Research Guides: HIST 280: Modern China: Finding Primary Sources

Recommended Sources

Find these on the second floor, in the compact shelving. Browse by year in person or search by keyword online.

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Index to popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada. Includes Time, Newsweek, US & World News Report, National Geographic, Harpers, The New Yorker, and many more.
American Periodicals (1740-1940)
American magazines, newspapers, and journals in digitized page image format, published between 1740 and 1940.
British Periodicals
Hundreds of British periodicals in full text, from the 17th century through the early 21st. Topics include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (1982-Present)
Index to recent popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada.
Academic Search Complete
Multidisciplinary database with scholarly journals and popular periodicals.

Try searching for people's names or search by country with a very small date range.

Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832 - 1953)
22 historical newspapers published in Beijing & Shanghai from 1832 to 1953. Most titles are in English.
Titles included are:
North China Herald (1850-1941)
Canton Times (1919-1920)
China Critic (1939-1946)
The China Press (1925-1938)
China Weekly Review (1917-1953)
Chinese Recorder (1868-1940)
Chinese Repository (1832-1851)
Peking Daily News (1914-1917)
Peking Gazette (1915-1917)
Peking Leader (1918-1919
Shanghai Gazette (1919-1921)
Shanghai Times (1914-1921)
Historical Newspapers
Full-text content from U.S. & international newspapers from the 19th century to the late 20th century. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, cartoons, classifieds, and obituaries.
See title list of over 400 historical newspapers.
Christian Science Monitor (1908 - Present)
Nonprofit international news organization that publishes daily articles online and a weekly print edition.
New York Times (1851 to 3 years ago)
Historical New York Times with articles in PDF format, including ads, cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, and more.

These websites and databases can lead you to amazing primary sources.

Library of Congress World Digital Library
Cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by UNESCO partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.

Women and Social Movements International 1840-present
Conference proceedings, organization reports, publications, and websites of women's non-governmental organizations. Also includes letters, diaries, and memoirs of women active internationally since the mid-nineteenth century, as well as photographs and videos of major events and activists in the history of women’s international social movements.
Detailed Guide to this resource.

East Asia History Sourcebook
Subject listing of documents from East Asian history. Includes cultural origins; religious traditions; imperial China; western intrusion; Japan as a world power; and more. From Fordham University.
Internet Archive
Open and permanent access to historical collections in digital format for researchers and the public.

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“Books in this collection may be borrowed by logged in patrons for a period of two weeks. You may read the books online in your browser, or download them into Adobe Digital Editions, a free piece of software used for managing loans.”
Digital Public Library of America
Millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Each record links to the original object on the content provider’s website.

Mostly U.S. based, many government documents make great primary sources.

CIA Cold War Research Reports and Records on Communism in China and Eastern Europe (1917-1976)
This resource includes two collections: "CIA Research Reports from 1946-1976," and "Communism in China and Eastern Europe from 1917-1958"
CIA Research Reports from 1946-1976 begins in 1946 with reports of the CIA's predecessor, the Central Intelligence Group. Reproduces over 1,500 reports on eight areas: Middle East; Soviet Union; Vietnam and Southeast Asia; China; Japan, Korea, and Asian security; Europe; Africa; and Latin America.

The Raymond Murphy Collection on Communism in China and Eastern Europe from 1917-1958 provides extensive information on war recovery efforts, international aid, and the formation of countries. The contentious Big Four relations over Austria and Poland account for those two countries’ presence in the majority of the collection’s documents. The collection illuminates the effects of war on the national attitudes of both liberating and liberated countries.
Digital National Security Archive (1945-Present)
Declassified government documents covering U.S. policy on critical world events, including military, intelligence, diplomatic, and human rights, from 1945 to the present.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
HeinOnline
U.S. Congressional documents, Foreign Relations of the US, international treaties, world constitutions, and more.

Wilson Center Digital Archive
Declassified historical materials from archives around the world, including once-secret documents from governments across the globe, providing insights into the history of international relations and diplomacy.

Foreign Relations of the United States
Official documentation and historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity that have been declassified and edited for publication, going back to 1861. Produced by the Department of State's Office of the Historian.

Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room
CIA website containing thousands of redacted documents released by the agency through FOIA requests. Documents were created between 1940 to present.