Published annually by the State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States is the official record of major declassified U.S. foreign policy decisions and diplomatic activity, with material culled from Presidential libraries--including transcripts of tape recordings--and executive departments and agencies. Digitized material does not reflect the full range of published volumes. For the Truman Administration, the site provides "1945-50, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment." Three volumes are available for the Eisenhower years, on American republics, Guatemala, and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Cyprus. The Kennedy Administration is represented by 25 volumes that cover, among other areas, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, the Berlin crisis, and exchanges with Premier Khrushchev. A complete set of 34 volumes is available on the Johnson Administration, and 19 volumes currently are furnished from the Nixon Administration. Fifty-four volumes will eventually be available on the Nixon and Ford administrations. Useful volume summaries provide historical context. FRUS volumes for 1900-1918 (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/) are described in a separate entry.

Provides links to approximately 390 documents, most of which are related to the nation's political, diplomatic, military, and legal history. Arranged chronologically, the site begins with excerpts of Christopher Columbus' journal of 1492 and ends, at present, with President George W. Bush's May 1, 2003 address announcing the end of major combat operations in Iraq [update: documents reach from around 800 to 2007]. Includes speeches, statutes, treaties, court decisions, memoirs, diaries, letters, published books, and even a few songs. The site, created by Lynn Nelson, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Kansas, is valuable especially for high school and college students who need easy access to many of the canonical documents in American history.

This archival site makes available public papers and government investigative and research reports concerning the history of transportation in the U.S. It contains Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and Department of Transportation railroad accident investigation reports from 1911 to 1994, with more than 4,000 reports, as well as aircraft accident reports from 1934 to 1965, with more than 790 reports. "Turner, Fairbank, and MacDonald" papers contains more than 540 public papers of Thomas H. MacDonald, H.S. Fairbank, and F.C. Turner of the Bureau of Public Roads and later the Federal Highway Administration. These include reports, speeches, development plans, and memoranda. Fairbank's papers cover the period 1920 to 1954, MacDonald's from 1919 to 1952, and Turner's from 1947 to 1971. Other documents include civil aeronautics manuals; Federal Aviation Administration research reports; historical Department of Transportation orders; U.S. Coast Guard navigation and inspection circulars from the 1960s to the present; and reports from the 1924, 1926, 1930, and 1934 National Conferences on Street and Highway Safety. Each collection of materials can be searched individually.

HSI was created in order to facilitate the use of primary sources in history education. By using the concept of historians as detectives, the site has collected several "cases" for students to examine using a pre-vetted set of related primary sources. The site describes the HSI model as having four steps:

1. Becoming a Detective—basic context and introduction of an overarching question
2. Investigating the Evidence—examining primary sources
3. Searching for Clues—answering questions which organize analysis of primary sources
4. Cracking the Case—presentation of an evidence-based conclusion and questions formed by the investigation

Site navigation is not as intuitive as it could be. Be prepared to use the "back" button frequently. That quibble aside, the site offers a good variety of cases—the March on Frankfurt, children in the Civil War, refusal to attend the Constitutional Convention, slavery in Virginia, school desegregation, the Boston Massacre, the demise of Jamestown, the dropping of the bomb on Japan, Elvis and Nixon's meeting, a genealogy case, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and Nathaniel Bacon. There is also a fictional murder/cause-of-death case which can be used to introduce students to the process and way of thinking which each of the historical cases requires.

One of the Famous American Trials sites created by Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, this site explores the 1969-1970 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Linder provides a 1500-word account of the trial, which includes links to brief (100-word) explanations of specific terms and biographies of some of the key figures. The site provides a chronology of the lives of those involved in the trial from 1960 to 1998; images of two Yippie posters; a map of the key Chicago riot sites; and roughly 350-word biographies of 15 of the defendants, lawyers, and other figures in the trial. There are ten audio clips of defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses discussing various aspects of the riots and the trial. The site offers full-text versions of the indictment against the Chicago Seven, the trial manuscript, the contempt of court specifications against two of the defendants, and the appellate decision that overturned the contempt convictions and the convictions for intent to incite a riot. Additionally, there are 16 images of the riots and key figures and 14 quotations. A bibliography of 13 websites and 15 scholarly works leads to other sources for studying the Chicago Seven's trial and their lives as radical activists. This is an ideal site for researching 1960s activism and culture.

