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HIS 400: International History [Fall 2024]

The source-driven junior paper

Often, the best work arises from close engagement with a primary source. As you read, you'll think of questions or begin to shape an argument. The hard part is to find a primary source that addresses the broad general area of interest. Here are some strategies for finding primary sources:

The Big Four Online Primary Source Providers

Adam Matthew, Gale, Proquest, and Readex provide a large portion of our online primary source materials. Each company has created a consolidated search engine which allows you to search all of the materials they provide.

Historical Newspapers

League of Nations

The entire League of Nations Archive is available online at UN Archives Geneva. Refer to this site to see the details about what has been digitized.

Consult the following guide for information about the organization of the League of Nations document collection:

The League of Nations:  A Primer for Documents Research

 


A number of discrete League of Nations collections are currently available separately online:

 


The entire League of Nations collection has been microfilmed and is available at Firestone Library. It has been moved to storage and reels from the collection must be requested in advance.

 


Also see the following:

Smaller online primary source collections

Primary sources: American history

Primary sources: British history

Primary source: world history

What did economists & policy makers think?

Businessweek Archive http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwa&jid=BWK&site=ehost-live also Business week 1929-present  Firestone HF5001 .B964

Newsweek 1933-present: MICROFILM S00034 [1933-1974 in Firestone Microforms Services (Film); 1975-present in RECAP]

Time 1923-present: http://www.time.com/time/archive/ but the full text of articles is available only to individual subscribers. However, we have access through EBSCO Academic Search. Search for Time in SO Journal Name or, to browse, go to Publications on the top menu bar, then search for Time. The browse options are on the right-hand side of the page.

 

For more magazines, see Quick Guide to Major Periodicals

Library collections spotlight: primary source material

Princeton's Industrial Relations Collection

There are approximately 60,000 pamphlets and additional reports, contracts, and other items from the university's Industrial Relations collection on a wide range of subjects.  Many of these items are primary sources. The pamphlets were published from the 1920s to 1989; other items were published from the 1920s to the early 1990s. All have been cataloged and are housed in ReCAP, the university's off-campus storage facility.  Search by keyword in the Main Catalog or Books+ (including IR as a keyword term). For pamphlets, you may also browse a hyperlinked alphabetical topic list. To access a physical item, submit a ReCAP request from the catalog record.