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Sources

 

Anything written at the time or by an eyewitness qualifies as a primary source.  Relevant sources include official records and documents, newspapers and magazines of the time, the speeches letters, diaries, and memoirs of leaders and of ordinary people.  Novels, plays and poetry, philosophical, political, and economic treatises written at the time also work for some topics.  Art and music as well as oral histories can also be used, depending on the question you're investigating.
You can find the sources listed below in Tutt Library.  Also check the Government Documents Collection.  You can find there, for example, the proceedings of the Nuremburg Trials.  Explore the Tiger as well, looking in particular for "personal narratives" or "documents".  Be sure that what you find is written at the time and/or by a person who lived during the time.
The Internet provides a number of useful sources, particularly war memoirs, Holocaust diaries, works of art, propaganda, manifestos, selected literary works.  There are also some newspapers and periodicals on line for the period.  See the Suggested Web Sites page for a start.  And check with the librarians for help on your topic.

 Newspapers and Periodicals (available in Tutt)

LONDON  TIMES V. 40-43 1916-19 EXCEPT V. 42
MANCHESTER GUARDIAN V. 6 -1922 SEE PERIODICAL HOLDINGS
NEW YORK TIMES SEPT. 1917-AUG. 1953;MICROFORM: SEPT. 1852-NOV. 2000
VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY V. 5-1938-; INDEX 80
CENTURY ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE V. 23-79, 80-120, 1881-1930, not v. 104
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS V. 18-20, 28-29, 182-; 1851-2, 1856, 1933-
ATHENAEUM (LONDON) JULY, 1883-1897, 1889-FEB. 11, 1921
ILLUSTRATION (later France Illustration) V. 19-24, 34-46, 132-206; 1852-4, 1859-60, 1908-40  No. v. 40
REVUE DES DEUX MONDES GOOD RUN FROM 1841 TO 1941
ILLUSTRATED WORLD V. 24-39, 1915-23
JOURNAL DES DEBATS. EDITION HEBDOMADAIRE V. 8-10 1901-03
LONDON MERCURY V. 1-39 1919-39
PUNCH V. 1-97 120-14; 1841-86, 1907-48, not  v. 23

Documents and Official Records (organized by period and subject)

 

 

             Turn of the Century and the Outbreak of the First World War

 

 

Author

 

Title

 

Publication Information

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

German diplomatic documents, 1871-1914

 

selected and translated by E.T.S. Dugdale, with an introd. by J.W. Headlam-Morley.

 New York : Harper, 1928-1931.

 

 

 

British documents on foreign affairs--reports and papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print. Part I, From the mid-nineteenth century to the First World War

 

[Bethesda, Md.] : University Publications of America, c1991

 

Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir, 1857-1919

 

How Britain strove for peace; a record of Anglo-German negotiations, 1898-1914, told from authoritative sources

 

London, Macmillan, 1914

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

British documents on the origins of the war, 1898-1914

 

edited by G.P. Gooch and Harold Temperley.  London : H.M.S.O., 1926-1938.

 

 

Outbreak of War and the First World War

 

 

Author

 

Title

 

Publication Information

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch

Outbreak of the World War : German documents

 

collected by Karl Kautsky;

edited by Max Montgelas and Walther Schucking; translated by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law. New York : Oxford University Press, American Branch, 1924

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

British documents on the origins of the war, 1898-1914

 

edited by G.P. Gooch and Harold Temperley.  London : H.M.S.O., 1926-1938.

 

Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir, 1857-1919

 

How Britain strove for peace; a record of Anglo-German negotiations, 1898-1914, told from authoritative sources

 

London, Macmillan, 1914

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

Collected diplomatic documents relating to the outbreak of the European War

 

London, H. M. Stationery Off., Harrison and Sons, printers, 1915

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

Collective note addressed to the Greek Government by the French, British, and Russian ministers, and the reply of the Greek Government

 

London, H. M. Stationary Off., Harrison and Sons, Printers, 1916

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

Correspondence respecting events leading to the rupture of relations with Turkey

 

London, H. M. Stationery Off., 1914

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

Correspondence respecting the European crisis

 

London, H.M. Stationery Off., Harrison and Sons, printers, 1914

 

Russia. Ministerstvo inostrannykh del

 

Documents respecting the negotions preceding [sic] the war published by the Russian government

 

London : H.M.Stationery Off., Harrison and Sons, Printers, 1914

 

Belgium. Ministere des affaires etrangeres

 

The second Belgian grey book. Part 1 and part 2 (section 10)

 

London, H. M. Stationery off., Darling and son, limited, printers, 1915

 

Belgium. Ministere de la justice

 

Reply to the German white book of the 10th May, 1915, "Die volkerrechtswidrige Fuhrung des belgischen Volkskriegs."

 

London, H. M. Stationery off. [Sir J. Causton & sons, ltd., printers] 1918

 

France. Ministere des affaires etrangeres

 

Germany's violations of the laws of war 1914-15

 

compiled under the auspices of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

tr. and with an introduction by J.O.P. Bland. With facsimiles of documents.  New York ; London : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1915.

 

Mach, Edmund von, 1870-1927

 

Official diplomatic documents relating to the outbreak of the European war, with photographic reproductions of official editions of the documents (Blue, White, Yellow, etc., books) published by the governments of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and Serbia

 

introduction, daily summaries, cross-references, and footnotes, by Edmund von Mach. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916

 

Geiss, Imanuel

 

July 1914: the outbreak of the First World War: selected documents edited by Imanuel Geiss

 

translated from the German by Henry Meyric Hughes & the author  London : Batsford, 1967.

