I’m happy to let you know that following some successful trials in the last couple of years the Library has purchased the News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive from ProQuest. This resource offers digital access to the archival runs of 15 major 20th and 21st century consumer magazines covering such fields as the history of politics, current events, public policy and international relations. Central to this collection is the archive of Newsweek, one of the 20th century’s most prominent and highest circulating general interest magazine.

You can access News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive from the Databases A-Z list and appropriate databases by subject lists. You’ll soon be able to access it from DiscoverEd as well.

The 15 titles covered by the archive (with earliest content dating from 1918) provide access to a rich seam of contemporary responses to key events, trends, and preoccupations of the period, from a range of perspectives. In addition to the representation of various political and religious orientations, the collection is international in scope. Alongside leading US publications such as Newsweek (1933-2012) and In These Times (1976-2015) are magazines that are published outside of North America and/or engaged with international affairs, such as Europe (1954-2002), New Internationalist (1973-2013), NATO Review (1953-2001) and The World Tomorrow (1918-1934).

Screenshot of first issue of News-Week from 17 February 1933. News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive.

The range of subject areas covered by this archive is broad; in addition to subjects such as modern history, politics, economics and law, the content extends into numerous other research areas including women’s studies, international development, sustainability, human rights, ethics, media history and many others.

Issues of the magazines covered are scanned from cover to cover in full colour, though note that due to the rarity of some of the original print volumes there are small gaps (issues or pages) in the runs of some publications.

You can access News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive from the Databases A-Z list and appropriate databases by subject lists.

The Library has access to a large number of newspaper and magazine (periodical) archives and you can access these from the Newspapers & Magazines database list.

Access is only available to current students and staff at the University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for School of Social and Political Science