Brooklyn College History Department
History Internet Resources

NY History Colonial History American Revolution 19th Century US social history
Latin America US political history US legal history US foreign relations  

Getting Started

bullet Library Research for the Study of History: guide prepared by the BC Library
bullet History Network Central Catalogue
bullet H-Net--humanities and social sciences on-line
bullet CUNY+
bullet JSTOR--accessible only from BC Campus. Search for and access full texts of scholarly articles.
bullet Library of Congress
bullet American Memory (Library of Congress)
bullet National Archives
bullet New York Public Library
bullet Hanover Historical Texts Project
bullet Modern History Sourcebook
bullet Documents in Military History
bullet Yale Library Government Documents and Information Center
bullet Virtual Library--great place to start if you need a topic

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General Sites in New York History

bullet NYPL Digital Collections--New York Public Library web-based collections relating to the history of the city and the state.
bullet New York State Archives--official site of the state archives.
bullet LaGuardia and Wagner Archives--on-line material from the administrations of two key 20th century NYC mayors.

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General Sites in Colonial History

bullet British Library Collections--general site for British documents from the colonial era.
bullet North American Slave Narratives--UNC site that seeks to collect all the narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in broadsides, pamphlets, or book form in English up to 1920.
bullet Africans in America--general site which, like the one above, extends beyond the colonial period.
bullet Archiving Early America--impressive site with famous documents and guidelines on how to interpret documents from the era.
bullet The 18th Century--individually created site containing links to documents from the era.
bullet American Colonist's Library--superb site for colonial-era documents.

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General Sites in Revolutionary History

bullet Liberty--web site built to accompany PBS series on the Revolution
bullet From Resistance to Revolution--site created for UVA course on the Revolution
bullet George Washington Papers--from the Library of Congress
bullet James Madison Papers--courtesy of Avalon Project
bullet Federalist Papers--on-line version, courtesy of Library of Congress
bullet The Virginia Report--John Randolph's attacks on the civil liberties policies of the Adams administration

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General Sites in Latin American History

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Latin American Network Information Center --UT Austin, a clearinghouse site
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Handbook of Latin American Studies Online--Library of Congress material
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Latin American Social Movements--courtesy of Newcastle (UK) University
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Internet Resources on Latin America--compiled by Tulane University Library
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Benson Latin American Collection--UT Austin, rare books and manuscripts
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PCL Map Collection--UT Austin, general maps for North and South America
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Latin American press links--English and Spanish-language newspapers
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Latin American newspapers--similarly organized site, with some comments on archived newspapers

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General Sites in 19th Century History

bullet Valley of the Shadow--arguably the finest history site, on any era, available on the web
bullet Making of America (Cornell)--scanned 19th century journals
bullet DeTocqueville's Democracy in America--the full text, with supplementary material from the era
bullet Gilded Age cartoons--political cartoons from the late 19th century
bullet American Political Prints--19th century material from Harper's Weekly
bullet Civil War Resources on the Internet--clearinghouse site organized by Rutgers
bullet Gilded Age sites--a rich collection of links to material from the Gilded Age (late 19th century) and Progressive Era (early 20th)

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General Sites in US Social History

bullet History Matters--Put together in part by CUNY, a catch-all site for social history topics.
bullet Making of America (Michigan)--scanned 19th century journals dealing with social history.
bullet Valley of the Shadow--this Civil War site is particularly rich in social history matters.
bullet Women Writers--catch-all site containing links to writings of women.

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General Sites in US Political History

bullet Images of Political History--The place to start if you need to find a photograph of a key figure or event in US political history. Organized chronologically.
bullet 1912--Site devoted to what might have been the most exciting presidential election in American history, the four-way contest of 1912.
bullet New Deal Network--impressive site that contains links to documents, photos, and a wide variety of other material relating to New Deal politics and culture.
bullet FDR Library and Archives--more primary material from the New Deal period.
bullet New York Times presidential elections--contains links from the paper of record on 20th century presidential contest.
bullet Project Whistlestop--a site put together by the Harry Truman Library containing links to documents and photos from the Truman era.
bullet Great Speeches of the 20th Century--This site contains not only the texts but some audio and video clips of many major 20th century speeches in the US site. So too does this History and Politics Out Loud site, while this site provides pictures of 20th century political leaders and events.
bullet Civil Rights Documentation Project--oral histories regarding the civil rights struggle in Mississippi