 

Scott, James Brown, 1866-1943

 

Diplomatic correspondence between the United States and Germany : August 1, 1914-April 6, 1917

 

ed. with introd. and analytical index, by James Brown Scott New York : Oxford University Press, 1918

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Germany and the Revolution in Russia, 1915-1918; documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry

 

Edited by Z. A. B. Zeman. London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1958.

 

 

 

The Disclosures from Germany

 

New York : American Association for International Conciliation, 1918

 

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Division of International Law

 

Official statements of war aims and peace proposals, December 1916 to November 1918

 

prepared under the supervision of James Brown Scott, director of the Division of international law of the Carnegie endowment for international peace;

Washington, The Endowment, 1921

 

 

 

 

                                                   Between Two World Wars

 

 

Author

 

Title

 

Publication Information

 

 

 

European reconstruction : Section 1-16; April 20, 1922 - July 12, l923.

 

Manchester : Printed and published by John Russell Scott for the Manchester Guardian Ltd. , 1922-1923

 

Daehne van Varick, August von, 1846-

 

Documents relating to the program of the first Hague Peace Conference, laid before the conference by the Netherland government

 

London, New York, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1921. CALL # JX1906 .A3 no.36

 

 

 

Marxists in face of fascism : writings by Marxists on fascism from the inter-war period

 

[edited by] David Beetham;

Totowa, N.J. : Barnes & Noble Books, 1984

 

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Documents on German foreign policy 1918-1945. Series C (1933 -1937) The Third Reich: first phase

 

Washington, D.C. : U.S. Gov. Printing Office, 1957-83

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Documents on German foreign policy, 1918-1945. Series D (1937- 1945)

 

Washington, D.C. : U.S. Gov. Printing Office, 1949-64

 

Woodrow Wilson Foundation

 

Official documents; texts of selected documents on U.S. foreign policy, 1918-1952

 

New York [1952?]

 

 

                                       Another War: World War II

 

 

Author

 

Title

 

Publication Information

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Allied intrigue in the Low Countries : further documents concerning the Anglo-French policy of extending the war : full text of White book no. 5

 

published by the German Foreign Office;New York : German Library of Information, 1940

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

German white book; documents concerning the last phase of the German-Polish crisis

 

New York, German library of information [1939]

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Documents on German foreign policy 1918-1945. Series C (1933 -1937) The Third Reich: first phase

 

Washington, D.C. : U.S. Gov. Printing Office, 1957-83

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Documents on German foreign policy, 1918-1945. Series D (1937- 1945)

 

Washington, D.C. : U.S. Gov. Printing Office, 1949-64

 

Germany. Auswartiges Amt

 

Nazi-Soviet relations, 1939-1941; documents from the archives of the German Foreign Office

 

Ed. by Raymond James Sontag and James Stuart Beddie; [Washington] Dept. of State, 1948

 

 

 

Soviet peace efforts on the eve of World War II (September 1938 - August 1939) Documents and records

 

Editors: V. M. Falin [and others];Moscow, Novosti Press Agency Pub. House, 1973

 

 

 

British documents on foreign affairs--reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print. Part II, from the First to the Second World War. Series D, Latin America, 1914-1939

 

editor, George Philip;[Bethesda, Md.] : University Publications of America, c1989 -c1992

 

Great Britain. Foreign Office

 

The British war blue book : Miscellaneous no. 9 (1939) Documents concerning German-Polish relations and the outbreak of hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939

 

Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign affairs to Parliament by command of His Majesty; New York : Farrar & Rinehart, [1939]

 

 

 

 British documents on foreign affairs--reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print. Part III, From 1940 through 1945. Series D, Latin America

 

general editors, Paul Preston and Michael Partridge; editor, James Dunkerley; Bethesda, Md : University Publications of America, 1998.

 

Great Britain. Parliament.

 

The Penguin Hansard / taken verbatim from the House of Commons official report of parliamentary debates. v.1-[autumn 1939/spring 1940-

 

Harmondsworth ; New York : Penguin Books, [1940-

 

Belgium. Ministere des affaires etrangeres

 

Belgium : The official account of what happened 1939-1940

 

London : Published for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Evans Brothers, Limited, [1941]

 

Soviet Union. Komissiia poizdaniiu diplomaticheskikh dokumentov

 

Correspondence between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. and the Presidents of the U.S.A. and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945

 

Moscow : Foreign Languages Pub. House, 1957

 

Langsam, Walter Consuelo, 1906-

 

Historic documents of World

War II

 

Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1977, c1958

 

Woodrow Wilson Foundation

 

Official documents; texts of selected documents on U.S. foreign policy, 1918-1952

 

New York [1952?]

 

 

 

Voices of history : great speeches and papers of the year 1941

 

introduction by Charles A. Beard ; edited by Franklin Watts;New York : F. Watts, c1942

 

 

 

Voices of history, 1942-43 : speeches and papers of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Chiang, Hitler and other leaders delivered during 1942

 

Franklin Watts, editor ; Barbara E. Leighton, associate editor;New York : Gramercy Publishing Co., c1943

 

 

 

Voices of history, 1943-44 : speeches and papers of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Chiang, Hitler and other leaders delivered during 1943

 

Franklin Watts, editor ; Nathan Ausubel, associate editor. New York : Gramercy Publishing Co., c1944

 

Gaulle, Charles de, 1890-1970

 

Appel, 1940-1942

The call to honour, 1940-1942

 

translated by Jonathan Griffin;

New York : Viking, 1955

 

Gaulle, Charles de, 1890-1970

 

Memoires de guerre

War memoirs

 

translated by Jonathan Griffin; New York : Viking Press, 1955

 

Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945

 

Tempo del bastone e della carota

The fall of Mussolini : his own story