Library Guides: Political Science: Primary Sources

Reports on Human Development & Humanitarian Aid

US Agency for International Development (USAID)
Find reports on how NGO's, institutions, and other organizations are using US foreign assistance funding on development projects, activities and programs. See especially its "Development Experience Clearing House" (https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/home/Default.aspx).
ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb is a specialized service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), providing information on humanitarian needs and activities.

GuideStar Premium This link opens in a new window
Contains multiple years' worth of information on each of the more than 300,000 nonprofit organizations that file a Form 990 or 990-EZ, and on 70,000 private foundations with a certain asset size or substantial grant activity. Includes millions of images of these IRS forms.

Human Development Reports
From the UN Development Programme. Annual data on development, by country, including measures of equality, education, health, environmental sustainability, and more.

Government Documents

U.S. Federal

Legislative Documents -- Bills, hearings, reports, passed laws, and as codified

ProQuest congressional This link opens in a new window
Search the texts of bills, Congressional hearings, statements by legislators and more, with some access back to 1789.

Congress.gov
Congressional documents from 1973 to present.
United States Code
The US Code, with versions from 1994 forward.

Federal Regulations -- Codified

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Codified regulations of the federal agencies, from 1995 forward.

Federal Reports, Publications, Memoranda, Letters

HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Because US federal government reports aren't protected by copyright, many are available full-text in HathiTrust.

GovInfo
The federal government's main repository of official documents, including the US Code, Statutes at Large, the Federal Register, the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, and more.

Catalog of U.S. government publications This link opens in a new window
Search electronic and print publications from all three branches of the U.S. government.
Monthly catalog of U.S. government publications, 1895-1976 This link opens in a new window
Index to historical documents published by the federal government.
Foreign relations of the United States This link opens in a new window
Official diplomatic record of US relations with other countries.

Judicial Branch

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Search federal court decisions, including federal district and appellate court rulings, and the Supreme Court.

Declassified U.S. Government Documents

History Vault
Collections of digitized primary sources. The International Relations and Military Conflicts modules are full of declassified materials.

Declassified Documents Reference System This link opens in a new window
Online access to thousands of pages of previously classified U.S. federal government documents and communiques.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
Declassified U.S. Government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute and library at George Washington University. The Digital National Security Archive provides enhanced access to a selected portion of the NSA collection.

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.

Other Legal Resources

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Treasure trove of primary source documents, such as states' session laws, presidential papers, SCOTUS decisions, Congressional documents, international treaties, and world constitutions.

States (U.S.)

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Find state bills, laws and codes, as well as state court decisions.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Find state session laws and state constitutions, as well as the National Survey of State Laws.

Foreign Government Documents

World Constitutions Illustrated This link opens in a new window
Includes the current constitution for every country in its original language format and an English translation, as well as substantial constitutional histories for all countries. It also includes constitutional periodicals, thousands of books, other related works, links to scholarly articles and online resources, and bibliographic references.

Constitute
The Constitute Project provides online access to hundreds of constitutions from across the globe, including current and earlier versions of constitutions.

PKU Law (English) This link opens in a new window
Online database of laws, regulations, and cases from the People's Republic of China.

Foreign Law Research Guides
From the Library of Congress.
GlobaLex
From NYU's Hauser Global Law School Program.

The United Nations

UN in General

UN Official Document System

UN Agencies

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts – to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.
International Court of Justice (ICJ)
The International Court of Justice, which has its seat in The Hague, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations
International Labour Organization (ILO)
ILO's publications. The ILO brings together governments, employers and workers representatives of 187 member States, to set labor standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men.
UNICEF Publications
Publications and reports from United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
UNESCO Digital Library
UNESCO is responsible for coordinating international cooperation in education, science, culture and communication. Find their publications and official governing documents.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
Alphabetic Index of Websites of the United Nations System of Organizations
Additional UN organizations.

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Search the reports of hundreds of NGO's, think tanks, research institutes and advocacy groups.

Full-text Collections

Full-text collections include digitized documents covering a particular subject. These collections have been digitized by vendors and then purchased/licensed by Hesburgh Libraries, to provide you with primary source material.

U.S. Government Documents

Afghanistan and the U.S., 1945-1963: records of the U.S. State Department Central classified files. This link opens in a new window
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China relations, 1989-1993 This link opens in a new window
Primary documents, mostly covering American perspectives on the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
U.S. Middle East Peace Policy and America's Role in the Middle East Peace Process, 1991-1992 This link opens in a new window
Letters, memos, articles and reports from the Bush 41 administration, covering the U.S.'s involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during that time.