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General Sites in US Constitutional History

bullet A Century of Lawmaking--This is a quite extraordinary site, containing reprints of every congressional debate between 1789 and 1873, as well as features on the Andrew Jackson impeachment and Indian removal issues.
bullet Constitution Society--A private organization that tilts well to the right politically. Avoid their own material, which is quite biased. They have, on the other hand, assembled a wide variety of good links organized thematically.
bullet Cornell's Supreme Court collection--A quite useful database, containing texts of hundreds of Supreme Court decisions, organized thematically
bullet Avalon Project--This site, run by Yale University, ranges well beyond constitutional matters, to include interesting links containing political and diplomatic documents--from both the United States and Europe--as well.
bullet Oyez Project--Run out of Northwestern University, the single most useful site for 20th century constitutional history, complete with texts of all major decisions, summaries thereof, and oral reenactments, via RealAudio, of many important recent decisions.
bullet Project PATCH--Another general site containing key 20th century Supreme Court decisions, which have been prepared in a printer-friendly format.
bullet Annotated Documents in American Legal History--Somewhat narrow selection, and a bit opinionated, but the commentary makes for interesting reading.
bullet Supreme Court Anti-Trust Database--A fascinating compilation of all important decisions flowing from the Clayton and Sherman Anti-Trust Acts.
bullet History of the Death Penalty--The place to start if looking for documents and legal opinions on the death penalty.
bullet Japanese-American Legal History--Provides a somewhat sketchy, but competent, overview of the legal issues behind the treatment of Americans of Japanese Ancestry during World War II.
bullet Court Packing--Cartoons and other materials relating to FDR's Court-packing scheme.
bullet The Clarence Thomas Hearings--A no-frills site containing the texts of testimony by Thomas, Anita Hill, and all witnesses on Hill's charges.
bullet Red Scare--Small site devoted to wartime violations of civil liberties.

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Sites in US Foreign Relations

bullet Foreign Relations of the United States--A few years ago, the State Department began releasing these volumes, which contain the official internal correspondence of the US government regarding foreign affairs, in web versions.
bullet Documents Relating to United States Foreign Policy--Another very useful site. Arranged chronologically until 1945, thematically thereafter.
bullet Diplomatic History Resources--Another clearinghouse site; it contains links to governments around the world, other diplomatic history courses on the web, and a wide variety of other material.
bullet National Security Archive--Useful for intelligence-related documents from the post-1945 material, it has just released a large batch of documents on the US involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup.
bullet Avalon Project, Yale University--This site is devoted primarily to international law. It has a rich batch of treaties and international agreements.
bullet Cuban Missile Crisis--the NSA's site devoted to the missile crisis.
bullet Cold War International History Project--A somewhat hit-and-miss resource. Less valuable for US documents; has been quite active trying to get former Eastern bloc documents on-line.
bullet CNN Cold War--the web site complement to the CNN special, containing videos, interactive maps, and some documents.
bullet Brigham Vietnam site--A prize-winning site put together by students of Vassar professor Bob Brigham, who himself has done path-breaking work on the NLF. This PBS site and this internet-only site are also useful on the war, as is this somewhat quirky site on Laos.
bullet Nixon-Zhou talks--For those interested in the opening to China, start here.
bullet PBS Gulf War site--The on-line version of a "Frontline" series on the Gulf War.
bullet Loyola Strategic Intelligence--perhaps the best clearing house center for intelligence-related documents on the web.
bullet Muskingum University Strategic Intelligence--also has its share of documents, along with a first-rate annotated bibliography on a wide range of intelligence issues.
bullet Cryptome--remarkable site containing up-to-the-minute releases of intelligence documents and links
bullet assessing the Soviet threat--documents
bullet CIA in Iran--site compiled by the New York Times
bullet US and the 1973 coup in Chile, declassified documents
bullet CIA official site--documents--material released via the Freedom of Information Act
bullet National Security Agency documents--material released via the Freedom of Information Act
bullet The Bay of Pigs, 40 Years Later

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