Research Guides: POL 300: Socialism: Primary Sources

US Government Primary Sources

Proquest Congressional
Provides indexing and full text of the Congressional Record (floor debates), committee hearings, US Serial Set, CRS Reports, legislative histories and more. Coverage: 1789-present.
Proquest Executive Branch Documents
ProQuest Executive Branch Documents contains documents produced by Federal government departments, agencies, and commissions, spanning the years from our nation's founding through the mid-20th century. These documents touch upon all aspects of U.S. social, political, and economic life, as well as major events in U.S. history, and provide points of comparison between the U.S, and selected foreign countries.
FBI Records: The Vault
Contains declassified FBI records of surveillance activities. Including many organizations and figures active in US social movements.
National Archives
Search by topic, group, person to see if they have primary sources of interest.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Thousands of digital records grouped into online collections that span US history.

Primary Sources on Socialism

Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) This link opens in a new window
This collection of records reproduces the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders. It also covers organizations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM and persons that had close ties to RAM. Source Library: Personal Collection of Dr. Muhammad Ahmad. Coverage: 1962-1999
China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window
With documents encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, this resource collects sources from nine archives to give insight into the changes in China during this period. Coverage: 1793-1980
Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s This link opens in a new window
This collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, cultural, and economic issues. It sheds light on internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society. Organized alphabetically by organization. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation Library. Coverage: 1956-1971
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Between the 1920s & 1980s, the Justice Department and the FBI engaged in widespread investigation of those deemed politically suspect. This collection includes source materials for the major social movements and key figures in early twentieth century black history, and provides a window into the development of America’s first systematic domestic surveillance apparatus. Source Library: Federal Bureau of Investigation Library. Coverage: 1920-1984
Fight for Racial Justice and the Civil Rights Congress This link opens in a new window
The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was formed in 1946 by a merger of three groups with ties to the Communist Party: the International Labor Defense, the National Negro Congress, and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. The records in this collection represent the files of the national office of the CRC, including case files, publications, correspondence, etc. Coverage: 1946-1955
Greensboro Massacre, 1979: Shootout between the American Nazis and the Communist Workers Party This link opens in a new window
On November 3, 1979, a rally of black industrial workers and Communists was planned in Greensboro, North Carolina, against the Ku Klux Klan. During the rally, a caravan of Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the area where the anti-Klan activists were congregating. The confrontation led to gunfire and the deaths of five protest marchers. This collection of documents from the FBI, local and state police, and other law enforcement agencies sheds new light on the motivations of the Communist organizers, the shootings, subsequent investigations, and efforts to heal the Greensboro community. Coverage: 1979-1981
Popular Culture in Britain and America This link opens in a new window
From the collections of original archival material from key libraries in Britain and America, discover the 1950's to the 1970's through a wealth of printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips. Coverage: 1950-1975
Roper Center Public Opinion Archives This link opens in a new window
One of the world's leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion. Covers opinions on social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, and more. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. Coverage: 1935-present
Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Communist Party: Papers of James and Esther Cooper Jackson This link opens in a new window
Contains clippings, correspondence, James Jackson's lectures, research notebooks, speeches, and writings (published and unpublished), internal documents pertaining to the Southern Negro Youth Congress and to Freedomways, materials pertaining to the Smith Act indictments of Jackson and other communists, Communist Party internal documents, and memorabilia and other biographical materials. Source Library: Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. Coverage: 1932-2000
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600 to 2000 This link opens in a new window
Includes primary documents, books, images, scholarly essays, book reviews, Web site reviews, and teaching tools, all documenting the multiplicity of women’s activism in public life. Also includes a searchable online edition of the highly respected research tool "Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary" (5 volumes, 1971–2004), fully integrated into the broader Women & Social Movements database.

Fabian Society Tracts
The Fabian Society (British Socialist organization) started publishing tracts in 1884, and included in this site are most tracts up to 2000. Many of the early tracts were written by LSE founders George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb
Kheel Center for Labor Management
The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives was founded in 1949 as the Labor-Management Documentation Center. Its continuing purpose is the preservation of original source materials relevant to the history of American labor unions, management theory as it applies to labor and industrial relations, and the history of employees at the workplace.
Independent Voices
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Marxist Internet Archive
MIA contains the writings of close to 1000 authors representing a complete spectrum of political, philosophical, and scientific thought, generally spanning the past 200 years. MIA contains these writings in 83 different languages, comprising a total size of over 180,000 documents, all created through the work of volunteers around the world.
Marxist Internet Archive - Periodicals
Archived journals, magazines and newspapers.
Social Welfare History Archives
The Archives' mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to historical records on social services and social reform in the United States. The Social Welfare History Archives was founded in 1964 through the work of University of Minnesota historian, Clarke Chambers. During his research on social service organizations, he discovered that many still had historical records. He recognized the research potential of these collections and established the Archives to document the history of social service and social reform in the United States.

Rosalind Tedford

She/Her

Email Me

Contact:

ZSR Library
Room 457A

Subjects: American History, English Literature, Law, Political Science

POL 300: Socialism: Primary Sources

More from ZSR

US Government Primary Sources

Primary Sources on Socialism

Rosalind Tedford