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Primary Sources: World History

Page history last edited by Robert W. Maloy 1 month, 2 weeks ago

17th century Chinese illustration of a crank-operated rotary winnowing fan machine,

separating husks from the grain published in 1637

external image Winnowing_machine.jpg Primary Source Resources

Internet History Sourcebooks Project from Fordham University.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Women in World History, from World History Matters from George Mason University.

World History I Suggested Sources, Honolulu Community College

PRIMARY SOURCE	DATE	SIGNIFICANCE
The Iliad & The Odyssey	800 BCE	Greek epics by Homer about Archilles and Odysseus and the Trojan War. CROSS-LINK: The Iliad and The Odyssey
History of the Peloponnesian War	431 BCE.	Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War, in which Athens and Sparta fought for control of Ancient Greece. CROSS-LINK: Peloponnesian Wars
The Republic	380 BCE	Plato wrote this Socratic dialogue to address issues of political philosophy, justice and ethics, and framed his ideas around the concept of a utopia.
Politics	350 BCE	Aristotle's vision for the role politics can play in creating a virtuous community.
Speech at the Council of Clermont	1095	Pope Urban II ordered the First Crusade.
The Prince	1513	Machiavelli's famous statement about rulers and politics. CROSS-LINK: The Prince
The Areopagitica	1644	John Milton's appeal to prevent government censoring of writers written during the English Civil War presented a powerful defense of a right of free speech.
Second Treatise of Civil Government	1690	John Locke's vision of government based on natural rights and contract theory where the people have sovereignty.
The Spirit of the Laws	1748	Charles de Montesquieu explains his theory of separation of powers and checks and balances. Government is not permanent and should depend on the people it governs and their wishes.
Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality	1755	Jean-Jacques Rousseau argues that inequality in men is unnatural and has developed along with modern society. Private property is a source of inequality.
On Election to Parliament Speech	1766	Edmund Burke's speech argues against unrestrained royal power and for political parties in maintaining opposition to potential abuses by rulers.
The Wealth of Nations	1776	Adam Smith's classic statement about free market capitalism and the concept of an "invisible hand" regulating the marketplace.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen	1789	Inspired by the Enlightenment, the National Assembly of France wrote this as a first step to a French Constitution.
The Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen	1791	Olympe' de Gouges writes about the failure of the French Revolution that had been based on gender equality, but resulted in no change in conditions and status of women. CROSS-LINK: Olympe de Gouges Historical Biography page
Louis XVI Justification of the Flight to Varennes	1791	Louis XVI (Capet) fled Paris during the French Revolution to in Varennes where he and his court were captured. This document was used to show the French that Louis XVI should not be leading the country.
Rights of Man	1791	Thomas Paine's reply to Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" asserts that men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect to their rights. Go here for an excerpt of Rights of Man
Vindication of the Rights of Women	1792	Mary Wollstonecraft's early feminist statement, argues that women deserve an education because of the essential roles they play in raising children and being companions to their husbands.
Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica)	1815	In exile, Simon Bolivar argued for a balance of power between the branches of government in the new nations that will emerge in South America after the collapse of the Spanish Empire.
The Iron Law of Wages	1817	Banker and early economist Ferdinand Lassalle claims that wages tend toward the minimum wage necessary to support a worker.
The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns	1819	Benjamin Constant's philosophy that the Liberty of the Ancients was a republican liberty, which meant citizens could directly participate. Liberty of the Moderns meant that liberty was through civil liberties, which the government could not interfere.
Jewish Disabilities Speech	1833	Thomas Macaulay gave this speech to the House of Commons in which he outlines the various civil prejudices that the Jewish population face and encourages emancipation of the Jewish people.
Oliver Twist	1837-1838	Charles Dickens' novel about the impacts of poverty and the Industrial Revolution.
Correspondence on the Actual Value of Opium Delivered to China	1839	Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by the Command of Her Majesty in 1843, this report is a case in which opium transactions are investigated. The case is trying to determine whether or not opium contracts were breached.
