modes of living may clash with our own and realise that the rationales of such values are explicable. Above all, intellectual history teaches prudence, a sense of the alternative futures articulated by historical actors, the transmission mechanisms they developed to realise those futures, and the limits upon their capacity to improve and sometimes to protect their worlds. Given the lack of disciplinary or geographical boundaries to the subject of intellectual history as traditionally practised, it only makes sense for a journal to exist that encourages exactly these virtues on a global scale.
History of Political Thought History of Political Thought (HPT) is a quarterly journal which was launched in 1980 to fill a genuine academic need for a forum for work in this multidisciplinary area. Although a subject central to the study of politics and history, researchers in this field had previously to compete for publication space in journals whose intellectual centres of gravity were located in other disciplines.
Intellectual history of the Islamicate world In the medieval, late medieval and pre-modern world of Islam, Muslims, Jews and Christians constituted a unique cultural and intellectual commonality. They shared a language, Arabic (and at times Persian), which they spoke in daily life and which they also used for their theological, philosophical, legal and scientific writings. Moreover, they often read the same books, so that a continuous, multi-dimensional exchange of ideas, texts, and forms of discourse was the norm rather than the exception.While this has been amply demonstrated for some selected periods and regions, scholars usually opt for a one-dimensional approach with an (often exclusive) focus on either Muslim, Jewish or Christian authors and their writings. The journal Intellectual History of the Islamicate World was founded in 2013 by Sabine Schmidtke as a forum for research that systematically crosses the boundaries between three major disciplines of academia and research, viz. Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies and the study of Eastern Christianity. It encourages discussion among representatives of these and related disciplines, with a view to promoting a new understanding of intellectual history in all its facets throughout the Islamicate World, from its emergence until modern times and from different methodological perspectives. The Intellectual History of the Islamicate World covers such themes as philosophy, theology, exegesis, law and legal methodology, sciences and medicine.
Journal of modern Russian history and historiography The Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography is a yearly publication devoted to the history and historiography of imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia. We seek a wide range of submissions, including monographic articles with a significant historiographical content, documentary publications, historiographical essays on large themes in Russian history, critical reviews, and memoirs. We have the ability to publish submissions in major European languages, including Russian, and a willingness to consider publishing long texts that would exceed the word limits usually imposed by other journals.
The journal of politics Established in 1939 and published for the Southern Political Science Association, The Journal of Politics is a leading general-interest journal of political science and the oldest regional political science journal in the United States. The scholarship published in The Journal of Politics is theoretically innovative and methodologically diverse, and comprises a blend of the various intellectual approaches that make up the discipline.
Journal of Pragmatics Since 1977, the Journal of Pragmatics has provided a forum for bringing together a wide range of research in pragmatics, including cognitive pragmatics, corpus pragmatics, experimental pragmatics, historical pragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, multimodal pragmatics, sociopragmatics, theoretical pragmatics and related fields. Our aim is to publish innovative pragmatic scholarship from all perspectives, which contributes to theories of how speakers produce and interpret language in different contexts drawing on attested data from a wide range of languages/cultures in different parts of the world. The Journal of Pragmatics also encourages work that uses attested language data to explore the relationship between pragmatics and neighbouring research areas such as semantics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology, interactional linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, media studies, psychology, sociology, and the philosophy of language. Alongside full-length articles, discussion notes and book reviews, the journal welcomes proposals for high quality special issues in all areas of pragmatics which make a significant contribution to a topical or developing area at the cutting-edge of research.
The Journal of South Asian Intellectual History Journal of South Asian Intellectual History (SAIH) is dedicated to the study of the history of ideas in pre-modern and early modern South Asia. The main concern of the publication is to advance philological and historical research into the rich intellectual history of South Asia in fields such as (but not limited to) philosophy, logic, astronomy, medicine, mathematics, literature, philosophical theology, and mystical traditions. Sources of such investigations may be produced in any of the languages of South Asia, including, for example, Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Gujarātī, Malayalam, Kannada, and Arabic. Given the nature of intellectual interactions in pre-modern and early modern South Asia, the Journal also welcomes articles, written in English, working across various disciplinary boundaries and languages.
Mistral : journal of Latin American women's intellectual & cultural history Mistral is an interdisciplinary open access platform for research that examines Latin American women’s contributions to intellectual history and the cultural sphere more broadly. Alongside cutting edge academic articles the journal showcases personal essays and interviews with leading Latin American women working inside and outside the Academy.
Modern intellectual history : MIH Modern Intellectual History publishes scholarship in intellectual and cultural history from 1650 onwards. MIH concerns itself primarily with apprehending the contextual origins and receptions of texts in order to recover their historical meanings. But we understand ‘texts’ in the broadest sense, so as to encompass multiple forms of intellectual and cultural expression. These include, but are not limited to, political thought, philosophy, religion, literature, both the social sciences and the natural sciences, music, architecture, and the visual arts.

