LibGuides: MC 202: Dilemmas of Science and Technology in Society and Policy: Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are materials which provide first-hand evidence of an event, a social movement, or daily life in a particular time and place. Common examples of primary sources are letters, diaries, photographs, and oral history interviews. Depending on your research context, primary sources might also include newspaper articles, data, laws, treaties, or other legal documents.

Primary Source Databases

Governmental & Political Databases

ProQuest Congressional
Includes Congressional Record 1789-2001, Congressional Hearings 1824-2003, Congressional Serial Set, Committee Prints 1830-present, CRS Reports 1916-present, Executive Branch Documents 1789-1932, and U.S. Bills and Resolutions.
Digital National Security Archive
The Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) contains a large collection of recently declassified national security information, including material on U.S. relations with Cuba, El Salvador, Iran, Japan, Berlin, South Africa, etc.
U.S. Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955-1968
Documents major developments in U.S. nuclear weapons policies and programs from the mid-1950s through 1968.
U.S. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policy, 1945-1991
Spanning the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the recent IAEA inspections of Iraq's nuclear program, Nuclear Non-Proliferation offers researchers the most complete set of primary source materials to U.S. non-proliferation policy available.
Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991
This collection contains more than 600 intelligence estimates and reports, representing nearly 14,000 pages of documentation from the office of the Director of Central Intelligence, the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other organizations.
GovInfo
GovInfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government, including Presidential Documents, the Congressional Record, Congressional bills and laws and regulations.

American History Databases

American History, 1493-1945
This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American History.
American Memory Project
From the Library of Congress, this database has a lot of material. Browsing by time period, collection, or artifact type is a good way to get a sense of what is included.
Everyday Life and Women in America, 1800-1920
Thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.

Media - Newspapers, Magazines, TV, Comics

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present
Proquest US Newsstream
Exclusive access to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and co-exclusive access (with Factiva) to The Wall Street Journal, plus newswires, blogs, and news sites and regional and local U.S. papers.
Comics Index
An author, artist, title, keyword, genre, nationality and subject index to the 110,000-item Comic Art Collection (comic books and comic strips) in the Special Collections Division of the MSU Libraries.
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels (volumes I and II)
Primary-source database focused on adult comic books and graphic novels.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Provides indexing and abstracting of more than 30,000 evening news broadcasts and news related shows from networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. Streaming video of the entire NBC collection dating from August 5th, 1968 to the present and of CNN from 1995 to present are currently available online for MSU faculty, students and staff through the MSU Libraries' subscription to this product.
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda
Includes:
Module I, Wars & Revolutions
Module II, Newsreels & Cinemagazines
Module III, Culture and Society

This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.

Other Databases

Making of the Modern World, Parts I, II, and III
Offers new ways of understanding the expansion of world trade, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of modern capitalism, supporting research in variety of disciplines, and traces the progress of the 19th century nations' rapidly changing economies.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)
Archive 7: Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925
Archive 9: Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, Part II

Library's Other Primary Source Databases

The library has many other primary source databases, which I encourage you to look through: A-Z List of Primary Source Databases

Use the Subject drop-down menu to find collections related to your topic.

You can get to the Database list from the library's homepage by following these directions:

Go to the library's homepage - lib.msu.edu
Click on "Databases" under the main search box.
In the middle dropdown box - All Database Types - select "Primary Sources"