Walker Library: Political Science: Primary Sources / Historical Content Databases

Primary Sources / Historical Content Databases

In addition to the following subscription databases, the MTSU Library also owns an extensive microfilm collection related to political history. More resources are described on the Primary Resources Subject Guide.

Historical Newspapers
Digital access to numerous historical newspapers. Select specific title or search all.

Political Extremism & Radicalism in the 20th Century: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in the U.S., Europe & Australia This link opens in a new window
Primary source material on far-right and fascist movements alongside significant coverage of radical left groups. Content includes campaign materials, propaganda, government records, and various ephemera.
Sub-collections include:
American Radicalism Collection (Michigan State University)
Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda (Brown University)
Searchlight Archive (University of Northampton, UK)
Inter-and post-war material on British extremist movements from the UK National archives
More information
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window
Collection of documentary films, features and newsreels produced in the communist world.
Socialism on Film Introduction
Citing and Embedding Films
Trial subcollections (through April 9, 2019):
• 10 Minutes Around the USSR
• Agricultural News
• Around the Soviet Union
• China Today
• Czechoslovak Life and Czechoslovak in Pictures
• GDR Magazine
• Soviet Health
• Science and Technology Magazine
• Soviet Military Newsreels
• Soviet Sport
• Vietnam Newsreel

Current subcollections:
Lenin & the Russian Revolution
The Second World War & the Rise of Fascism
The Vietnam War & Southeast Asia
Global tensions & the Cold War
Nuclear War & Peace Movements
The Holocaust & War Crimes
Revolution, War, Conflict in China & Korea
Revolution in Cuba & Latin America
The Spanish Civil War
American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912-1990 This link opens in a new window
Records of the ACLU on free speech, citizenship, race, discrimination, immigration, labor, radicalism, and related topics. Includes papers of the Southern Regional Office of the ACLU, primarily in the period 1945 to 1990.
NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window
Digitized documents from the NAACP's major campaigns and important local NAACP branches, 1909-1972. Full-text and searchable. Part of the Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle collection, which also includes Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century modules.
Digital copies of nearly two million pages of NAACP internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. Click on a module below for a content description.

Modules:
Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files
Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files
Special Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Legal Department Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses
Migration to New Worlds: The Century of Immigration This link opens in a new window
Primary documents that explore the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia from 1800 to 1924. .
Letter collections, travel journals, diaries and oral histories provide a wealth of first-hand accounts for research into emigration experiences and the hardship of settlement. These are supplemented by scrapbooks, government papers, hand-drawn maps, watercolours, objects, emigration pamphlets, shipping papers and rare printed material which provide significant context to government legislation, commercial interests and living conditions for migrants during this period. Introductory Resources
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history.
Commodities covered include chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, silver and gold
spices, sugar, tea, timber, and wine and spirits. See Nature and Scope for more details on this collection.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents relating to slavery and social justice.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
Legal materials on slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.
Includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject.
Sixties, The: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974 This link opens in a new window
123,000 pages of primary documents related to 1960s America, including diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
See product brochure (pdf)
Download bibliography (Excel file)
Nixon Years, The This link opens in a new window
Files from the National Archives relating to the Nixon Administration, 1969-1974.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Primary source texts and images related to Native American history.
First World War, The: Personal Experiences This link opens in a new window
Drawn from archival collections around the world, this collection offers a glimpse at how people lived their lives during the Great War.
Confidential Print: Middle East This link opens in a new window
Full-text searchable database of British Government documents generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices based in the Middle East.
All items marked “Confidential Print” were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to heads of British missions abroad. These materials range from letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports, and texts of treaties. The collection covers c. 1839 to 1969, taking in the countries of the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and many of the former Ottoman lands in Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and Sudan.
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
Full-text searchable database of British Government documents generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices based in Latin America.
All items marked “Confidential Print” were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to heads of British missions abroad. These materials range from letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports, and texts of treaties. Files cover all countries of mainland South and Central America, plus Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
China: Culture and Society This link opens in a new window
Digital images of extremely rare pamphlets from Cornell University Library’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia.
The core of China: Culture and Society is the pamphlets held in the Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia housed in the Carl A. Kroch Library of Cornell University. Mostly in English and published between c. 1750 and 1929, and amounting to around 1,200 items in 220 bound volumes, these rare pamphlets form part of one of the deepest and most extensive collections of literature on China and the Chinese in the Western world and constitute a rich resource for scholars and teachers in numerous disciplines.

The pamphlets have all been digitized in color and are full-text searchable. Many are illustrated and feature lavish cover art.

More information available here
China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window
Manuscript materials detailing China's interaction with the West from 1793-1980.
Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980 This link opens in a new window
Complete British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan during 1919-1980.
The quality and depth of the Foreign Office’s reporting on politics, industry, trade and cultural affairs is formidable. This collection includes
*Eye-witness accounts and detailed reports on life in China, 1919-1976.
*In depth analysis of the Communist Revolution and all the major figures.
*Material on the Korean War, the Cold War, US relations and the Cultural Revolution.

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Political Science: Primary Sources / Historical Content Databases

Primary Sources / Historical Content Databases