Philosophy Documentation Center Collection A selection of subscribed electronic journals in philosophy and related subjects.

Pragmatics : quarterly publication of the International Pragmatics Association Pragmatics is the peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), which was established in 1986 to represent the field of linguistic pragmatics, broadly conceived as the interdisciplinary (cognitive, social, cultural) science of language use. Its goal is to reflect the diversity of topics, applications, methods and approaches available within this wide field, and thus to contribute to IPrA’s foundational aim of searching for coherence across different perspectives and of bridging any gaps between the field’s practitioners, whether their background is linguistic, anthropological, sociological, psychological, computational, etc
Práticas da História : Journal on theory, historiography and uses of the past. The main aim of Práticas da História is the promotion of discussions on historical theory, historiography and the uses of the past. Contributions are published in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish.--
Studies in East European Thought Studies in East European Thought (SEET) provides a forum for impartial scholarly discussion of philosophical thought and intellectual history of East and Central Europe, Russia, as well as post-Soviet states. SEET offers a venue for philosophical dialogue in a variety of relevant fields of study. Predominantly a philosophical journal, SEET welcomes work that crosses established boundaries among disciplines whether by bringing other disciplines to respond to traditional philosophical questions or by using philosophical reflection to address specific disciplinary issues. The journal publishes original papers by scholars working in the field without discriminating them based on their geographical origin and nationality. The editorial team considers quality of work to be the sole criterion of publication. In addition to original scholarly essays, SEET publishes translations of philosophical texts not previously available in the West, as well as book reviews.
Thought and practice : a journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya Thought and Practice is a biannual, peer reviewed, Open Access online journal. Its Vision is to create a forum for incisive philosophic reflection on intellectual, social and political issues within the African context. Its Mission is to serve scholars with broad interests in the humanities and social sciences by disseminating original articles with a philosophical outlook, with emphasis on intellectual, social and political issues that are of special relevance to contemporary Africa.

Seminars, Conferences and Lectures

Researchers in political thought and intellectual history have been involved in organising a range of conferences, symposia and workshops, as well as delivering seminars and public lectures across a wide variety of topics within the field.

See below just some of the ongoing events and activities that take place for this research area across Cambridge as well as past conferences that have been delivered:

