HIS 132 - American History II: World War 2 Resources

This is a filtered list of primary resources availble in Daily Life through History for WW2.

This is filtered for New Deal and WW2.

This is a filtered list of Films on Demand for Primary sources for WW2.

The U.S. Merchant Marine carried the life's blood of the Allied war effort. Ships were lightly armed and vulnerable to attack, especially by submarines. Sailors of the merchant marine were civilians, but their duty was perhaps the most hazardous of World War II.

After the war, Henry L. Stimson published the following article in Harper's Magazine, which summarized the Manhattan Project and the decision to drop the bombs. Since his appointment as Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of war in 1940, Stimson had been intimately involved in the atomic bomb project.

Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 8, 1941, the day after Japan's surprise naval air attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Calling December 7 "a date which will live in infamy," Roosevelt announced that Japanese forces had also attacked other Pacific targets: Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island, and Midway Island. He asked Congress to declare war on Japan because of this "unprovoked and dastardly attack." Within an hour Congress complied, with only one dissenting vote, and the United States entered World War II (1939–1945).

On July 18, 1945, General Leslie R. Groves, chief of the Manhattan Project, which had produced the atomic bomb, sent a top-secret report to Secretary of War Henry A. Stimson narrating the successful test two days earlier. Groves appended General Thomas Farrell's eyewitness account, which was written from the perspective of the observation post he had occupied. Farrell's account is excerpted from an official U.S. State Department publication.

The Japanese surprise air raid on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet—albeit not beyond recovery—and propelled the United States into World War II. Corporal E. C. Nightingale was a member of the U.S. Marine detachment assigned to the USS Arizona, one of the battleships moored along "Battleship Row," the principal target of the first wave of the attack.

The taking of Iwo Jima consumed five bloody weeks and the lives of 6,821 Americans and some 21,000 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese garrison defending this small volcanic island fought from the cover of a complex network of caves, tunnels, and bunkers, which allowed the defenders to hold off conquest for more than a month. More U.S. Marines died here than anywhere else in the Pacific theater. What follows is excerpted from a collection of reports by five official USMC combat writers, published after the battle.

The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn.

In Making Sense of War, Amir Weiner reconceptualizes the entire historical experience of the Soviet Union from a new perspective, that of World War II. Breaking with the conventional interpretation that views World War II as a post-revolutionary addendum, Weiner situates this event at the crux of the development of the Soviet--not just the Stalinist--system.

Yale Law School’s Avalon Project provides a database of documents such as laws, treaties, declarations, constitutions, speeches and statements from ancient history to the 21st century. Documents are organized by time period and by topic.

About British Pathé – Who We Are
British Pathé is considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world and is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance. Spanning the years from 1896 to 1978, the collection includes footage from around the globe of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, science and culture.

Discover 34,090,282 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States

Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators — complete with teaching guides for class use.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations

A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Explore 749,089 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections. This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.

This is a filtered list of Films on Demand for Primary sources for WW2.