Primary sources are works written at the time a particular historical event happened, or during the time a particular historical subject lived. They may be found in books via the online catalog, online in electronic resources the M.S.U. Libraries owns or subscribes to, in periodical or newspaper articles written at the time, on microform, in government documents, or in free websites produced by scholars. Artworks, museum objects, or historical recordings may also be primary sources.
Works by a historical subject, a person's memoirs, journals, or correspondence are primary sources. In the online catalog watch for words in book titles indicating primary source content: autobiography, memoir, journal, diary, letters, correspondence, speeches. Sometimes primary sources in the online catalog have sub-headings like these: sources, sources and documents, archives, personal narratives, correspondence. For example: League of Nations--sources; Paris Peace Conference--sources. Published collections of primary sources exist also. They may be huge sets of government documents or one volume compilations of selected, reprinted, primary sources on a topic.
Our Murray and Hong Special Collections contains all the rare books and specially valuable, one-of-a-kind items in M.S.U. Libraries. Find what is there on the Middle East. Do an Advanced Catalog search in Books and Media searching for subjects such as these: Middle East or Palestine or Iraq or Jordan. Choose to have your retrieval contain MSU Special Collections' materials only, by scrolling down below the search boxes, looking along the right side in the Location area. When you receive your results, use the facets along the left side of the screen to ask for date range 1900 to 1949. Reach out for help to the Special Collections' staff.
First some online full-text databases are listed, then some print sets that are compilations or anthologies of primary sources, then some information on using the British government documents we have online, on microform, and on paper in the stacks.
From the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the nineteenth century, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the Mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Suez Crisis in 1956, to the partition of Palestine, post-Suez Western foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Confidential Print: Middle East is a fundamental resource for academics, students and researchers studying the modern Middle East. These historical documents inform the volatile situation in the region today.The collection covers Middle Eastern history from 1839-1969; countries included are: Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Persia, Suez Canal, Turkey, Jordan, Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Syria. The series originated out of a need for the British Government to preserve all of the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Some of these were one page letters or telegrams -- others were large volumes or texts of treaties. All items marked 'Confidential Print' were circulated to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to heads of British missions abroad.
Upon completion this resource will contain 56,000 U.K. government documents relating to Britain's international relations, including foreign policy instructions, letters and memos, business reports, and more. These primary source materials have been selected by the official historians of Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and, in many cases, have been declassified at their request for inclusion in this series.This resource offers single-point online access from three print series: British Documents on the Origins of War, 1898-1914 (Main stacks D 505 .G68 v. 1-11 contains material on the tensions that led to WWI), Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939 (Main stacks DA 566.7 .A18 Ser 1-3 v. 1-65 interwar period with items on Italo-Ethiopian War and German affairs), and Documents on British Policy Overseas (Main stacks DA 588 .D63 1984 Series 1-4 17 volumes plus cds and microfiche with items on atomic energy, the Korean conflict and the Cold War).
Empire Online offers about 60,000 images of original documents linked to essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. The sections cover Cultural Contacts, (1492-1969); Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; the Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class, and Colonialism (c1783-1969). Maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings, and rare books are included. Five centuries of history are represented.
Contains primary sources for the study of the Great War, brought together in four thematic modules. From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, artwork and audio-visual files, content highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of a conflict that shook the world. Allows for study of personal experiences, propaganda and recruitment, visual materials, and WWI as a global conflict.
Immigrations, Migrations & Refugees: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996, a fully searchable digital archive, includes firsthand accounts from reputable sources around the world, covering such important events as post-World War Jewish resettlement, South African apartheid, Latin American migrations to the United States, and much more.
During World War Two and its aftermath, journalism played a vital role in keeping servicemen informed and connected. This collection consists of newspapers published during the war years and the immediate aftermath (1939-1948). Titles from all key theatres are featured, including some non-English material in German, Czech, Hindi, Russian, French, Italian, Afrikaans, Swahili, and other African dialects. Includes Modules I and II.
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices.
You can study particular commodities (coffee, silver, gold, cotton, tobacco, chocolate, etc.), see sources from particular companies (Hudson's Bay Co., Cadbury's, etc.), choose a "popular search" to get ideas to pursue, look at documents on particular themes (in advertising and consumption, exploration and discovery, politics and empire and more), There are historical maps. You can look at price data over time. And there are pictures of the commodities in the Visual Resources section.
