Skip to Main Content

HIST 3301 (Dr. Elizabeth Clark): Historical Methods (Govt. Docs)

Historical Methods - Research U.S. Government Documents

Country Studies/Area Handbook Series

Books in the Country Studies series have comprehensive information about the historical background and the social, economic, political conditions of select countries throughout the world.  From the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, most were published from 1986 through 1998.

Each book chapter has a lengthy bibliography. 

The books are available online.  Most are also shelved alphabetically in the Cornette Library under the SuDoc D 101.22:550-

Titles include:

Congressional Research Service

Part of the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the non-partisan policy research arm of the United States Congress.  While CRS publications are rarely distributed to federal depository libraries, the library does have a commercially published set:

Print Holdings

Major Studies and Issue Briefs of the Congressional Research Service
  • has publications from 1916 - 2004
  • on microfilm
  • some, but not all indexes, to the microfilm
  • located in stand-along microform cabinet next to the Monthly Catalog (in US Docs)

Example

Soviet Union in the Third World, 1980-1982:  An Imperial Burden or Political Asset? A Selected Bibliography (5/85)

Accession number is 1985/86-7:0308. (Presents an annotated bibliography on Soviet policy toward and involvement in the Third World in general, and in selected world regions.)

  • 1985/86 = microfilm supplement (published for 1985/1986) to the original set
  • 7 = Reel #7 (Foreign and Defense Issues)
  • 0308 = First page of the document is on microfilm frame number 308

Online Resources

Many recent CRS reports and memorandums are available online for free from a variety of sources, such as the Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization 1949-1996 and Cuba after Fidel Castro: Issues for U.S. Policy.

Bulletin - Cold War International History Project

The Bulletin is published infrequently, but includes issues such as From the Russian Archives.

Titles Within Sets

Foreign Relations of the United States

The page on Russia from the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Dept of State lists 72 volumes in Foreign Relations with information on Russia.

Bonus information: Milestone Essays.

Titles include:

Locations

Many volumes from this set are available as books or microfiche in Govt Docs:

  • (print and microfiche; recent volumes online)
  • Gov Docs – US Docs Shelves: S 1.1:
  • Gov Docs – Microfiche Cabinet: S 1.1: