Purpose
Purpose What is the purpose of OriginalSources.com? For
whom is this library intended?
The use of primary sources
exposes students to important historical concepts. First, students become aware
that all written history reflects an author’s interpretation of past events.
Therefore, as students read a historical account, they can recognize its
subjective nature. Second, through primary sources the students directly touch
the lives of people in the past. Further, as students use primary sources, they
develop important analytical skills. From Teaching with Documents, Volume 1.
National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the
Social Studies, 1989 (Part of OriginalSources.com: United States History/
Learning Aids) Scope and arrangement OriginalSources.comis organized so
that the user can find information quickly and efficiently.
This ease of use is achieved through a search feature that enables users to
locate information in all text, an intuitive and easy-to-use browse feature,
and a carefully designed document screen. Thus, OriginalSources.com provides the user with both an extensive
database of original books and source documents, and a quick way of navigating
to information relevant to the user’s needs. A. Expert choice of content OriginalSources.com focuses on the accomplishments of the greatest
minds throughout history. The content was selected as leading examples of original thought or
original source documents in each of the collection areas. The selection, made by
the staff of Western Standard Publishing Company, used a wide variety of
reference and bibliographic sources. OriginalSources.com is in the spirit of such classic compilations as
Oliver Thatcher's Library of Original
Sources; Louis L. Snyder and Richard B. Morris's They Saw It Happen: Eyewitness Reports of Great Events; the
McGraw-Hill and Harvard University Press Source
Books in the History of the Sciences; Rossiter Johnson's Great Events as Told by Famous Historians,
and William Jennings Bryan's World's
Greatest Orations. In selecting content for OriginalSources.com,
editors consulted anthologies and bibliographies such as the W.W. Norton
anthologies, The Reader's Companion to
World Literature, McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia
of Science and Technology, the Loeb
Classics, the Harvard Classics,
the Modern Library, the Library of America, and Great Books of the Western World.
General reference works, including almanacs, bibliographies, encyclopedias, and
biographical indices, were also consulted. In compiling OriginalSources.com, a balanced view was
sought by consulting collections by scholars of social history, women's
studies, and ethnic/minority studies. This is to offset a bias introduced by
editors of earlier generations of such compilations that emphasized political
and military histories. B. Content format All
text is presented in a common, easy-to-read format. Users can change the type
size through their browser to suit individual visual needs. Major books or
works are broken down into documents corresponding to chapters or sections, for
ease of reference and to provide quick downloading. Users can quickly move
section by section through such content whether reviewing or reading the whole
text. To the
left of each document is a citation panel that gives information on the work,
the document, the author and/or translator, and the year of first publication.
Additional information in the panel includes the source used for collecting the
work or stand-alone document for the OriginalSources.com library. Also, in the case of
some stand-alone documents, a summary of the document is given. C. Search An integrated search facility is available in every
part of OriginalSources.com. The
navigation bar offers a quick search facility for the whole collection
available to the user. A word or phrase can be searched in titles, authors,
dates, or full text, or in any combination of these elements. A full search function gives additional search
functionality, such as being able to narrow down a search to an individual
collection or collections. Six types of search can be performed: Having these words
in the title; written by this author; written on this date; containing all of
these words; containing any of these words; having these words in the title.
Further search options enable these types of search to be combined with the
operators ‘and’; ‘or’; and ‘but not’. D. Browse The browse function works on a knowledge-tree
structure, through which users can branch into individual collections, types of
content, sources or authors, documents or works, and chapters or sections. E. Copying and
printing Any of the text can be highlighted and copied using
the copy function in the browser, or the keyboard short cut for copying.
Quotations or extracts copied in this way can be pasted into a word processor
document. OriginalSources.com has a print facility available within each document.
Users can print out the document, which is headed by the work, document,
author, and other information shown in the citation panel to the left of the
document text. Selection and treatment of content A. Documents These are the basic units
into which text is divided. Many are actual legal and official documents such
as Magna Carta, or the Rights of Man and
Citizen. Others are individual speeches, essays, letters, short stories or
similar items which were originally published individually. Some documents are subdivisions of large
books or works. These may be chapters, sections, or ‘books’ within a volume.
Where a document has been reproduced from a printed book for OriginalSources.com, the start of each
page is noted in the text, so that references to the book pagination may be
made. Publication details of each document are listed at the head of the
document. B.
