Both of the main History Databases work the same. However, they contain different areas of focus.
For a global focus, see Historical Abstracts
For North American intersections, check out America: History and Life
Here is a reminder of the many ways that you can control and limit your searches (in both History Databases!!!) in order to get the best results. Open the images in a new tab to zoom in!
Searching for a Journal that covers your topic, can sometimes be a great search strategy.
You can use the search bar below to find journals that might be relevant to your topic. (ignore whatever words are in the search bar, it will search for journals)
For instance, you could search: Imperial China to see if there are any journals that specifically cover that topic.
You can then browse through different issues of the journal to get topic ideas or help with research. Or you can specifically search an entire journal for articles relating to your topic.
I have also identified some potentially useful journals below the Search Bar.
Jstor is an excellent full text archive of humanities, social science and business journals and includes a large number of history journals.
As most of your have figured out by now, the library subscribes to a large number of databases, over 150 to be exact. The History page on the library databases page is a good place to start familiarizing yourself to the sources that will be more helpful to you as a history major.
Much of your work will also be interdisciplinary, so try browsing for databases in other relevant subject areas in the Databases by Academic Department section.
Under the articles tab above, I have included some of the specific information I shared with you about the specific databases, America: History and Life and Jstor.