An Account of the Opening of the Indian Mutiny	1857	Elisa Greathed's account of Indian soldiers beginning mutiny against the leaders of the East India's Company. The tipping point for the soldiers was when they were forced to bite off paper cartilages for their guns which were greased with pork and beef animal fat against Islam and Hindu beliefs.
On Liberty	1859	John Stuart Mill argues that people should be free to engage in whatever behavior they wish as long as it does not harm others. Envisioned constitutional checks by consent of the community instead of a few representatives.
Concentration Camps during the South African / Boer War, 1899-1902	1901	During the South African/Boer War, the British established refugee camps for civilians who were forced out of their homes, however, as the war went on, the refugee camps turned into concentration camps as revealed in these selections from debates in Parliament.
Dulce et Decorum Est	1917	Wilfred Owen's poem describing a gas attack during World War I. The title is translated to "It is sweet and honorable to die for their fatherland".
Treaty of Versailles	1919	The treaty that ended WWI is largely regarded as one of the causes of WWII. The treaty forced Germany to accept all responsibility for the war, disarm, and other aspects that left Germany unhappy.
The Principle of Democracy	1924	Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the Chinese Republic, statement about democracy, nationalism and social welfare.
Peace in Our Time Speech	1938	British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin's speech to Parliament after Munich Conference and has come to symbolize the failures of appeasement of Nazi Germany.
September 1, 1939	1939	W.H. Auden wrote this poem at the start of World War II. The poem starts with the failures and frustrations of the past and ends with hope for the future.
England, Your England	1941	George Orwell wrote this essay during the London Blitz, as Nazi planes dropped bombs on the city, seeking to document England and its culture in the event that it is destroyed in the war.
The Iron Curtain Speech Joseph Stalin's Response	1946	Winston Churchill gave this speech in Fulton, Missouri to describe the divisions of territory between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. He condemned the Soviet Union's post-World War II policies. Stalin responded to the speech in an Interview with the newspaper Pravda
International Declaration of Human Rights	1948	Written after World War II by the United Nations, the Declaration lists rights that all humans are entitled to under international law. CROSS-LINK: The Creation of the United Nations
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences	1956	Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He denounced Stalin's "cult of personality," breaking the hold of Stalin over the country.
Two Concepts of Liberty Lecture	1958	Isaiah Berlin wrote that there are two types of liberty: positive and negative. Positive liberty is the ability to have control over one's own life. Negative liberty is the absence of barriers.
Statement at the Rivonia Trial	1964	Nelson Mandela's impassioned statement of his political beliefs at the trial where he was sentenced to life imprisonment where he articulated "an ideal for which I am prepared to die." CROSS-LINK: Fall of Apartheid and Nelson Mandela
Quotations of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung	1966	Political philosophy statements attributed to Mao Tse-Tung.
Peace, Progress, and Human Rights Speec h	1975	Andrei Sakharov's speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his work for human rights in opposition to the leaders of the Soviet Union.
The Power of the Powerless Essay	1978	Vaclav Havel's essay about how life in Communist societies creates the conditions for revolt by dissidents and includes strategies for those who are united by a common cause.
The Fifth Modernization Essay	1978	Wei Jingsheng urges China to adopt democracy as a way to modernize its society; he was convicted of political counterrevolutionary by the government and imprisoned from 1978 to 1993.
Nobel Peace Price Lecture	1983	Lech Walesa's speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his work as for the right of workers to organize in Poland.
Human Rights in China Speech	1989	Fang Lizhi was a Chinese astrophysicist and political activist who wrote about bringing democracy to China before and after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989.
In Good Faith Essay	1989	Salman Rushdie's essay in which he affirms his respect for Islam as a religion despite a death sentence issued for him for Iranian clerics.
Latin America: The Democratic Option Speech	1990	Mario Vargas Llosa's speech as a Presidential candidate in Peru in 1990 calling for privatization, a market economy, free trade, and most importantly, the dissemination of private property.
Arab Human Development Report	2002	Reports written by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the United Nations on the conditions and freedoms of people in Arab countries.
Malala Yousafzai Noble Peace Prize Lecture	2014	A Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai was 17 years-old when she gave this speech opposing terrorists and urging education for young girls everywhere in the world.