Primary Sources: Books and eBooks

In-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents and historic events that shaped civil rights struggles in American history. Studies more than forty primary source documents. Provides detailed, thought-provoking analysis of: Controversies and actions at the Dawn of the Civil Rights Movement; Legal Challenges to Segregation; The Civil Rights Act and Its Consequences; Organizations and Leaders in the Movement; Gay Rights, Criminal Justice, and the Movement for Social Justice

Drawing on diaries and letters of both the famous and ordinary, this book presents a collection of personal narratives on the Civil War, from the early failures of Union commanders to the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theater. For four years American families on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line were forced to endure the violence and hardship of the Civil War.

Drawing from narratives of former slaves collected as part of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Presents first-hand testimony in the former slaves' own words about their lives before, during, and following the Civil War

these works fuse memory, advocacy, and defiance into a searing collective portrait of American life before emancipation. Slave Narratives contains a chronology of events in the history of slavery, as well as biographical and explanatory notes and an essay on the texts

In 1872, just seven years after his emancipation, a thirty-four year old former slave named John Washington penned the story of his life, calling it "Memories of the Past." One hundred and twenty years later, in the early 1990s, historian Crandall Shifflett stumbled upon Washington's forgotten manuscript at the Library of Congress while researching Civil War Fredericksburg.

One of several titles in the 'Bedford Series in History and Culture'. Click on Series in the catalog record to see other titles in the Series.

One of several titles in the 'Bedford Series in History and Culture'.

A great collection of documents.

Presents a collection of source materials relating to anti-homosexual policies under the Nazi regime in Germany during the period 1933-1945.

Focus on leading social issues of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Each title contains approximately 175 full or excerpted documents---speeches, legislation, magazine and newspaper articles, essays, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, songs, and works of art---as well as overview information that places each document in context.

explores why and how personal narratives should be used as evidence, and the methods and pitfalls of their use. The authors stress the importance of recognizing that stories that people tell about their lives are never simply individual. Rather, they are told in historically specific times and settings and call on rules, models, and social experiences that govern how story elements link together in the process of self-narration.

Personal narratives of slaves and slave owners sheds light on the anxieties and intimacies of personal experience. The framework of racial identity constructed through these stories proves instrumental in explaining how countries later confronted—or not—the legacy of the slave trade.