Supplies links to 22 full-text works of American literature, 180 pieces of recorded music, and 14 motion pictures from the years 1890 through 1929. In addition to the literary texts, the site includes thousands of links to more than 100 literary figures from this period and listings in decade-by-decade timelines for significant other works (texts not provided). Music and songs accessible in RealPlayer format include performances by Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, John Philip Sousa, Bert Williams, Nora Bayes, Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Billy Murray, Joe Venuti, Helen Kane, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Al Jolson, and a youthful Bing Crosby. A 1908 talk on "Unlawful Trusts" by presidential candidate William H. Taft is also included. Most of the films provided were produced between 1897 and 1906. While this site is still under construction, it presently offers a good variety of sounds, sights, and texts from these four decades.

The Bancroft Library has put its entire archive of material on the Berkeley Free Speech Movement (FSM) online. A 200-word chronology introduces visitors to the major events of the movement. Printed material includes five books, 29 leaflets (200 to 3,000 words each) produced by the FSM, 55 letters to and from FSM activists, 11 local radical newsletters, 36 statements, 21 press releases, and six speeches made by students and university faculty and administration. Visitors may read complete transcripts of 10 oral histories of between 85 and 1,000 pages: eight with university administrators and faculty; two with FSM activists. A collection of legal documents includes 40 pages of trial transcripts and 400 letters from FSM activists to Judge Rupert Crittenden, who presided over their trials.

This site also provides researchers with the first public access to 96 photographs of FSM rallies and sit-ins taken by Ronald L. Enfield in 1964 and 1965. Materials from related organizations include 63 documents from nine contemporary protest movements at Berkeley. The site may be searched by subject, but is somewhat difficult to navigate because pages within the collection do not link directly to an index or the collection's home page. The site will be most useful to experienced researchers.

A collection of 19 audio clips of speeches recorded by seven turn-of-the-century public figures—William Jennings Bryan, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Edison, Samuel Gompers, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Booker T. Washington. The clips last between one and seven minutes each; all but one were made between 1900 and 1920. Subjects of the speeches include politics, reform, socialism, isolationism, trusts, the gold standard, U.S. military force, labor issues, and race relations. The site includes transcripts of the speeches as well as 150-word biographies and three photographs of each speaker.

Through digitization, technicians have improved the sound quality of these recordings, some of which had become nearly inaudible. An opportunity for users to experience the oratorical powers of influential men from the early 20th century.

One "showcase" within a multi-part exhibit that presents Soviet archival documents, this site offers three items related to Cold War politics and ideology: a 1945 telegram from Stalin to Harry Truman; a 1971 document from the Communist party's Central Committee, "Additional Measures To Expose Imperialist Policies"; and a 1962 telegram from Khrushchev to John Kennedy protesting American policy in Cuba.

The documents, available as both untranslated images and translated texts, are accompanied by a useful introduction of 1,036 words.

Visitors should consider using the site's "guided tour," which incorporates these materials within the larger exhibit.

This site provides documents, essays, and questions about the events leading up to the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 and places the events within a broader context of secession and southern independence.

There are nine chronological sections and students must make decisions at five "critical junctures," soliciting advice from official and unofficial advisors. Students can compare their choices with Lincoln's, and a commentary section challenges students to explore multiple interpretations of events. "Hotwords" provide additional information on topics throughout the simulation.

Provides over 200 references in the bibliographic section.

Well-designed activity for helping students at the high school and college level explore the issues surrounding the Civil War.