Seminar in Political Thought and Intellectual History The Political Thought and Intellectual History Seminar is the official research seminar of the Political Thought and Intellectual History Subject Group of the Faculty of History. It is an integral part of the History Faculty's PhD Programme in Political Thought and Intellectual History and the Inter-Faculty M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History, which is co-sponsored by the Faculty of History, the Faculty of Classics and the Department of Politics and International Studies. The purpose of the seminar is to present frontline research in the History of Political Thought and related disciplines (Political Theory and Intellectual History) by senior scholars within and outside Cambridge, as well as by younger academics, post-doctoral research fellows and advanced graduate students. Further educational aims are to introduce students to the skills of advanced academic debate and to integrate them into the Cambridge academic community.
Legal Histories beyond the State The Centre for Political Thought is pleased to advertise 'Legal Histories beyond the State', an initiative of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, the Centre for History and Economics, and the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought. The series brings together historians, political theorists and lawyers who are interested in the social, economic and political dimensions of law in the early modern and modern periods. We focus on the ways in which law and legal institutions order and organize space and people. This encompasses both imperial and international law, and domestic public and private law in its manifold influences on the nature and form of relations across borders. We are interested in legal actors and institutions, both national and supranational; doctrines and concepts, like jurisdiction; and also diverse forms of legal border-crossing, including the migration of people, ideas and objects across time and place. Embracing new trends in legal and historical research, we pursue the exchange of legal ideas in formal and informal contexts, and the creation, appropriation and interpretation of law by non-traditional actors, and in unexpected places. Some sessions will be devoted to discussion of new, published work in the field, and others to the sharing of works-in-progress, whether draft articles, chapters or book prospectuses, with a core group of scholars from a variety of disciplines. The talks.cam.ac.uk listing forthcoming events in the series is here: https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/64911
International Relations & History Working Group International Relations & History Working Group Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the historical study of international relations. International Relations scholars from different traditions have reconsidered the importance of thinking historically about the international system. At the same time, IR scholars have engaged in fruitful conversations with historians specializing in international or political thought. The dialogue between IR, History and legal history proved not only possible but often also desirable. The goal of our working group is to create a space for conversation in Cambridge. The working group is open to scholars working on historical international relations, legal history, history of international thought and those interested in the historical development of ideas and practices in the international realm from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. The working group meets 3 times per term. The line-up combines presentations by external speakers and pre-circulated papers by members of the group. A significant part of the meeting is dedicated to open discussion. The conveners Duncan Bell Or Rosenboim Jason Sharman Maja Spanu Ayse Zarakol URL: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/75171
Seminar in Contemporary Political Thought There are two Political Philosophy research seminars in the Faculty concerned with Political Philosophy: the Seminar in Contemporary Political Thought (open to all) and the Workshop in Political Philosophy (open to postgraduate students and above). They take place in alternate weeks, on Fridays at 1pm – 2.30pm. For the current academic year 2024-25 the Workshop has been suspended; only the Seminar in Contemporary Political Thought will be running.
Global Intellectual History Seminar
Contemporary Political Theory Seminar Series
J. R. Seeley Lectures in Political Thought The Seeley Lectures are given biennially by a distinguished visitor to Cambridge, on a topic in Political Thought and its History. The Lectures are supported by the Cambridge University Press, and are subsequently published by them.
The Quentin Skinner Lectureship Created by the generosity of Professor Quentin Skinner after the award of the Balzan Prize, the Quentin Skinner Lectureship (formerly the Balzan-Skinner Fellowship) allows an early career scholar to spend a sabbatical term or semester in Cambridge in order to work on a discrete piece of research, the result of which is presented in a public lecture and symposium and will be published, subject to peer review, in the Historical Journal.
Political Thought, Time and History: An International Conference – Cambridge, 10-11 May 2018 The aim of this conference will be to explore the variety of engagements with time and history found in political thinkers, the better to understand (and, perhaps, to explain) why political philosophy has been unable to take these concepts for granted. Themes of individual sessions will include Time and the State, the temporal and historical perspectives available to political thinkers following the fall of the Roman Empire, time in customary and Roman legal traditions, the temporalities of civil and sacred history in the early modern period, the conceptual status of Enlightenment ‘stadial history’ and what it contributed to the understanding of society and government, the time of ‘modern’ politics, in the nineteenth and again in the twentieth centuries, and whether a political thought ‘global’ in time and history is conceivable. It will end with a reassessment of time in the history of political thought itself: what understandings of time should govern our engagement with the political and legal thought of the past, whether remote or still close at hand? Must they be adapted if the history of political thought is, as many of its foremost practitioners have hoped, to enhance political philosophy itself? The conference is organised under the aegis of the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought and the University’s Faculty of History.
