What is a primary source and why use them?
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Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time of the event you are studying. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.
Primary sources are created:
- by someone who was present at or involved in the event
- at the time of the event OR later in a memoir
Remember - a primary source is not necessarily your main source.
Finding primary sources - from databases
Here are some options for finding primary sources online through our databases.
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World History in Context (requires SFPL card) This link opens in a new window
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Arab-Israeli Conflict
Publication Date: 2017This encyclopedia consists of many primary sources with some explanation of their context and significance. -
Modern Conflict in the Greater Middle East
Publication Date: 2017This encyclopedia has a collection of primary documents. Use the search function to find them.
Finding primary sources - from online books
These are books that you can access online through EBSCO. These books are fairly general, but there are many more that are more specific that are not included in this list. If you can't see what you're looking for, ask a librarian.
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The Modern Middle East : A Sourcebook for History
Publication Date: 2006This book in EBSCO contains documents from 1700 to the present. They are grouped by theme and each document has an introduction to give you context. Look through the table of contents to see what's available. -
A Documentary History of Modern Iraq
Publication Date: 2008This book in EBSCO covers the 20th century and includes the voices of ordinary Iraqis as well as the political elite. Look through the table of contents to see what's available. -
Conflict in the Modern Middle East
Publication Date: 2020Though this EBSCO book about conflicts in the Middle East since 2011 is primarily an encyclopedia, it does have some primary sources. -
The Middle East (141 BCE-2017)
ISBN: 9781642650082Publication Date: 2018Volume 2 of this set in EBSCO is concerned with the 20th century and includes a variety of documents. -
Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East
Publication Date: 2004There are nearly one hundred key documents in this book in EBSCO, charting the evolution of radical Middle East movements, their anti-Americanism, and Western policy response.
Finding primary sources - online
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Avalon Project
This website from the Yale Law Library has documents about Middle East law, history, and diplomacy from 1916-2001 -
Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
Fordham University's Sourcebook has documents from Ancient, Medieval, and Modern times.
Finding primary sources - in print
We have several books with primary sources from the modern Middle East in the library which are not available online. However, you can look through the tables of content and, if you see something that look interesting, ask a librarian who will send you a copy.
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Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East
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Publication Date: 2011Covers the late 18th through the 20th centuries, exploring political, social, economic, and cultural history in primary documents. Table of Contents -
The Modern Middle East and North Africa
by
Publication Date: 2013This history in documents covers social and cultural topics as well as political and diplomatic ones.Table of Contents -
The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict
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Publication Date: 2008 -
I Speak for Myself
Publication Date: 2011There are three relevant books in this series:
Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions
American Women on Being Muslim
American Men on Being Muslim
Examples of primary sources
- Letters
- Diaries
- Newspapers and magazines (be sure these fit the definition of a primary source)
- Manifestos
- Speeches
- Audio recordings
- Films or videos
- Photographs or blueprints
- Memoirs or journals
- Government documents
- Maps
- Artifacts, such as objects used at the time.
- Exhibition brochures (be sure these are of the right time period)
Citing your primary source
Use Noodletools to cite all your sources. As with your Mexico paper, start a new project to keep track of all your sources. You will be using Advanced Chicago/Turabian again.
If your source is one of many collected together in a book:
- Use the 'Anthology/Collection' citation, under the Nonperiodicals heading.
- Once you have clicked on that, choose the type of source you're citing, from the next drop down menu.
- You will cite both the source itself and the book it's in - for example, Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East.
Here is an example of a Chicago style citation from the anthology Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East:
Hussein, Saddam. "The Revolution and the Woman." Speech, 1979. In Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East, edited by Akram Fouad Khater, 211-12. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage, 2011.