Digital Collections
The History of Afghanistan Online by Ebook. "Commissioned as an official national history by the Afghan prince, later amir, Habib Allah Khan (reigned 1901-1919). The author, Fayz Muhammad Khan, better known as "Katib" (The Writer), was a scribe at the royal court. For more than twenty years, he had full access to government archives and oral sources and thus presents an unparalleled picture of the country from its founding in 1747 until the end of the nineteenth century. The roots of much of the fabric of Afghanistan's society today--tribe and state relations, the rule of law, gender issues, and the economy--are elegantly and minutely detailed in this immense work."
- Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan 1834-1922 This link opens in a new windowA collection of Foreign Office files exploring the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s.
- Afghanistan Collection at UN-O"Holds the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection, one of the largest collections of Afghan primary and secondary materials outside of the country. It contains over 20,000 titles in more than 20 languages, including Dari, Pashto, and English." Contains digitized versions of English-language materials, including issues of The Kabul Times from 19601980.
- At-Risk Afghanistan Web Archiving Project (ARAWA): 2021An archive of websites from Afghanistan since August 2021 collected by the University of California Berkeley.
- Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME)"Offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions. Developed by an engineering team from CLIR and Stanford Libraries, the platform federates and makes accessible data about collections from around the world."
Newspapers & Magazines
- Afghanistan News CenterHas been aggregating news about Afghanistan since 1998. Links to the original news source.
- American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new windowDigitized American magazines and journals of all types, including America's first scientific journal, from ProQuest.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowContains several full-text databases: current news, laws and legislation, business and company information, country and state profiles, tax information, biographies, and more.
- LIFE MagazinePublished from 1936 to 1972, this influential magazine chronicled world events and brought stunning images of the world to American readers.
- Middle East & Islamic Studies- Historical Newspapers and PeriodicalsThis AMIR blog posting pulls together links to open access newspapers and periodicals on the Mideast and Islam. Organized by country of interest or of publication.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowIndexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890 to 1982.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowFull text PDF facsimiles of specific articles as well as complete pages, including photos and advertisements, from every issue of the London Times.
Government Information
- Afghanistan and the US, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new windowArchival documents from the US State Department Central Classified Files pertaining to relations with Afghanistan in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.
- Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new windowDeclassified documents from US foreign and military policy since 1945.
- Foreign Relations of the United StatesOfficial documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Back volumes are in process of digitization.
- United States Agency for International DevelopmentIndependent Federal agency that provides economic assistance to foreign countries, with the foreign policy guidance of the Department of State.
Images
- ArchNetA rich open-source image collection focusing on cities, sites, and buildings in the Muslim world. Curated by MIT Libraries.
- British PathéA growing digital archive of newsreels created by the British Pathé company from the 1890s through the 1970s. These videos include areas such as historical events and documentaries as well as travelogues and contemporary coverage of culture.
- Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new windowStreaming video of news from NBC (1968 to date) and CNN (1995 to date) plus indexing of television network news from all the major networks, 1968 to date.
Maps
- Perry Castaneda Map Collection: Afghanistan MapsLink to maps of Afghanistan.
Organizations
- United NationsAccess information on 192 member countries. Links to news and publications on peacekeeping operations, human rights, development,
- WANGO: World Association of NGOsThis organization maintains a directory of NGOs, searchable by country and area of NGO activity.
- WikiLeaksWikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organization that provides a secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to the public. Voluminous documentation on recent military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- World BankEstablished in 1944, this development institution provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries.