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World Civilization II - HIST 1220

Finding Primary Sources

You will need to choose primary sources that are relevant to people and events that are within the time frame and place of this course.

  • Place: (not in the United States)
  • Time: 1500 - 2001

Search the library catalog with the following phrases:

  • primary sources
  • autobiography
  • diary
  • letters
  • "a brief history with documents"

The Open Library has many primary sources available online from different countries around the world

  • You will need to sign up for an account with a valid email address.
  • Some of the books are available to download and keep while others can be borrowed but must be returned.
  • Search the Subjects with terms such as “autobiography” or “biographies & autobiographies”
  • Perform an Advanced search and add a country name in the Place in addition to these Subject terms
  • Change the search bar to search by title and search for the word “letters”

Print Primary Sources

The Vietnam War : an international history in documents DS557.4 .V575 2014 Lawrence, Mark Atwood
Augusto "Cesar" Sandino: Messiah of Truth and Light F 1526.3 .S23 N38 2002 Marco Aurelio Navarro-Genie
Mexican History : a Primary Source Reader F1203 .M49 2010 Jaffary, Nora E., 1968
Primary source accounts of the Vietnam War DS557.4 .O25 2006 O'Connell, Kim A.
My Life DS126.6 .M42 A37 1975 Meir, Golda
Spandau: The Secret Diaries DD247 .S63 A34 1976 Speer, Albert
An Autobiography: or, the story of my experiments with truth DS481 .G3 A3 2013 Gandhi, Mahatma
Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor D843 .G28 1971 Gaulle, Charles de
Khrushchev Remembers. DK275 .K5 A324 1970 Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich
Remembering, Voices of the Holocaust : a new history in the words of the men and women who survived D804.3 .S5954 2006 Smith, Lyn
Anne Frank : the diary of a young girl D810 .J4 F7813 1993 Frank, Anne
Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs DD247 .S63 A313 1970 Speer, Albert
The diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait ND 259 .K33 A2 1995 Frida Kahlo
Documents on the Rape of Nanking DS796 .N2 D63 1999 Brook, Timothy
Essential Works of Lenin : "What is to be done?"
and other writings
DK254 .L3 A254 1987 Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich
The Forgotten Soldier D764 .S254 2000 Sajer, Guy
Scroll of Agony: the Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan D765.2 .W3 K27 1965 Kaplan, Chaim Aron
Hiroshima diary : the journal of a Japanese physician,
August 6-September 30, 1945
D767.25 .H6 H313 1995 Hachiya, Michihiko
Long walk to freedom: the autobiography of Nelson Mandela DT1949 .M35 A3 2013 Mandela, Nelson
No easy day : the autobiography of a Navy SEAL : the firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden HV6430 .B55 O945 2012 Owen, Mark.
Reflections on the revolution in France and on the proceedings in London relative to that event : in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris DC150 .B852 2013 Burke, Edmund
Hannah Senesh :  her life and diary CT1919 .P38 S3668 2013 Senesh, Hannah
Hernan Cortes: Letters from Mexico F1230 .C83313 1986 Cortes, Hernan
Apartheid in South Africa: A Brief History with Documents DT1757 .G67 2017 Gordon, David M.
The English East India Company at the Height of Mughal Expansion: A Soldier's Diary of the 1689 Siege of Bombay with Related Documents DS465 .E54 2016 Hunt, Margaret R., Stern, Philip J.

Digital Primary Resources 1

1915 Diary of S. An-sky : A Russian Jewish Writer at the Eastern Front S. A. An-Sky
491 Days : Prisoner Number 1323/69 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
A Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri : The Journal and Description of Jean-Baptiste Truteau, 1794–1796
A gentlewoman in Upper Canada [electronic resource] : the journals, letters, and art of Anne Langton Barbara Williams
A German Officer in Occupied Paris : The War Journals, 1941-1945 Ernst Jünger
A Journal of Three Months’ Walk in Persia in 1884 by Captain John Compton Pyne Russell Harris
A Mennonite in Russia : The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851-1880 Harvey L. Dyck
A Nun, a Convent, and the German Occupation of Belgium : Mother Marie Georgine’s Diary of World War I Rene Kollar
A Secret To Be Burried : Diary Emily Hawley Gillespie Judy Nolte Lensink
A Sephardi Life in Southeastern Europe : The Autobiography and Journals of Gabriel Arié, 1863-1939 Gabriel Arie
An Observer of Observatories : The Journal of Thomas Bugge's Tour of Germany, Holland, and England in 1777 Peter De Clercq
Anna Seward's Journal and Sermons Teresa Barnard
Apostle to the Inuit: the journals and ethnographic notes of Edmund James Peck, the Baffin years, 1894-1905  E.J Peck
Autobiography of John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill
Bartolomé De Las Casas and the Defense of Amerindian Rights : A Brief History with Documents Lawrence A. Clayton, David M. Lantigua
Battle Diary : From D-Day and Normandy to the Zuider Zee and VE Charles Cromwell Martin
Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826 Lady Wallace
Belfast Diaries : A Gunner In Northern Ireland 1971-74 Steve Corbett
Bergen-belsen 1945: A Medical Student's Journal David Bowen Hargrave
Betty's Wartime Diary, 1939-1945 Betty Armitage
Bunker Hill : The Story Told in Letters From the Battle Field by British Officers Engaged Samuel Adams Drake
Camp Life Is Paradise for Freddy : A Childhood in the Dutch East Indies, 1933–1946
Fred Lanzing
Carnage and Care on the Eastern Front : The War Diaries of Bernhard Bardach, 1914-1918 Peter C. Appelbaum
Character Is Destiny : The Autobiography of Alice Salomon Andrew Lees, Geoff Eley
China Diary : The Life of Mary Austin Endicott Shirley Jane Endicott
Churchill's Colonel : The War Diaries of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Barne Anthony Barne
Diary of a Spitfire Pilot Mawer, Granville Allen
Diary of a Ypres Nun : October 1914-May 1915 Soeur Marguerite
Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in Japan 1615-1622, with Correspondence : Volume I Edward Maunde Thompson
Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944 : Collaboration, Resistance, and Daily Life in Occupied Paris Jean Guéhenno
El Libertador: Writings of Simon Bolivar Simon Bolivar
Eskimo Boyhood : An Autobiography in Psychosocial Perspective Charles C. Hughes
Foo, a Japanese-American prisoner of the Rising Sun : the secret prison diary of Frank 'Foo' Fujita Frank Fujita
Footsteps on the Ice : The Antarctic Diaries of Stuart D. Paine, Second Byrd Expedition Stuart D. Paine
Forward with Patton : The World War II Diary of Colonel Robert S. Allen Robert S. Allen
Franz Boas among the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883-1884 : Journals and Letters Ludger Muller-Wille
George Bentham : Autobiography, 1800-1834 George Bentham
Gertrude Bell : The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 Rosemary O'Brien
Gulag Letters Arsenii Fomakov
Hero of the Angry Sky : The World War I Diary and Letters of David S. Ingalls, America’s First Naval Ace David S. Ingalls
In Haig's Shadow : The Letters of Brigadier-General Hugo De Pree and Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig Gary Sheffield
In India and East Africa E-Indiya Nase East Africa : A Travelogue in IsiXhosa and English Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu
In the Company of Generals : The World War I Diary of Pierpont L. Stackpole Robert H. Ferrell
Iris Murdoch, A Writer at War : Letters and Diaries, 1939-1945 Peter J. Conradi
Joey Jacobson's War : A Jewish Canadian Airman in the Second World War Peter J. Usher
John Ledyard's Journey Through Russia and Siberia, 1787–1788 : The Journal and Selected Letters Stephen D. Watrous
Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 Verene Shepherd
Letters of a Javanese Princess Raden Ajeng Kartini
Letters of Queen Elizabeth and King James VI of Scotland : Some of Them Printed From Originals in the Possession of the Rev. Edward Ryder and Others From a Ms. Which Formerly Belonged to Sir Peter Thompson, Kt. Queen Elizabeth
Lord Chesterfield's Letters Lord Chesterfield
Love and War in London : A Woman’s Diary 1939-1942 Olivia Cockett
Memoirs of a Cavalier: A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, & the Wars in England. from the Year 1632 to the Year 1648
Meuse-Argonne Diary : A Division Commander in World War I William M. Wright
Mexican history a primary source reader Nora E. Jaffary
More of a man [electronic resource] : diaries of a Scottish craftsman in mid-nineteenth-century North America Andrew McIlwraith