The 'Global' Carl Schmitt: 12 Nov. 2019 This one-day workshop brings together a set of experts on the work of Carl Schmitt in particular, and on modern German political thought and intellectual history in general. It does so in order to consider, conceptualise and criticise some of Schmitt’s connections to an increasingly ‘global’ discipline and an increasingly fraught global order. Our guiding ideas are threefold. First, that we might gain something both from interrogating Schmitt’s work as a way of grasping the ‘global’ as space, place, regime or provocation for modern political thought and intellectual history. We are particularly, though not exclusively, interested in democracy and sovereignty as key conceptual issues here for an increasing global population, whose unequal access to resources is indelibly marked by the historical formation of empires, states and trade. Second, we are interested to think about what an increasingly ‘global’ intellectual history might suggest in terms of new ways of understanding Schmitt’s work across various contexts. And third, we wonder whether or not political theory and intellectual history has by now domesticated Carl Schmitt to such an extent that new historical or theoretical work is needed to see the stakes of our own commitments to what might be thought of as the ‘global political’, or the political dynamics of the world order amid significant global and planetary-scale crises.
Reinhart Koselleck Symposium This half-day workshop-style event will focus on the recent publication of Koselleck’s Sediments of Time: On Possible Histories (Stanford University Press, 2018), offering the opportunity to discuss Koselleck’s work most recently translated into English and situate this within the context of his career more generally.
History in the Humanities and Social Sciences network (2019–20) This Project is designed as a collaborative research programme, jointly led by Richard Bourke (Cambridge) and Quentin Skinner (QMUL), and funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. Its aim is to explore the role of historical knowledge and approaches across the human sciences, ranging from Philosophy to Literature and from Law to Economics. On this site you will find information about the scope and application of the Network, as well as details about its members and its meetings.
Anti-colonial political thought Conference (2022) One of the most dramatic geo-political developments in the twentieth century was the demise of the European empires, which had been gradually formed and re-formed since the early modern period. This process of disintegration was accompanied by the rise of anti-imperial polemic, both in European metropolitan centres and in various imperial dependencies across the globe. This conference will focus on arguments against empire deployed by those who resisted its authority in numerous colonial settings spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Far East. Contributors will reconstruct the ideologies deployed by key intellectual figures embroiled in the process, including Pearse, Ambedkar, Gandhi, Nasser, Cabral, Fanon, Nkrumah and Khomeini. The academic literature has tended to identify opposition to empire as an instance of ‘nationalism’, thus reducing a complex range of responses to a single ideological counter. The aim of this conference is to attend more carefully to the diversity of political languages that were originally employed.
Hegel and the Hegelian Tradition in Political Thought (2023) Hegel is among the greatest polymaths of the modern era. However, the nature of his contribution to the humanities and social sciences has been systematically obscured since the Second World War. This conference is designed to highlight his significance as a political thinker in particular. Specialists have tended to confine their attention to one specific aspect of his thought, separating his metaphysical, historical and theoretical concerns. We aim at transforming our sense of the importance of Hegelian political thought by bringing together German specialists from Germany, Europe, the UK, and the US to stimulate a renewal of Hegel scholarship within the field of political thought. In emphasising both Hegel and the Hegelian tradition, we hope to achieve a dual renaissance: first, by reviving the study of Hegel’s own political philosophy and, second, by revitalising the study of the traditions he helped foster.
Cambridge Graduate Studies in Political Thought & Intellectual History Conference - COMMUNITY and CONFLICT in Intellectual History (2022) The existence of communities and the threat of conflict have been central features of thought since humanity began reflecting on the forms of its organisation. How can you maintain a community divided by conflict? Does humanity naturally tend towards harmony? Is conflict necessary for societies to flourish? While these sorts of questions are legion, this year’s Cambridge Graduate Conference in Political Thought and Intellectual History will examine them with an additional focus on how the realities of community and the threat of conflict have been contexts for, and not simply the contents of, thought.
Structural Injustice Conference (7th March 2025) The last few years have seen enormous interest in the questions concerning structural injustice, including five books written or edited by the organisers of this conference. The purpose of the conference is not only to review some of these recent contributions but also to look forward to future developments and uses of the concept, including applications to new technologies.