Original works These are writings or records of speeches by great
thinkers throughout the ages. They vary in nature from the Gettysburg address
to Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. Collections
such as Literature and Language consist mainly of works that were originally
published as complete books. All are broken down into documents for ease of
reading and reference. C.
Illustrations OriginalSources.com includes more than
3,700 illustrations. Many are portraits of great thinkers and writers. Others
include contemporary depictions of major events, such as Admiral Nelson on
board the Victory at the Battle of
Trafalgar, and diagrams in a scientific work. OriginalSources.com contentEach of the eight collections in the OriginalSources.com library contains
original or primary source material organized according to the nature of the
content. The browse feature is structured as a knowledge tree, and enables
quick review of the organization of the material in the collections. Each section
below gives a brief overview of one of the collections, together with a brief
list of content highlights, and a few typical quotations. The main section of this collection contains primary source documents in the history of the world,
including eyewitness accounts, original and official documents, treaties, and
speeches. The documents are grouped into periods chosen to conform to the McREL
standard historical periods. The rich collection of primary source material
includes Herodotus' account of Egypt; Magna Carta; John Knox on ‘The English
Revolution’; the Rights of Man and Citizen; Benjamin Franklin on ‘Those who
would remove to America’; and the Zimmermann Telegram. The section is
supplemented by later great historians’ accounts of some of the major events
and topics. A second section contains whole
works of classic historians, including Homer, Herodotus, Thucidydes, Plutarch,
Cornelius Tacitus, and William Hickling Prescott. A third section, Military
History, gives accounts of battles and wars and military theory including Hsun
Tzu on the art of war; the Battle of Marathon; Judas Maccabaeus liberating
Judea; the Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain; Mahomet II taking Constantinople;
Jeanne D’Arc’s Victory at Orleans; and Defeat of the Spanish Armada. 1.
Major writers and examples of works Baker, Samuel White, Sir: In the Heart of Africa; Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de: Memoirs of Napoleon (16 volumes) Burke, Edmund: Selections
From the Speeches And Writings of Edmund Burke Campan, Jeanne Louise Henriette (Genet): Marie Antoinette (7 volumes) Carlyle, Thomas: French
Revolution, The; History of Friedrich II of Prussia Casanova, Giacomo: Memoirs
of Casanova Davis, Richard Harding: Real Soldiers of Fortune; Notes of A War Correspondent Edwards, Owen Morgan, Sir: Short History of Wales Gibbon, Edward: History
of the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire Giles, Herbert Allen: China and the Manchus; Historic China and other sketches Gordon, Irwin Leslie: Who Was Who: 5000 BC – 1914 Haaren, John H.: Haaren,
John H. Josephus, Flavius: Life
of Flavius Josephus, The; Wars of the Jews, The Lang, Andrew: Voices
of Jeanne D'Arc, The Livingstone, David: Missionary Travels And Researches In South Africa Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron: History of England Machiavelli, Niccolò: History of Florence And of the Affairs of Italy Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry IV, King of
France: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret): Jeanne D'Arc: her life and death Pepys, Samuel: Diary
of Samuel Pepys, The Philip, King
of Macedon Pinkerton, John: Early
Australian Voyages: Pelsart, Tasman, Dampier Prescott, William Hickling: The history of the Conquest of Mexico Readings in
English History Drawn from the Original Sources Retz, Jean François Paul de Gondi de: Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz Strachey, Lytton: Eminent
Victorians; Queen Victoria Taine, Hippolyte: The
Ancient Regime; The French Revolution; The Modern Regime 2.
Some stand-alone documents “Ancient Laws of Babylon” “Assyrian Inscriptions” “The Rosetta Stone” “Egyptian Contract of Marriage” “Spartan Institutions” “Rome at the End of the Punic Wars” “Medieval Universities” “Magna Carta” “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen” “The Zimmerman Telegram” “President Kennedy’s Remarks at the Berlin Wall” 3.
