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INTL 321: War & Conflict (Dr. Vicki Gilbert)

Definition of "Primary Source"

primary source: "a first-hand record of an event or topic created by a participant in or a witness to that event or topic. Primary sources can be a document, letter, eye-witness account, diary, article, book, recording, statistical data, manuscript, or art object. Primary sources . . . provide an original source of information about an era or event. Although primary sources can include first-hand accounts that were documented later, such as memoirs or oral histories, primary sources created or written closest to the time of the actual event are considered to be the most useful sources for research purposes"--from the Library of Congress's "Ask a Librarian" blog.

Key Words to Use to Find Primary Sources

Try searching such key words as these in conjunction with your topic to find primary sources about it:

  • Archive
  • Digital archive
  • Archival footage
  • Classified document (or Classified documents)
  • Correspondence, letters
  • Declassified document (or Declassified documents)
  • Diaries, Journals, Memoirs
  • Documentary film
  • Eyewitness testimony (or Eyewitness account)
  • Freedom of Information Act documents--the FOIA applies to documents created by any agency of the U.S. federal government
  • Government documents--for example, Hearings, Committee reports, Congressional records
  • Intelligence report
  • Interview (or Interviews)
  • Manuscript (or Manuscripts)
  • Newspaper articles, particularly those reports written at the time of the event that you are investigating
  • Newsreels
  • Oral history (Oral histories) 
  • Pamphlets, Ephemera, Posters, Propaganda, Graffiti, Street art
  • Personal narrative (Personal narratives)
  • Photograph (or Photographs)
  • Primary source (or Primary sources)
  • Social media
  • Source (or Sources)
  • Speeches
  • Statistics, Opinion polls, Data
  • Underground newspapers
  • War correspondence
  • War correspondent
  • War-crime trial (or War-crimes trial)
  • War-crime tribunal (or War-crimes tribunal)

Searching for "Sources" OR "Primary Sources" in Wofford OneSearch & PASCAL Delivers

Searching for "sources" OR "primary sources" relating to specific wars, or conflicts, in Wofford OneSearch & PASCAL Delivers:

 

Other terms to find primary sources in Wofford OneSearch & PASCAL Delivers:

  • Correspondence
  • Interviews
  • Personal narratives
  • Personal narratives, American [or Chinese, Russian, Spanish, etc.]
  • Photography
  • War photography
  • Pictorial works
  • Documentary films
  • Posters
  • Press coverage
  • Mass media and the war
  • War posters
  • Propaganda
  • Underground newspapers
  • War propaganda
  • War in the press
  • War in art
  • War in comics
  • Graffiti

 

All of the abovementioned searches also work well in database WorldCat, which enabes you to search the holdings of libraries around the world.

Websites for Primary Sources

Chinese Civil War

 

El Salvador Civil War

 

Iran-Iraq War

 

Korean War

 

Persian Gulf War

 

Six-Day War

 

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

This website includes links to and information about a number of Afghan resources:

 

Spanish Civil War

This library guide includes links to additional archives and sources on the Spanish civil war:

 

Vietnam War

 

World War I, 1914-1918

 

World War II, 1939-1945

 

General Websites

Databases for Primary Sources