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Primary Sources - IR/Political Science
About searching the catalog:
- Combine your terms with 'sources' : for example, the keyword strategy "vietnam and sources and documents" brings up the 2003 title Major problems in the history of the Vietnam War : documents and essays, among others.
- When searching for documents in sets - CIS, for example - use 'CIS' in your keyword search strategy as well.
Executive
- Presidency
(GPO Access) partial
set online
Complete print
set (1931-1932/33, 1945-2002 v.2+)at Mugar Library J80 .F57
A
compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents...v.1-20
(1897-22) J81 .E97
Presidential Libraries (many libraries now include audiovisual materials such as speeches)
The addresses and messages of the presidents of the United States, inaugural, annual, and special, from 1789 to 1846... (part of the collection Making of Modern Law 1800-1926)
History Channel - Video Gallery, Great Speeches
Historic
Documents on Presidential Elections, 1787-1988. Mugar
Reference X JK 1965 .H56 1991
Executive - Federal
Agencies
Foreign
Relations of the United States (US
Department of State) 1861+ (limited content available online)
A historical record of American foreign
policy with more than 350 individual volumes. Each volume documents
the major foreign policy decisions and diplomatic activity of
the U.S. Government and contains declassified records from the
White House, the Department of State, and other foreign affairs
agencies.
Mugar
JX 233 E52 
Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS) BU-px
Federal Register BU-px
GPO
(Government Printing Office Monthly Catalog) 1976+BU-px
Catalog
of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) via GPO Access 1976+
(formerly Monthly Catalog of United
States Government Publications Mugar X Z
1223 E95 1951-2002)
The Emerging Nation: a documentary history of the foreign relations of
the United States under the Articles of Conferation, 1780-1789 . 3
vols. Mugar Reference X E 303 .E44 1996
Legislative
Congressional Record via GPO Access 1994+
Lexis Nexis Congressional BU-px This
is a selective database.
Mugar Library and/or the Law Library have a full range of CIS documents
on microfiche, with access through the web
catalog (search: 'your term' and cis ). The microfiche are
arranged by CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers in the NOTES field
of the catalog record. Full text
links are provided where available.
The CIS index to publications of
the United States Congress [Mugar Reference X Z 1249
F70] abstracts all congressional hearings and prints, arranged by committees;
yearly bound volumes index publications by subject, document numbers,
bill title, and names of persons involved.
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: US Congressional documents and Debates, 1774-1873
Making of Modern Law 1800-1926 BU-px
see also Finding Legislative Information
Judicial
Cornell Law School - Supreme Court Collection
Curiae Project (Yale)
FindLaw Supreme Court Decisions
FedWorld.gov - Search and View Full Text of Supreme Court Decisions Issued between 1937 and 1975
GPO Access - Judical Branch Resources
News
Media
Press Display BU-px
New York Times (Historical) 1851-2003 BU-px
AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive ChRiv-px
Vanderbilt Television News Archive TVNEWS Database ChRiv-px although much of this archive is available upon request for a fee, video excerpts from CNN 1995+ are provided with BU's subscription.
World News Connection 1995+ BU-px for older material, see
see also Research Guides - Newspapers International
Access UN BU-px
Cold War International History Project
Hansard
(House of Commons Daily Debates) 1988+
Irish
University Press series of British parliamentary papers
various subject compilations such as 'slave
trade', 'emigration', and 'religion'.
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential PrintYale Avalon
project
The Online Network of
Freedom of Information Advocates
see also Research
Guides - Treaties
Other
Collections
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Historic
Documents. 1972-2003+ Mugar
Reference X E 839.5
.H57 (published by
Congressional Quarterly)
Historic documents index, 1972-2002 Mugar
Reference X E 839.5
.H57 2003
About
Primary and Secondary Sources
In considering a 'primary source' as opposed to 'secondary source',
the difference can be summed up this way: a primary
source is a first-hand, original account of events,
while a secondary source offers analysis
and/or interpretation of the material. In IR/ Political Science, most
journal articles would be considered secondary sources.
Advances in reproduction technology, while providing a boon to
researchers, have complicated the 'primary source' definition.
The Yale
Avalon project, for example, reproduces the text - but not
the document format - of many historical documents held in original
form in the National Archives and other archival libraries. These
are not secondary sources, because they offer no analysis or commentary
- but are they truly primary source documents?
In general, in Political Science and International Relations there are three categories of primary source material. The first category is the least controversial - the actual, original document. Unfortunately, it is also the most difficult category of information for the researcher to locate and view. Examples might include:
-
First-person newspaper articles recording an event in the original
newspaper
Government policy documents from the issuing agency - e.g., Foreign Relations of the United State
Congressional record; senate and house hearings - e.g., GPO Access
Original archival documents such as those housed in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center or the National Security Archive
Original photographs such as those in private collections and library archives.
Most undergraduates and graduate students do not have the luxury of travelling to the central archive of true primary source documents. A number of publishers have compiled collections duplicating original documents in book form; microform, or more recently, image form for the Internet. Since these collections scrupulously aim to reproduce the document format as well as the content, this second category - high-quality reproductions of original documents - can be considered primary source material. Example: Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS); New York Times (Historical) .
The third category of primary source material consists of reformatted content and translations of original documents. Only the content is 'primary'. While this category of information is certainly easier to locate, and is invaluable in providing access to obscure document content, scholars must take into account the possible human error in the transcription process, and use their best judgment as to the validity and authority of the material in the context of their own research. Example: Yale Avalon project.
see also
Research
Guide - Primary Sources
Research
Guide - Government Documents