Individual Thinkers and Philosophers

Corpus Montaigne Complete works of Montaigne including translations. Also accesible via Classiques Garnier Numerique
Complete works of Montaigne including translations. Also accesible via Classiques Garnier Numerique
Electronic Enlightenment The Electronic Enlightenment provides access to more than 53,000 English, French, German and Italian letters and documents associated with over 6000 prominent thinkers of the 18th century
Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activitist;Political Activist;and Woman Archives Unbound
InteLex Past Masters A growing collection of the works of past masters including: Augustine (works (4th release), Austen (letters), Austin (works), Boyle (correspondence and works), Bronte (Letters), Bruno (Werke - German and Italian), Chekhov (Complete works - Russian), Coleridge (collected letters), Dewey (collected works 2nd release), Dewey (correspondence I-IV), Dewey (lectures 2nd release), Dickens (letters (i-xii)), Eliot (notebooks and library), Hardy (collected letters), Hegel (OUP translations), Hume (complete works and correspondence), Luther (works), Montaigne (complete works), Nietzsche (werke), Pope (correspondence), Sidgwick: Complete Works, Select Correspondence, Swift (correspondence), Tennyson (letters), Wittgenstein (collected works, Nachlass, Tagebücher und Briefe, Texts and Contexts, Gesamtbriefwechsel (2nd release)) and Wordsworth (collected letters).
Rousseau Online Complete works of Rousseau, full text, searchable
Works of Martin Luther The 55-volume set of Luther's Works. The first thirty volumes contain Luther's expositions of various biblical books, while remaining volumes include his Reformation writings and occasional pieces. The final volume of the set contains an index of quotations, proper names, and topics, and a list of corrections and changes.
Works of St Augustine Ultimately aiming to comprise the complete works of St Augustine in translation, this is the fourth release that includes The City of God. There are now online 41 volumes of the 50 volume printed series from New City Press edited by Boniface Ramsey.

Philosophical Ideas and Concepts

Brill : Philosophy in the Islamic World Online: 8th - 10th Centuries A comprehensive and unprecedented reference work devoted to the history of philosophy in the realms of Islam in its formative period: from its beginnings in the eighth century up to the tenth century AD.
CREDO Reference A selection of handbooks (e.g. Blackwell Handbooks), companions and other reference works in Arts and Humanities subjects, including Philosophy, History, Religion and Theology, and Social Sciences. CREDO Reference also gives Research Quick Tips, allows for visual exploration by letting users add to curated Mind Maps while conducting research, and suggest related searches and other useful sites.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002) was founded in 1995 to provide open access to detailed, scholarly, peer-reviewed information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy written by philosophers from a wide variety of countries. The Encyclopedia receives no funding, and it operates through the volunteer work of the editors, authors, volunteers, and technical advisers. The Encyclopedia is free of charge and available to all users of the Internet worldwide. The staff of 30 editors hold doctorate degrees and are professors at universities around the world. It has published about 900 articles, and there are over 8.2 million unique visitors every year (unique in the sense that someone who views three articles one day, and then two articles the next month, is counted as one visitor).
Oxford Bibliographies: Philosophy Philosophy is one of the oldest areas of study with a long history of critical literature, and it remains a highly active field for new research and publishing. The number of books and articles published seems to increase every year. Much of the most recent work has moved online in one form or another, and older material that was once out of print or difficult to find is being made more easily available. The result being that today’s students and researchers have ready access to overwhelming array of potentially useful primary texts, journal articles, reference works, and a wide range of other resources. Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy is designed to provide authoritative guidance. In contrast to print bibliographies and electronic indexes that simply list citations, this innovative online reference tool will combine the best features of a high-level encyclopedia and the best features of a traditional bibliography put together in a style that responds to the way people do research online.
PhilPapers PhilPapers is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. We monitor all sources of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, and open access archives. We also host the largest open access archive in philosophy. Our index currently contains 2,681,272 entries categorized in 6,033 categories. PhilPapers has over 510,000 registered users. It offers unique features such as real-time indexing of pre-prints, fine-grained classification by topic, email alerts, reading lists, advanced search functionality, and discussion forums.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Access restricted to 10 users at one time - if you cannot access because of this restriction please try again a short time later or email ejournals@lib.cam.ac.uk
The largest and most comprehensive resource available for all those involved in the study of philosophy. It is a trusted source of quality information, providing access to over 2,700 articles that have been edited for level and consistency by a team of renowned subject experts. Regularly updated with new and revised articles it is the ideal entry point for further discovery and research, clearly organised and with over 25,000 cross-references linking themes, concepts and philosophers. It is also an ideal reference source for those in subjects related to philosophy, such as politics, psychology, economics, anthropology, religion and literature.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy A "dynamic reference work" written and maintained by the entire philosophy profession. The essays cover individuals, concepts, and events related to all aspects of philosophy. It has greater depth than other philosophy reference works and is continually growing, with quarterly archives to ensure accurate citations for scholars and long-term access to the historical development of ideas.