Selected quotations If a wife is unfaithful to her
husband and then says, "Thou art not my husband," let her be thrown
into the river... If a husband says to his wife, "Thou art not my
wife," he shall pay a fine of half a maneh of silver. Ancient Babylonian laws. I am entering on the history of
a period rich in disasters, frightful in its wars, torn by civil strife, and
even in peace full of horrors. Four emperors perished by the sword. There were
three civil wars... Cornelius
Tacitus: Histories, Book I, A.D. 96. ...those, who were called
Christians by the mob and hated for their moral enormities... a great multitude
were convicted... of hatred of the human race. Tacitus, writing in 64 A.D.
about the persecution of Christians. We have also granted to all the
Freemen of our Kingdom, for us and our heirs for ever, all the underwritten
Liberties, to be enjoyed and held by them and by their heirs, from us and from
our heirs. Magna Carta. That the earth is also spherical
is therefore beyond question... That the water also has the same form can be
observed from the ships, in that the land which cannot be seen from the deck,
is visible from the mast-tree. And conversely if a light be placed at the
masthead it seems to those who remain on the shores gradually to sink and at
last still sinking to disappear. Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, 1543. The narrative of the trip as
told by the Genoese pilot is given below. It shows that Magellan was a man of
indomitable will, who persevered in his expedition in spite of shipwreck, storm
and mutiny. ‘Magellan’s Voyage Round the World.‘ We have considered and
determined the military plans of the three Allied powers for the final defeat
of the common enemy... Nazi Germany is doomed. The German people will only make
the cost of their defeat heavier to themselves by attempting to continue a
hopeless resistance. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin Joint Declaration,
Yalta, 1945. B.
United States History This collection documents the history of the United
States from the voyages of the Vikings and Columbus through colonial days and
up to the present. The main section of this collection contains primary
source documents in the history of the United
States, including eyewitness accounts, original and official documents,
treaties, and speeches. Examples of these documents are the Mayflower
Compact, Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence,
eyewitness accounts of Civil War battles, Thomas A. Watson on making the first
telephone for Alexander Graham Bell, the Resolution on Annexation of the
Hawaiian Islands, and the Miranda v. Arizona judgment. A second section contains the whole of A Dictionary of American History by
Thomas L. Purvis. It has more than 3,000 entries giving introductory coverage
of all the key topics in the history of the United States. The third section contains such classic works of
American history as History of the
American People by Woodrow Wilson,
de Tocqueville’s Democracy in
America, History of the United States
by H.H. Bancroft, and works and essays by such writers as Hector de Crevecoeur,
Frederick Douglass, and Mercy Warren. The final section, Learning Aids, contains much
material on the study of Americana from the Library of Congress and the
National Archives. This material, of particular value to teachers, includes
Milestone Documents in the National Archives, two volumes of Teaching with Documents, and A Guide to the Study of the United States of
America. 1.
Major writers and examples of works Adams,
Samuel: Writings of Samuel Adams Brown,
William Wells: Clotel; or, The
President's Daughter Colton,
Walter: The Discovery of Gold in
California. Douglass,
Frederick: My Bondage and My Freedom;
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Ellis,
Edward Sylvester: Thomas Jefferson, A
Character Sketch Grant,
Ulysses S.: Personal Memoirs Henry,
Patrick: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
Judson,
Katharine Berry: Myths and Legends of
California and the Old Southwest Lincoln,
Abraham: Writings of Abraham Lincoln (7
volumes) McLaughlin,
Marie L.: Myths and Legends of the Sioux Paine,
Thomas: Common Sense Purvis,
Thomas L.: Dictionary of American History Roosevelt,
Theodore: An Autobiography Rowlandson,
Mary: Story of Her Captivity, Sufferings,
and Restoration Sewall,
Samuel: “An Early Anti-Slavery Tract” Smith, John: “The Romance of Pocahontas” and other
essays Stephenson, Nathaniel W.: Abraham Lincoln and the Union; The Day of the Confederacy Truth, Sojourner: The
Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Warner, Charles Dudley: Captain John Smith; Up the Wilderness; The Story of Pocahontas Warren, Mercy: John
Adams’ Monarchical Ideas; The Death of Parson Caldwell’s Wife; Woman’s Trifling
Needs Washington, Booker T.: Up From Slavery: An Autobiography 2.
Some stand-alone documents and collections Articles of Confederation “Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Union” Bradford, William: “The Voyage of the Mayflower” Clay, Henry: “The Clay Compromise” Correspondence
of the American Revolution (4 volumes) “Daniel Boone Migrates to Kentucky” Fox Bourne, H.R.: “John Locke and the Fundamental
Constitutions of Carolina” Francis Drake: “Drake in California” “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” King, Martin Luther, Jr.: “I Have a Dream” Inaugural Addresses of the U.S. Presidents Jefferson’s Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence, including amendments Lincoln, Abraham: “Gettysburg Address” Papal Bull Dividing the New World San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Treaty With Spain, 1819 3.
