- Edith Garland Dupré Library
- Research Guides
- HIST 490: U.S. in the World in the 20th Century
- Find Online Primary Sources
HIST 490: U.S. in the World in the 20th Century
- Introduction
- Find Online Primary Sources
- Find Articles & Dissertations
- Find Books
- Find Newspapers & Periodicals
- Interlibrary Loan
- Questions? Ask Us!
Questions?
Call: (337) 482-6030
Email: reference@louisiana.edu
Text: (337) 205-7558
Visit: 1st Floor - Dupré Library
Form: Submit Your Question
Hours: Reference Desk/Chat
Note: Reference Chat and Email services are primarily for the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The department will assist the public if the question concerns the University or some unique resource of Dupré Library, such as Federal government publications.
Primary Documents
(Quoted material in these descriptions come directly from the sites the information describes.)
- CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading RoomMore than 12 million pages of declassified CIA documents dating from the 1940s-1990s. Searchable by collection, title, publication date, and classification type.
- Public Papers of the Presidents“The Public Papers of the Presidents contain most of the President's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks.”
- Presidential Speech ArchiveA collection of “some of the most important presidential speeches in American history. These speeches all have transcripts, and some are available in their entirety in audio or video.”
- Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)“The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office.” (1861-1960)
- Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)“The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.” (1945-1976)
- Cold War International History Project“The Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, and seeks to accelerate the process of integrating new sources, materials and perspectives from the former "Communist bloc" with the historiography of the Cold War which has been written over the past few decades largely by Western scholars reliant on Western archival sources. It also seeks to transcend barriers of language, geography, and regional specialization to create new links among scholars interested in Cold War history.”
- National Security Archive“The National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents, leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.”
- World Health Organization Archive“The WHO Archives are the guardians of the Organization's institutional memory. They preserve the documents produced and received by WHO in the course of its activities.”
- Food and Agriculture Library“FAO technical documents since 1945, library monograph holdings since 1976 and a FAO library serial holdings database.”
- United Nations DocumentsA Research Guide indexing various UN proceedings. Contains links to some full-text primary sources materials.
- Oral Histories—U.S. Foreign Relations“Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training presents a window into the lives of American diplomats. Transcripts of interviews with U.S. diplomatic personnel capture their experiences, motivations, critiques, personal analyses, and private thoughts.”
- U.S. MilitaryContains various documents, unit histories, and oral histories of the U.S. armed forces.
- Vietnam War“The Vietnam Center and Archive collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War, and supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam Experience.”
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)“The CIA releases millions of pages of documents each year and frequently releases items of public interest on this website. The library contains a wealth of information, from unclassified current publications to basic references, reports and maps. The library features our most popular publication, The World Factbook, and our online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments. It also features numerous documents and articles of historical significance, including those found in Studies in Intelligence.”
- International Relations and Security NetworkA digital library with primary and secondary sources on international subjects ranging in geographic area and time period.
- State Department FOIA RecordsThe United States Department of State has a website dedicated to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records, which is searchable.
- The National Archives and Records AdministrationThe National Archives (NARA) is an independent government agency that preserves U.S. government documents and makes them available to researches. Some material can be found online.
- Government Printing OfficeGovernment Printing Office website contains numerous documents, such as, but not limited to, the Congressional Record, Congressional Reports, and much more.
Bibliographies
Helpful in locating monographs and scholarly articles on the history of U.S. foreign relations.
- Richard Immerman's BibliographyU.S. Foreign Relations History
- Nathan Citino's BibliographyU.S. - Middle East Relations History
- Vincent FerraroSecondary and Primary Sources
Presidential Libraries
The presidential libraries have a number of useful resources, including digitized copies of primary documents.
Miscellaneous
- SHAFR WebsiteThe Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) has a substantial list of links to primary and secondary resources on the web. Some will be duplicates of these links, but many others are not.
- Rutgers University Library ResourcesThe Rutgers University Library has a resources page for America and the World that contains many of the resources on this page, but also provides guidance for using various databases and other collections. We have some of the same resources at UL Lafayette, but not all of them.