Search the complete digital edition of The Times (London) to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements, and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. For online access to the London Times 1985 onwards, check the online catalog using a periodical title search for Times. It is also available on microfilm in the Hollander Make Central, 2nd floor West wing.
Sunday edition of the London Times from 1822-2016, one of the world's most important English language newspapers. For the daily edition see Times Digital Archive 1785-2019, another electronic resource.
A complete searchable facsimile run of the the entire run of the Illustrated London News from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003. Every item ever printed in the paper, from 1842 to 2003, can be searched and browsed article by article and page by page.
Contains every page of every issue of The Economist published from 1843-2020 and provides an invaluable perspective on the great events of the 19th and 20th centuries and offers tracking and comparison of economic and political trends across continents and centuries.
Information in PAIS International and PAIS Archive covers topical public and social issues and the making and evaluating of public policy. Worldwide in geographic scope, PAIS International and PAIS Archive indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish that deal with public affairs.
PAIS Archive is a retrospective database supplementing PAIS International containing more than 1.2 million records covering the years 1915-1976.
World’s most authoritative daily business newspaper. In Gale Newspapers site here, input your search. On the left under the search boxes, deselect all the newspapers, then go back and put a check mark only beside Financial Times.
1855-2016 One of the world's highest circulating newspapers in the English language. Includes also the Sunday issues from 1961-2000. The BBC describes it as "the newspaper of the establishment." We also offer this newspaper post 2000, here.
1887-2013 Complete archive from its inception as the European edition of the New York Herald and later the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Ends with last issue of International Herald Tribune before its relaunch as International New York Times.
Dates of coverage span 1681-1930s. British Periodicals Collection I consists of more than 160 journals that comprise the UMI microfilm collection Early British Periodicals, the equivalent of 5,238 printed volumes containing approximately 3.1 million pages. Disciplines covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences. British Periodicals Collection II consists of more than 300 journals from the UMI microfilm collections English Literary Periodicals and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts together with additional titles, amounting to almost 3 million pages. Disciplines covered include literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture. Even though these seem more humanities oriented a search in the article titles and text for "palestine or middle east" yielded plenty.
Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East: a Documentary Record, 1553-1956 Main DS 42 .H78 1987
Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East: a Documentary Record Remote Storage DS 42 .H78 v. 1-2 earlier edition to above
Middle East 1914-1979Main DS 119.7 .M4717
Archives of Empire, Volume 1, From the East India Company to the Suez Canal Main DA 16 .A73 2003 v. 1
See chapters X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, which cover the Suez Canal, the Arab uprising in Egypt 1869-82, and pilgrims, travelers, and tourists in the Holy Land in the late 19th through early 20th centuries.
Finding British Parliamentary Papers in the M.S.U. Libraries is our in-house research guide for use of the British Parliamentary Papers. There are two editions, 2000 and 2007. The latter contains more links to online resources. You can make an appointment with Agnes Haigh Widder, Humanities Bibliographer, to learn to use this material. Here are links to the most commonly used items and call numbers for some important print sources:
Bills and Acts 1695-2015
Command Papers 1833-2015
House of Commons Papers 1715-2015
House of Lords Papers 1715-1805
Hansard (Debates) 1803-2005
Journals 1688-1834
Debates 1774-1805
Histories and Proceedings 1660-1743
Parliamentary Debates (House of Lords) Main J 301 .H223 Ser. 5 v. 2-457
Parliamentary Debates (House of Commons) Main J 301 .H224 Ser. 5 v. 1-1000
The Debates contain written versions of the speeches made in each House. There is a set of volumes for each Parliamentary Session, one for the Lords, and another for the Commons. Look for the subject/name indexes in the back of the final volume for the session to find speeches by particular M.P.s or on particular topics and page references. The online version of the Debates that we offer through the online version of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers is not superb; you may want to use the print vols.
British Government Publications, an Index to Chairmen of Committees and Commissions of Inquiry, 1800-1978. Main Z 2009 .R535 1982 v. 1-3
See v. 2. Many documents are known by the name of the committee/commission chair. Provides the citation info needed to find the document in the Sessional Papers in microprint 10 of the Sessional Papers.
Century of Diplomatic Blue Books, 1814-1919 Main Z 2009 .T28
Breviate of Diplomatic Blue Books, 1919-1939 Main Z 1009 .V6
These two books provide citations to documents in the Sessional Papers about foreign affairs.