International Law

Cambridge Law Reports International Law Reports 1919-present, from Cambridge University Press. Covers all significant cases of public international law from 1919-present.
Making of Modern Law : Legal Treatises Legal Treatises comprises over 21,000 works from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on British Commonwealth and American law, with 14,900 titles from the nineteenth century and 7,100 titles from the years 1900 to 1926. It covers nearly every aspect of law, encompassing a range of analytical, theoretical, and practical literature. The monographs and materials in Legal Treatises include casebooks, local practice manuals, books on legal form, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, and speeches. The collection is of interest to scholars and patrons interested in domestic and international law, legal history, business and economics, politics and government, national defense, criminology, religion, education, labor and social welfare, and military justice. The database provides for simple and advanced searching, and for browsing by author, title, and subject terms.
Oxford Bibliographies: International Law Oxford Bibliographies in International Law is designed to provide authoritative guidance. The field is rife with debate and controversy, as with most anything that deals with such a complex system of rules and principles meant to govern the relations between states and other institutional subjects, such as the United Nations or the European Union. Because scholarship in this field is so bound up with diplomacy, the vast array of potentially relevant material that appears on the free web can overwhelm even the savviest scholars. With advances in online searching and database technologies, researchers can easily access library catalogs, bibliographic indexes, records of court decisions, and other lists that show thousands of resources that might also be useful to them. In this situation what is most needed is expert guidance. Researchers at all levels need tools that help them filter through the proliferation of information sources to material that is reliable and directly relevant to their inquiries. Oxford Bibliographies in International Law will offer a trustworthy pathway through the thicket of information overload.
Oxford Public International Law Oxford Public International Law (OPIL) is a comprehensive, single location providing integrated access across our international law services, bringing you one step closer to the perfect research solution. Also includes the following databases: - The Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law - Oxford International Organizations (OXIO) - Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL)
Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law OSAIL includes all of Oxford's leading general texts such as Oppenheim's International Law and Rosalyn Higgins' Problems and Process. It also includes all of the titles in the Oxford Commentaries on International Law such as the commentaries on UN Charter edited by Bruno Simma, on the Statute of the ICJ edited by Andreas Zimmermann, and on the Torture Convention by Manfred Nowak. In addition it includes all titles from the Oxford International Law Library series and other selected authoritative works by authors such as James Crawford, Christine Gray, William Schabas, and Dinah Shelton.
Recueil des Cours en ligne The Hague Academy of International Law Collected Courses Online in private international law and public international law since 1923. Published in the book series "The Hague Academy Collected Courses", now comprising over 320 volumes.