Selected quotations I write this to tell you how in
thirty-three days I sailed to the Indies with the fleet that the illustrious
King and Queen, our Sovereigns, gave me... Letter of Columbus to Luis de
Sant Angel announcing his discovery. Their men for the most part go
naked; the women take a kind of bulrushes, and combing it after the manner of
hemp, make themselves thereof a loose garment... Francis Drake describing
the people of California. Nor have we been wanting in
attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of
attempts by their legislature to extend Friends and Fellow Citizens:—I
stand before you to-night under indictment for the alleged crime of having
voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote.
Susan B. Anthony ‘Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage’. If we survey the situation of
our Nation both at home and abroad, we find many satisfactions; we find some
causes for concern... The larger purpose of our economic thought should be to
establish more firmly stability and security of business and employment and
thereby remove poverty still further from our borders. Herbert Hoover’s Inaugural Address, March
4, 1929. C.
Political Science & Law There are four main sections in this collection:
General, Comparative Government, Political Theory and Philosophy, and American
Government and Politics. Smaller sections cover Constitution Law and The general section covers the evolution of
politics, government, and law in original works and documents such as The Code
of Hammurabi; The Supremacy of Parliament; the Habeus Corpus Act of 1679; and
the Bill of Rights of 1689. The section on comparative government includes
works by Edmund Burke, Karl Marx, and Michel Eyquem de Montaigne. Political Theory and Philosophy is a large section
containing great works from throughout history. Plato’s book The Republic is the oldest, and later
works include Nicolo Machiavelli’s The
Prince; letters and autobiographical extracts from Thomas Jefferson’s writing; Frederic Bastiat’s books That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not
Seen, and The Law; and John
Stuart Mill’s books including On Liberty and Representative Government. American Government and Politics is a huge section,
with subsections on U.S. Presidents, U.S. Congress, U.S. Supreme Court,
Founding Fathers, Constitution Reference, and National Party Platforms
1840-2000. All of the inaugural addresses, messages, and papers of all
presidents from Washington to Clinton are included. From 1994 onwards, there is
a weekly compilation of presidential papers.
The other subsections have similarly wide coverage, making American
Government and Politics an unparalleled, comprehensive online collection. 1.
Major writers and examples of works Bastiat, Frederic: That
Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen Brownson, Orestes Augustus: American Republic, The: Constitution, Tendencies and Destiny Burke, Edmund: Reflections
on the Revolution in France Directory of
U.S. Senators by State Hamilton, Alexander: The Federalist Papers Historical
Almanack of the U.S. Senate History of
the United States Senate Holmes, Oliver Wendell: The Common Law; The Path of the Law Hobbes, Thomas: Leviathan Jefferson, Thomas: Declaration
of Independence; Hamilton and Adams; Correspondence, essays, presidential
papers. Locke, John: Human
Understanding; Civil Government Machiavelli, Nicolo: The Prince Marx, Karl: Communist Manifesto Mill, John Stuart: On
Liberty; Representative Government; Utilitarianism De Montaigne,
Michel Eyquem: Essays Plato: Republic Rousseau, Jean-Jacques: The Social Contract; Confessions; Discourse on the Origins of
Inequality Tocqueville, Alexis de: Democracy in America (2 volumes) 2.
Stand-alone documents and collections Constitutional Reference: Documents relating to the
U.S. Constitution European Union: “Treaty of the European Union” Founding Fathers: documents by or about the leaders of
the American Revolution “Habeus Corpus
Act” “Japan, Constitution of, 1886” “Japan, Constitution of, 1946” National Party Platforms 1840-2000 “Supremacy of
Parliament” “United States Bill of Rights” United States Congress: documents on history and
workings of the senate “United States Constitution” “United States Declaration of Independence” United States Presidents: Inaugural Addresses;
messages, papers, and documents of all the presidents United States Supreme Court: 16,000 important cases
from 1793 to 2001 3.
Selected quotations If a builder has built a house
for a man and has not made strong his work, and the house he built has fallen,
and he has caused the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be
put to death. Code of Hammurabi.
