HIST 5850 - Seminar American Revolution (Samuelson): Primary Sources
Pointers to Primary Sources
The American Republic: primary sources by
The American Republic provides in a single volume, critical, original documents revealing the character of American discourse on the nature and importance of local government, the purposes of federal union, and the role of religion and tradition in forming America's drive for liberty. By bringing together key original documents and other writings that explain cultural, religious, and historical concerns, this volume gives students, teachers, and general readers an effective way to begin examining the diversity of issues and influences that characterize American history.
ISBN: 1614877971Publication Date: 2002-09-09
The American Revolution by
While the American Revolution officially began in Lexington, Massachusetts, in April 1775, the seeds of rebellion had been sown for decades. The struggle for representation in the British Parliament left many colonists eager to seek out independence. After ""the shot heard 'round the world,"" loyalty to Great Britain was seen as treachery. As political philosophers such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson laid the foundation for a future government, George Washington led the charge against British forces in war. The American Revolution not only granted independence to the colonies but led to a patriotic national identity as well. ""The American Revolution, Updated Edition"" provides hundreds of first-hand accounts of the period that illustrate how historical events appeared to those who lived through them. Eyewitness testimonies include George Washington, John Dickinson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, as well as junior officers, soldiers, and noncombatants. In addition, each chapter contains a narrative section and a chronology of events. In this updated edition, author David F. Burg has also added details about the important role of American Indians, African Americans, Jews, and women during the American Revolution. Other features include appendixes that provide concise biographies of 101 influential individuals such as Abigail Adams, Nathan Hale, and George Washington, among others; primary documents - either full text or excerpts - among them the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, and the Declaration of Independence; maps of important battles of the American Revolution; 103 black-and-white photographs; notes; a thorough bibliography; and an index.
Call Number: Pfau Library 3rd Floor E275.A2 B87 2007 OVERSIZEISBN: 9780816064823Publication Date: 2007-03-30
Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791: documents and essays by
This text delves into the many facets of the colonial uprising and its aftermath, concluding with the ratification of the Bill of Rights. The volume combines primary sources, analytical essays, chapter introductions, and headnotes to encourage students to think critically about the revolutionary era.
Call Number: Pfau Library 3rd Floor E208 .M335 2000ISBN: 9780395903445Publication Date: 1999-11-16
The People's War : original voices of the American Revolution by
This is the story of one of history's great events, the Revolutionary War, told almost entirely in the words of the soldiers and sailors who fought it and the civilians who endured it. Drawing on thousands of original sources---diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers, pension applications---the author has culled the most colorful and vivid passages and then woven them into a vibrant, eye-witness narrative that takes the reader from the peaceful days before the Stamp Act, through all the major events of the war, and ends with farewell accounts of what happened in later life to the people we have come to know along the way. Some of these, like Franklin, Washington, Adams and George III, are familiar figures, but most were ordinary people, little known to history, but here briefly emerging from obscurity to tell of what they did in those exciting and important times: a farm boy who ran away to sea at the age of twelve, a New England shoemaker who kept volunteering for further service to the dismay of his wife who wanted him home, a professor of divinity at Yale who took up his musket when the British raided New Haven, a pretty young widow who was roughed up when her plantation was raided by Tory ruffians and a cross-eyed termagant who gunned two such villains when they invaded her log-cabin, a German student of poetry dragooned into a Hessian regiment, a Quaker housewife trying to hold things together in British-occupied Philadelphia, an Indian warrior who seems to have relished his part in the Cherry Valley Massacre, a slave who escaped to the British after witnessing his mother being flogged, an aristocratic French officer enamored with the cause of liberty, a genial Englishman shocked at the baseness of the rebels---these are but a few of the people whose collective voices, drawn from all sides of the conflict, bring the Revolution to life in a way that is as unique as it is entertaining. It is also history at its most authoritative, for who better qualified to tell what happened than the people who were there?
Call Number: Pfau Library 3rd Floor E208 .R14 2012ISBN: 9780762770700Publication Date: 2011-10-18
The Revolutionary Era: primary documents on events from 1776 to 1800 by
From 1776 to 1800, the United States ceased to be a fantastic dream and became a stable reality. Newspapers were increasingly the public's major source of information about people and events outside of their community. The press reflected the issues of the day. Its foremost concern was naturally the armed struggle with Britain. The press covered the conflict, providing both patriot and loyalist interpretations of the battles and personalities. Yet after the British withdrew, a host of new challenges confronted the United States, including the Articles of Confederation, Shay's Rebellion, the Bill of the Rights, the Whiskey Rebellion, slavery, women's roles, the French Revolution, the XYZ Affair, the Sedition Act, and more. Again, the press not only purveyed the facts. It became a political tool trumpeting the viewpoint of Republicans and Federalists, ushering in a new era of American journalism. Beginning with an extensive overview essay of the period, this book focuses on 26 pressing issues of the war and the early republic. Each issue is presented with an introductory essay and multiple primary documents from the newspapers of the day, which illustrate both sides of the debate. This is a perfect resource for students interested in the Revolutionary War, the birth of the new nation, and the actual opinions and words of those involved.
ISBN: 0313017050Publication Date: 2003-12-30
Search Tips
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new windowA good strategy for finding references to primary sources is to add the phrase "primary sources" to your keyword search, limited to the Abstract. The abstract field provides a brief summary of what the article is about and is often the place where editors will indicate that the article relied heavily on primary source material. It may not always work, but it can be a helpful way to focus your searches.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowWhen searching the library catalog, you can make use of many Library of Congress subdivisions within the subject headings to narrow the focus of your search to primary source materials. Add these to your search by using the Advanced Search mode. Enter the subdivision word or phrase, then limit the field to Subject.
Some examples of useful subdivisions include:
- Sources
- Personal narratives
- Correspondence
- Biography
- Interviews
- Diaries
- Early Works to 1800
- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
- Speeches
- Manuscripts
- Pamphlets
Useful Sites
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsSearch for online digital collections of primary materials.
- ArchiveGridArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records that describe primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies across the world.