Databases

Apartheid Through the Eyes of South African Political Parties, 1948-1994 Apartheid was a system of white minority rule that prevailed in South Africa for much of the 20th century. This collection contains various materials published by political parties on both sides of the racial and ideological divide. The bulk of the documents are drawn from the archives of the main opposition movement, the African National Congress (ANC). The main party of government, the National Party, is also well represented, as are several minor parties and independent candidates.
China Academic Journals Database 中国知网期刊库 2 simultaneous users only. Full-text access to 4 collections only (Economics and Management; Education and Social Sciences; Literature, History and Philosophy; Economics, Politics and Law)
Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s This collection brings together a comprehensive set of local, regional, and national newspapers published by Klan organizations and sympathizers, alongside key anti-Klan voices from newspapers published by American Black, Catholic, and Jewish communities.
Encyclopedia of political thought Unrivaled in scope and scholarly rigor, the Encyclopedia examines the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, and political philosophy. The entries range in size from shorter definitions and biographies to extended treatments of major topics and traditions. Tracing the evolution of political thinking from antiquity to the present, the scope of this unprecedented resource emphasizes the richness and diversity of the field’s traditions. Offers over 900 A-Z entries including shorter definitions and biographies as well as extended treatments of major topics from over 700 contributors from around the world. Examines the history of political thought from antiquity to contemporary political theory and political philosophy Reflects diverse traditions in the evolution of political theory and political science Addresses the theorists, their key theories and methods from within the western canon as well as from non-western perspectives Available as an online platform or as an eight volume print set Published in association with The Foundations of Political Theory, an organized section of the American Political Science Association
History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements The database provides full-text primary source materials relating to the Chinese political movements after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949: the Political Campaigns in the 1950s from Land Reform to Public-Private Cooperation (1949-1956), the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957–), the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine (1958-1964), and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Sources include government documents, directives, bulletins, speeches by Mao Zedong and other officials, major newspaper and magazine editorials, and other types of documents. All the documents are in Chinese, but the database platform can be switched to English where document titles can be browsed in English.
Hollywood;Moral Censorship;and the Motion Picture Production Code;1927-1968 Archives Unbound - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry. The Production Code was written in 1929 by Martin J. Quigley, an influential editor and publisher of motion picture trade periodicals, and Reverend Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit advisor to Hollywood filmmakers. Officially accepted in 1930 by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the precursor organization to the MPAA, the Production Code presented guidelines governing American movie production. The five hundred titles selected were chosen by the staff of the library's Special Collections Department, with advice from film historian Leonard J. Leff.
Oxford Bibliographies: Political Science Political science is the study of the struggle by humans to gain and use power and authority for useful or destructive reasons. Political scientists analyze this struggle within and among nations using a variety of methodological tools and theoretical concepts and in a variety of sub-disciplines and specialties. It is imperative that students, scholars and professionals stay abreast of new discoveries, new interpretations, and new theoretical ideas. The overlapping fields of practice that come together in the study of political science make it challenging to stay informed about every applicable area. The task is made more difficult because a great deal of this work has moved online with the most recent scholarship and research appearing in online databases. Rather than sifting through these ever-expanding mountains of information that may or may not yield relevant results, students and researchers alike can rely on Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science to offer a reliable, up-to-date, and authoritative guide to the best literature in the field. As Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science grows, it strives to reflect the impact on political science of major political transformations in the world and of methodological advances.
Political Extremism and Radicalism Liberal democracies of North America, Europe, and Australasia throughout the twentieth century have experienced a variety of forms of extremism and radicalism that have shaped mainstream political thinking as well as cultural norms. To comprehend modern governmental and societal systems researchers must understand the environment that created them, their origins, and their adversaries. In the Political Extremism and Radicalism series Gale provides insight on unorthodox (by contemporary standards), fringe groups from both the right and left of the political spectrum through rare, hard to access primary sources. Content supports scholars and students answering questions on philosophical, social, political, and economic ideologies as well as on contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, race, religion, civil rights, universal suffrage, and much more.
Russian Anarchist Periodicals of the Early 20th Century This collection reveals the eventful history of Russia during the revolutionary era, from the perspective of metropolitan and provincial newspapers and journals published by the most radical political forces. These materials shed new light on the relationship of the anarchists with the Bolsheviks and the Soviet State, and reveal the impact of anarchist ideas on the literature and art of the period.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts Worldwide Political Science Abstracts indexes the international serials literature in political science and its related fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. Abstracts are provided for most citations and links to the full-text are included beginning in 2004 for records with ISSNs. Older records are based on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts and ABC-Poli Sci.