For by art is created that great
LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH, or STATE (in Latin, CIVITAS), which is but an
artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for
whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which the sovereignty is
an artificial soul... Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan ALL STATES, all powers, that
have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or
principalities... Such dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live
under a prince, or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of
the prince himself, or of others, or else by fortune or by ability. Nicolo
Machiavelli: The Prince. Have you ever chanced to hear it
said "There is no better investment than taxes. Only see what a number of
families it maintains, and consider how it reacts on industry; it is an
inexhaustible stream, it is life itself. In order to combat this doctrine...” Frederic
Bastiat: That Which Is Seen, and That
Which Is Not Seen. By some minds, government is
conceived as strictly a practical art, giving rise to no questions but those of
means and an end. John Stuart Mill: Representative
Government. If taxes are laid upon us in any shape, without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? Samuel Adams: “the Boston instructions”. And so, my fellow Americans: ask
not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My
fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what
together we can do for the freedom of man. John F. Kennedy: Inaugural
address. D.
Social Sciences The main sections in this collection come under the
headings of Anthropology; Economics; Psychology; Sociology; Family, Marriage,
Sex, and Gender; and Vital Statistics. The content of the Anthropology section ranges from
paleontological writing such as that of Thomas Huxley and Emory Adams Allen, to
anthropological works by George Borrow on the people and language of Wales;
Ellsworth Huntington on aboriginal Americans; and the writing of William I.
Thomas; Alfred L. Kroeber; and T.T. Waterman. The Economics section covers the great works of
pioneers of economics thinking such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith, as well as essays and extracts from such
important writers in economics as John Locke, Thomas Robert Malthus, Thomas
Mun, Francois Quesnay, and David Ricardo. In addition to the inevitable and essential
selection of Sigmund Freud’s writing, the diverse writers in the psychology
section include Charles Darwin on emotions in animals and humans; Harry Houdini
on the psychological tricks of spiritualists; Gustave Le Bon on the psychology
of revolution; Abraham Myerson on the foundations of personality; and Walter
Dill Scott on Business Psychology. Sociology is a section ranging through works such as
Thorstein Veblen on theory of the leisure class; Gustave Le Bon on the
sociology of the crowd; and Jane Addams, William Booth, Thomas Carlyle, William
Greenwood, and Leo Tolstoy on social conditions and problems. The Family, Marriage, Sex, and Gender section
includes classics such as Susan B. Anthony’s “Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage”;
Eliza Burt Gamble’s God-Idea of the
Ancients—or Sex in Religion; three works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; and
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman. 1.
Major writers and examples of works A Young Girl’s Diary Addams, Jane: Twenty Years At Hull House; with
autobiographical notes Allen, Emory Adams: Prehistoric World, The: or, Vanished races Borrow, George
Henry: Wild Wales: Its People, Language
and Scenery Booth, William: In Darkest England and the Way Out Carlyle, Thomas: Latter-Day Pamphlets Chesterton, G. K.
(Gilbert Keith): Utopia of Usurers, and
other essays; What's Wrong with the World Dumas, Alexandre: Celebrated Crimes – Complete; The Borgias Ferri, Enrico: Criminal Sociology Gamble, Eliza Burt: God-Idea of the Ancients—or Sex in Religion Gilman, Charlotte
Perkins: Forerunner; Herland Goldman, Emma: Anarchism and Other Essays Gross, Hans Gustav
Adolf: Criminal Psychology; a manual for
judges, practitioners, and students Guthrie, William: Second Shetland Truck System Report Harrington, James: Commonwealth of Oceana, The Hose, Charles: Pagan Tribes of Borneo, The Hulbert, Archer
Butler: Paths of Inland Commerce, The Huxley, Thomas
Henry: Geological Contemporaneity and
Persistent Types of Life Huntington,
Ellsworth: Red Man's Continent, The: A
Chronicle of Aboriginal America Irving, Henry
Brodribb: Book of Remarkable Criminals, A Keller, Helen: Story of My Life London, Jack: War of the Classes Kingsley, Charles: Sanitary and Social Lectures, etc Kroeber, Alfred L.,
and Waterman, T. T.: Source Book in
Anthropology Mandeville, John,
Sir: Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The More, Sir Thomas,
Saint: Utopia Morris, William: Signs of Change; News from Nowhere, or, An
Epoch of Rest Nadaillac,
Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, Marquis de: Manners
and Monuments of Prehistoric
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