British Government Documents

Arab-Israeli relations, 1917-1970 This link opens in a new window
Primary documents from the British National Archives.
Confidential print. Africa, 1834-1966. This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to the United Kingdom's Colonial, Dominion and Foreign Offices' confidential correspondence relating to Africa between 1834 and 1966. This resource provides a searchable collection of scores of official documents and maps covering almost the entire period of European conquest and colonisation of Africa (with the exception of Egypt).
Foreign Office files for China, 1919-1980. This link opens in a new window
This digital collection makes available all British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980. Allows access to eye-witness accounts, weekly and monthly summaries, annual reviews, reports and analyses, economic assessments, synopses on Chinese personalities, and much more.
Nixon years, 1969-1974. This link opens in a new window
Primary documents from the British National Archives, documenting the UK government's relationship with and perspectives on the Nixon administration.

International Media Coverage and Reactions

American race relations : global perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new window
Foreign reactions to America's struggles with racial justice.
Apartheid : global perspectives, 1946-1996 This link opens in a new window
International reactions to apartheid.
Cold War : Global perspectives on East-West tensions, 1945-1991 This link opens in a new window
Radio and TV broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, and government documents, covering the conflict.
Immigrations, migrations and refugees : global perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new window
Foreign radio and TV broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals and government documents, covering the topic of immigration and migration.
Middle East & North Africa : global perspectives, 1958-1994 This link opens in a new window
Foreign radio and TV broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals and government documents, covering the politics and affairs of MENA.

Other

Border and migration studies online This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents, videos and images looking at borders around the world, including the U.S.-Mexico border, EU's borders, Turkey's borders, and more.

Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers (Digital)

World

Proquest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Collection of full-text, full image major U.S. & European newspapers.
Paper of record This link opens in a new window
Searchable historical archive from PaperofRecord.com of full-page newspaper images created from newspaper collections on microfilm, preserving the original format of the paper. Many titles from Canada and Mexico. Usage info: 3-5 seats

World Newspaper Archive
Historical newspapers from around the globe.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily reports This link opens in a new window
International news coverage (TV, radio, newspaper), as gathered by this U.S. government agency.
Keesing's world news archive This link opens in a new window
Provides access to archive of original, accurate and objective news articles providing digestible but detailed summaries of world events, drawn from a wide range of press and other sources in a variety of languages. Digitized version of Keesing's contemporary archives, 1931-1986, and Keesing's record of world events, 1987-

United States

Accessible archives This link opens in a new window
Provides selected text from newspaper collections: Pennsylvania gazette (1728-1800); The Civil War: a newspaper perspective (Nov. 1860-Apr. 1865); African American newspapers: the 19th century; The Liberator (1831-1865); The Virginia Gazette (1736-1780), and others. This is a growing collection.
America's historical newspapers This link opens in a new window
A growing collection allows users to search more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1998 [and beyond], including titles from all 50 states. Created by Readex through partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress, Wisconsin Historical Society and others.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
The Library of Congress's portal, for newspapers from 1789 through 1922.

19th century U.S. newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable database containing digital facsimile images of newspapers; presented as full page layout as well as single articles; advertisements and illustrations retained. Includes newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. and encompasses the entire 19th century.

Africa

African newspapers, 1800-1922 (from World Newspaper Archive with CRL) This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of historical African newspapers. Includes dozens of newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Britain

Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth-century Britain. Includes national and regional newspapers, as well as newspapers from established country or university towns.
17th and 18th century Burney Collection newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)--the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. Includes more than 1,200 titles.
Times digital archive, 1785-1985 (London) This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of full-text and full-image articles from the Times of London for the years 1785-1985. Digital reproduction, cover to cover, of the paper in PDF files. Includes advertisements, illustrations, and photos.

Caribbean

Caribbean Newspapers. Series 1 (1718-1876) This link opens in a new window
Contains 66 newspaper titles from 22 islands between 1718-1876.

China

Shen Bao (1872-1949) This link opens in a new window
Shen Bao 申報 (1872-1949), known in English as Shanghai News, was one of the first modern Chinese newspapers. The Shen Bao Digital Archive includes a complete run of this newspaper--256,000 issues. It is full-text searchable, and contains scanned images of original newspaper pages.

Ireland

Irish newspaper archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable and browseable database of Irish newspapers, with both historical and current content.

Latin America

Latin American newspapers Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of historical Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela.

South Asia

South Asian newspapers (from World Newspaper Archive with CRL) This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of a select group of South Asian newspapers (published between 1864 and 1922) featuring English-, Gujarati- and Bengali-language papers published in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Historical Newspapers (Not Digitized)

Center for Research Libraries catalog This link opens in a new window
CRL has a large collection of newspapers. If you need an article from a CRL-owned historical newspaper, please submit an Interlibrary Loan request.