Newspapers

Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers
The Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers collection traces the evolution of Mexico during this pivotal period. Comprising nearly 1,000 titles from Mexico’s pre-independence, independence and revolutionary periods (1807-1929), the newspapers in this collection provide rare documentation of the dramatic events of this era and include coverage of Mexican partisan politics, yellow press, political and social satire, as well as local, regional, national and international news. While holdings of many of the newspapers in this collection are available only in very short runs, the titles are often unique and, in many cases, represent the only existing record of a newspaper’s short-lived publication.
Journaux de la RÃ©volution de 1848 (Newspapers of the French Revolution 1848)
Archives Unbound - The revolution of 1848 caused the final collapse of monarchy in France, and in the power vacuum that followed a range of competing voices sought to control the future direction of the country. The social and political upheavals of this period are richly detailed in this unique collection of newspapers and periodicals — an essential resource for understanding modern European history.
This series captures the British Library's holdings of all newspaper and periodical titles published in France during the revolution of 1848. Coverage is continued through the coup d'état in 1851 to the establishment of the Second Empire in 1852. Some titles represent continuations of national dailies and weeklies which published through the unrest, offering a base-note of news coverage from experienced journalists, while many others sprang up in direct response to the political situation, and witnessed events from very partisan perspectives. George Sand is just one of the famous literary voices here commenting on the unrest and uncertainty.
While the revolutions are second only to World War II as research areas in French History, specific titles also address those studying many aspects of 19th-century French life, including: women's periodicals, literary, musical, theatre and opera reviews; medical and trade titles; regional papers; and newsletters. There is also a strong strain of illustrated satirical and humorous titles, and pamphlets held at the main British Library rather than being classed as newspapers.
Nashriyah:digital Iranian history
These newspapers and periodicals, many of which have been only partially accessible inside Iran, cover the defining moments from the premiership of Mohammad Mossadegh and the August 1953 coup d'état against his government (1950-53); the 1979 Revolution; and the late 1990s/early 2000s ‘reform era’ of former President Mohammad Khatami.
Gazety Kopeiki (Mass Media in Russia 1908-1918
The newspapers document mass culture in Imperial Russia and include writings on social questions, tabloid sensationalism and popular fiction. The success of the kopeck newspapers of St. Petersburg and Moscow before and during the First World War represents the culmination of a reading revolution that reshaped urban Russians’ understanding of every aspect of life, from gender relations and national identity to the role of literature and the arts in society. The collection consists of complete runs of the kopeck (penny) newspapers, the most widely circulated newspapers in the beginning of the twentieth century, published under various titles in St. Petersburg and Petrograd (1908-1918) and also in Moscow (1909-1918).

Useful Links

Cambridge Graduate Studies in Political Thought & Intellectual History This website is run by current Cambridge graduate students, on an independent and voluntary basis. It is intended as a general resource for present and prospective graduates, at Cambridge and beyond.
History Faculty - Political Thought and Intellectual History

Colonial Law in Africa, 1808-1919 Originally known as the 'Government Gazettes', each item contains the colonial laws for the year they were published. Includes 159 documents housed in 10 volumes.
Mohr Siebeck A Tübingen based independent publisher specializing in Theology and Law, but also publishing in a range of fields across the Humanities including Ancient Studies, Judaic Studies, Religious Studies, History, Philosophy, Sociology and Economics. Availability: selective ebook titles only.

Official Publications

The American Presidency Project
Provides links to American Presidential platforms. This page provides transcripts as well as formatted PDF copies of the most recent platforms.
Official Publications LibGuide
Cambridge University Libraries have a vast amount of official publications in both print and online. This LibGuide is designed to be an introduction to the material that is held in print and the electronic resources that are available.

Political Database of the Americas
Through its website, the PDBA offers centralized and systematized information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region.
Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
PAIS International indexes the public and social policy literature of public administration, political science, economics, finance, international relations, law, and health care, International in scope, PAIS indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The database is comprised of abstracts of thousands of journal articles, books, directories, conference proceedings, government documents and statistical yearbooks.
UK Parliamentary Papers
With all collections enabled, HCPP now includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. HCPP delivers page images and searchable full text for each paper, along with detailed indexing.
Westlaw Australia
Please email squire@law.cam.ac.uk to arrange access
Authorised reports including the Commonwealth Law Reports and the Federal Law Reports. Journal content includes the Australian Law Journal and the Property Law Review
Westlaw UK
ICLR, Legislation service, Index to Legal Periodicals. Service that consolidates all primary and secondary legislation for the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Resources for My Subject

History: Political Thought and Intellectual History