A practical guide to using government documents—census records, congressional reports, hearings, and more—as primary sources. Learn how to interpret these records, avoid common pitfalls, and find them in depository libraries and digital archives.
Explore how the telegraph-driven, partisan newspapers of the 1860s shaped public understanding of the Civil War, from the first shots at Fort Sumter to the final surrender, and how they both informed and misled a nation hungry for news.
Drawing on letters, newspaper reports, and personal diaries, this article reconstructs how the 1918 influenza pandemic was experienced and understood by those who lived through it, revealing the fear, confusion, and resilience of the era.
Drawing on 1978 newspaper coverage, eyewitness memoirs, and biographical accounts from the era, this article reconstructs how Ayatollah Khomeini rose from a quiet religious scholar to the leader of Iran’s revolution, as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it.
Drawing on declassified White House records, CIA documents, and contemporary press reports, this article reconstructs the U.S. economic blockade and covert campaign against Salvador Allende’s Chile, revealing how Nixon ordered the CIA to ‘make the economy scream’ and how the world saw the unfolding crisis.
In the summer of 1888, 1,400 women and girls at Bryant & May’s match factory in London’s East End walked out, sparking a movement that reshaped women’s labour rights and inspired the formation of the Matchmakers’ Union.
Drawing on contemporary press accounts, eyewitness reports, and the Chicago Daily News photo archives, this article reconstructs how local newspapers covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention—the protests, the police response, and the city’s descent into chaos—and what readers knew at the time.
A primary-source reconstruction of the June 22, 1969 fire that burned Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, showing how contemporaries reported, exaggerated, and ultimately transformed a local incident into a national symbol of environmental neglect.
In 1948, a young American pilot named Gail Halvorsen began dropping candy parachutes to the children of blockaded West Berlin. His unauthorized gesture grew into Operation Little Vittles, which dropped 23 tons of sweets and won hearts on both sides of the Cold War.
Explore the American Civil War through the intimate, real-time accounts of soldiers and civilians who recorded their experiences in letters and diaries. This article draws on the vast collections of primary sources—100,000 pages from 2,000 authors—to reveal the war’s human dimension.