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Contemporary History

Primary Source Databases

Databases included in this collection: American History, 1493-1945, American Indian Histories and Cultures, and Popular Culture 1950-1975.

Part of the British Online Archives, these annual reports illustrate the dramatic historical development of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from corporate colonization, through imperial colonization, to independence. 

Part of the British Online Archives, the database contains annual reports of British colonial administrators in the Protectorate of Uganda. 

Includes: Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1980, Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966, Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969, Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969, Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1980, and Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963; Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Europe and Latin America, 1960-1969; Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980; The Nixon Years, 1969-1974.

This area studies database features primary and secondary resources of relevance to the study of 19th and 20th century foreign relations between Great Britain and China and Southeast Asia. In addition, the archive includes two modules on the economic history of Asia.

A digital collection of Government publications of African colonies under Great Britain. Focus of the Blue Books is on economic development; imports and exports as well as taxation. An excellent primary source material that provides a year-to-year chronology of developments during the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries in the British colonies. 

An ebook collection of historical reference materials pertaining to the Near and Middle East regions.

Chatham House Online Archive features publications and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs dating back to 1920. The archive includes journal articles, books, pamphlets, and minutes and speeches concerning British relations with foreign dignitaries and states. The Chatham House Archive covers the period 1920 to 2008.

Contains declassified U.S. government documents from the CIA, FBI, State Department.

Database containing collections of significant primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945, including 

British Documents on the Origins of the War 1898-1914; Documents on British Foreign Policy 1918-1939.

As the United States' principal historical record of political open source intelligence for more than half a century, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report is an indispensable source for insights into decades of turbulent world history. The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Accordingly, it provides a wealth of information from all countries outside of the U.S.—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

This collection offers online access to the microfilm series, "Lyndon B. Johnson and Foreign Affairs, 1963-1969.

This digital collection, comprised of more than 56,000 pages of primary texts, features annual reports from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the Gold Coast and Togoland (Ghana and Togo) for the decisive period of 1843-1957. 

Includes materials from the microfilm series, "Lyndon B. Johnson and Foreign Affairs, 1963-1969." 

  1. NAACP Papers, Black Freedom Struggle in the Twentieth Century 
  2. NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files
  3. NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files
  4. NAACP Papers: Special Subjects
  5. NAACP papers: The NAACP's major campaigns--education, voting, housing, employment, armed forces
  6. NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files
  7. NAACP Papers: The NAACP's major campaigns--Scottsboro, anti-lynching, criminal justice, peonage, labor, and segregation and discrimination complaints and responses
  8. American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate, 1960-1975 
  9. World War II: U.S. Documents on Planning, Operations, Intelligence, Axis War Crimes, and Refugees 
  10. Office of Strategic Services (OSS)-State Department Intelligence and Research Reports, 1941-1961 
  11. Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Europe and Latin America, 1960-1969 
  12. Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 
  13. Margaret Sanger Papers: Smith College Collections and Collected Documents

Contains primary and secondary source material related to Joseph Stalin's personal biography, his work in government, and his conduct of foreign affairs. 

Contains more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from 1968 to the present and over 9,000 hours of special news-related programming. 

Subjects: History