Mediterranean History

Iraq in Primary Sources

This is a guide to historical research--focused on primary source material--available to Boston College for Mediterranean History.

Page under Construction

This page is currently under construction and far from complete. If you notice broken links or have suggestions, please write the subject liaison e-mail.

Broad Digital Collections

These are collections with extensive content. Covering dozens of topics related to history in different spaces around the world, we recommend trying each of these to see if they are relevant to your research.

JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
A database of more than 1.3 million digital images. It covers many time periods and cultures and represent architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, etc. Users are required to create a personal account to access this database off campus.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
Aggregates digital collections from around the U.S. and offers excellent tools to discover and explore them. Contributing institutions provide access to photographs, government documents, newspaper clippings, books, and other forms of ephemera. Focuses on 17th to 21st centuries.

Europeana
Interface in English or other, major European languages. Content in multiple languages.
Europe-wide unified search of digitized collections. Images, audio, texts, and more. Funded by the EU. Covers more than 1,000 years of history. Strongest for 1500 to 2000.
Open Access.
Gallica
Interface in English and French (and other major, European languages). Majority of the content in French.
France's fantastic digital library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Covers two millenia with particular strength from 1500 to the present.
Open Access.

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Interface in English. Content in English or other languages.
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more. Strongest between the 17th and 21st centuries. Content dating back to B.C.E.
Open Access.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Located in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the most widely used research facilities in the world devoted to preserving materials on the history and culture of peoples of African descent. Provides much useful information pertaining to African-American authors and literature.
Smithsonian Institution's Digital Collections
Search over 16 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 5.1 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Sources: Gov. Docs., State Papers, and Treatise

Avalon Project on The Middle East 1916-2001(A Documentary Record)
The text of multiple treatise, state, and international records related to the Middle East.
HeinOnline World Constitutions Illustrated
Includes constitutional and other related documents (e.g., treaties) for contemporary states across the Middle East and North Africa from the 19th century to the present.
Official Gazettes & Civil Society Information
A collection of official gazettes and other key historical government documentation from countries where the integrity of the public record is known to be at risk. Collection includes material from Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Mozambique, Somalia, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Sudan, Southern Rhodesia, Congo, Nigeria, Iran, British Somaliland, and Zimbabwe.

Sources: Newspapers and Periodicals

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) This link opens in a new window
1941-1996. Transcribed and translated foreign broadcasts and news. The original mission was to monitor, record, transcribe, and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Now offers the opportunity for students to expand their research into primary sources that originated in languages they do not have.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni includes thousands of U.S. and non-U.S. news sources; legal materials: case law, statutes and law reviews; and company/business information. Strength from 1990 to the present. Nexis Uni replaces Lexis-Nexis Academic.
World News Connection This link opens in a new window
Full text news (1995-2013) compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources translated into English, the information in WNC covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events. Coverage is by region and includes: East Asia, Near East and South Asia, China, East Europe, West Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Topics: British Involvement in Iraq

The Middle East Online: Iraq, 1914-1974
This collection offers the widest range of original source material from the British Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers from the Anglo-Indian landing in Basra in 1914 through the British Mandate in Iraq of 1920-32 to the rise of Saddam Hussein in 1974.

Topic: US Involvement in Iraqi History

Digital National Security Archive
Collection includes: Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994
(Iraqgate); Targeting Iraq, Part 1: Planning, Invasion, and Occupation, 1997-2004
(Targeting Iraq, 1997-2004); U.S. Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction: From World War II to Iraq
(Weapons of Mass Destruction); and
U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy, 1945-1991 (Nuclear Nonproliferation)
The Iraq Project (National Security Archive)
The National Security Archive’s Iraq Project began in the early 1990s and has worked for more than two decades to secure and curate historically significant documents regarding U.S. relations with Iraq, with a specific emphasis on “Iraqgate” and the 2003 Iraq War.
The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook (NSA)
Declassified Secrets from the U.S.-Iraq Relationship in the National Securities Archive.
U.S. and Iraqi Relations: U.S. Technical Aid, 1950-1958
Records of U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies.

Topics: Human Rights and Iraq

Human Rights Watch: Iraq
News and reports dating back to 1990 related to Human Rights in Iraq.

Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Human Rights Studies Online provides documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide. The collection includes text and video that give voice to the countless victims of human rights crimes in the 20th and early 21st centuries committed during the Holocaust, and in Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and other locations.

Topics: International Organizations

OECD iLibrary
Includes key OECD publications such as: Financial Market Trends, Higher Education Management and Policy, Nuclear Law Bulletin, OECD Economic Outlook, OECD Economic Studies, OECD Economic Surveys, OECD Journal of Competition Law & Policy, and OECD Papers. Cover from 1990s onward.
United Nations Documents
ODS is the UN's Official Document System. You can search for UN documents by keywords, then narrow your search.

For additional international organizations' primary source sets, see the cooresponding Global History Research Guide.

For Additional Help

For additional recommendations, contact your History Liaison, Erin, at erinkate.scheopner@bc.edu or schedule an appointment.

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Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Mediterranean History

Iraq in Primary Sources

Page under Construction

Broad Digital Collections

Sources: Gov. Docs., State Papers, and Treatise

Sources: Newspapers and Periodicals

Topics: British Involvement in Iraq

Topic: US Involvement in Iraqi History

Topics: Human Rights and Iraq

Topics: International Organizations

For Additional Help