Skip to Main Content
Main site homepage

The American Century (Hamblin, HIST 325): Primary Sources

This guide functions to aide students in Dr. Terry Hamblin's HIST 325 course entitled "American Century." It provides information on how to access library resources that may be relevant for the course.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are critical in the study of history. The Library of Congress defines primary sources as "raw materials of history -- original documents and objects which were created at the time under study" (loc.gov)

Types of Primary Sources

Diaries and Journals Newspaper Articles Government Documents
Speeches Autobiographies Photographs
Letters and Postcards Film Footage Music 

 

Primary Source Directory

For more help finding primary sources focusing on the 20th century, visit Bowling Green State University's helpful listing of websites:

Primary Source Website Directory

Electronic Resources

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/index.html		 First World War: A Multimedia History
https://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm
See the "Memoirs and Diaries", under "Narratives" (on the left).
American Presidency Project
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/  
Scroll down to the "Simple Search of Our Archives."		 GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office (1992-present)
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/home.action
American Rhetoric
Library of Congress - American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/major.asp
Library of Congress: Primary Documents in American History 
 C-Span Video Library 
National Archives & Records Administration, Primary Sources for Educators and Students (Browse by Era)
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/education/documents.html
Department of State historical documents
http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments
National Archives DocsTeach
Digital Public Library of America
 National Security Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
Hint: Click on "Documents", at the top, to access the Electronic Briefing Books.
Foreign Relations of the United States
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/  
Note that if you navigate away from the Foreign Relations collection, many of the resources are not available to those outside of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.		 Office of the Historian
http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/other-electronic-resources