Digital Primary Sources 2

Mrs Duberly's War : Journal and Letters From the Crimea, 1854-6 Christine Kelly
My Thirty-Three Year's Dream : The Autobiography of Miyazaki Toten Miyazaki Toten
Narrative of two voyages to the River Sierra Leone during the years 1791-1792-1793 A.M Falconbridge
Nels Anderson’s World War I Diary Allan Kent Powell
Not Being God : A Collaborative Autobiography Giani Vattimo
Order in Chaos : The Memoirs of General of Panzer Troops Hermann Balck Hermann Balck
Paris 1918 : The War Diary of the British Ambassador, the 17th Earl of Derby David Dutton
Partisan Diary: A Woman's Life in the Italian Resistance Ada Gobetti
Pogue's War : Diaries of a WWII Combat Historian Forrest C. Pogue
Ponary Diary, 1941-1943 : A Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder Kazimierz Sakowicz
Prisoner of the Rising Sun : The Lost Diary of Brig. Gen. Lewis Beebe John M. Beebe
Recording Kastom : Alfred Haddon's Journals From the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888 and 1898 Anite Hurle
Resist to the End: Hong Kong, 1941-1945 Charles Barman
Salvaged pages : young writers' diaries of the Holocaust Alexandra Zapruder
Searching for Justice : An Autobiography Fred Kaufman
So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish : Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers Donald Keene
Soldier 4346057 : A Second World War Diary D. Hudson
Somewhere in France : The World War I Letters and Journal of Private Frederick A. Kittleman Thomas J. Schaeper
Ten Years On The Parish : The Autobiography and Letters of George Garrett George Garrett
Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources
The Arctic Journals of John Rae John Rae
The Chaplain's Conflict : Good and Evil in a War Hospital, 1943-1945 Tennant S. McWilliams
The Crucible : An Autobiography by Colonel Yay, Filipina American Guerrilla Yay Panlilio
The Desert Route to India, Being the Journals of Four Travellers by the Great Desert Caravan Route Between Aleppo and Basra, 1745-1751 Douglas Carruthers
The Diary of Antera Duke, an Eighteenth-Century African Slave Trader Stephen D. Behrendt
The Diaries of Anthony Hewitson, Provincial Journalist Andrew Hobbs
The Diary of Charles Holme's 1889 Visit to Japan and North America with Mrs Lasenby Liberty's Japan: A Photographic Record Toni Huberman
The Discovery of Tahiti, A Journal of the Second Voyage of H.M.S. Dolphin Round the World, Under the Command of Captain Wallis, R.N. : In the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768, Written by Her Master, George Robertson Hugh Carrington
The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks Joseph Banks
The Evil That Surrounds Us : The WWII Memoir of Erna Becker-Kohen Kevin P. Spicer
The Great War : Letters and Diaries of a South African Family 1913-1920 John Stanford
The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave : Related by Herself Mary Prince
The Jehol Diary : Yŏrha Ilgi of Pak Chiwŏn (1737-1805) Yang Hi Choe-Wall
The Journal of Olof Eriksson Willman : From His Voyage to the Dutch East Indies and Japan, 1648-1654 Olof Eriksson Willman
The Journal Of Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott
The Journal of William Lockerby, Sandalwood Trader in the Fijian Islands During the Years 1808-1809 : With an Introduction and Other Papers Connected with the Earliest European Visitors to the Islands Leonard C. Wharton
The Kalamata Diary : Greece, War, and Emigration Eduardo Faingold
The Maisky Diaries : Red Ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943 I.M Maisky
The Manley Memoirs Beverley Manley
The Memoir of General Toussaint Louverture Translated by Philippe R. Girard
The Mexican War Journal and Letters of Ralph W. Kirkham Ralph W. Kirkman
The Political Diary of Alfred Rosenberg and the Onset of the Holocaust Jürgen Matthäus
The Prisoner of War Diary of Stan Cornwell: North Africa, Italy & Germany 1941 - 1945 David Cornwell

Digital Primary Sources 3

The Road to Madrid : Diary of Donald Gallie, Member of the Scottish Medical Aid Unit, Serving in the Spanish Civil War, September-December 1936 Nina Stevens
The Secrets of a Vatican Cardinal : Celso Costantini's Wartime Diaries, 1938-1947 Celso Costantini
The Smell of War : Three Americans in the Trenches of World War I Virginia Bernhard
The Tangier Diaries John Hopkins
The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave, Levant Merchant, 1647-1656 Robert Bargrave
The Travels and Journal of Ambrosio Bembo Ambrosio Bembo
The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger Israel Unger
The Wartime Journals Hugh Trevor-Roper
The Wartime Letters of Leslie and Cecil Frost, 1915-1919 Leslie M. Frost
The Zulu War Journal Henry Harford
The diary of a Maritimer, 1816-1901 : the life and times of Joseph Salter Nancy Redmane Ross
The Diary of Elizabeth Lee : Growing up on Merseyside in the Late Nineteenth Century Colin G. Pooley
The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949 Jane T. Hedges, Timothy D. Sergay
The Diary of John Holt Peter N. Davies
To Bataan and Back : The World War II Diary of Major Thomas Dooley Henry C. Detloff
Totally Unofficial : The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin
Undaunted Women of Nanking : The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang Hua-ling Hu
Vagabond life: the Caucasus journals of George Kennan Frirth Maier
War Diaries, 1939-1945 Astrid Lindgren
War Memoirs 1917-1919 : Second Edition Wilfred R. Bion
Wartime diary / Simone de Beauvoir  Simone de Beauvoir
Year of the locust [electronic resource] : a soldier's diary and the erasure of Palestine's Ottoman past Salim Tamari
NBC Goes to War : The Diary of Radio Correspondent James Cassidy From London to the Bulge James Cassidy
A Soldier in Arabia : A British Military Memoir From Jordan to Saudi Arabia Nigel Bromage
Betty's Wartime Diary Nicholas Webley
The Wartime Diary Of Edmund Kessler Edmund Kessler
Free French Spitfire Hero : The Diaries of and Search For René Mouchotte Dilip Sarkar
Blood, Dust and Snow : Diaries of a Panzer Commander in Germany and on the Eastern Front, 1938-1943 Robin Schäfer
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