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Administrative Histories of U.S. Civilian Agencies: World War II
Few studies have been made of the civilian agencies which were charged with the awesome tasks and responsibilities of managing a nation at total war. The Administrative Histories of World War II Civilian Agencies of the Federal Government were originally produced under the Second World War History Program of the Federal Government. The histories were initially the work of the War Records Section of the Division of Administrative Management of the Bureau of the Budget. In March 1942, the program evolved into the Committee on Records of War Administration. Members of the Committee were well known historians, economists, and political scientists. The issues addressed in these records recur frequently throughout modern history. Inflationary pressures, oil and fuel shortages, discussions of rationing, dislocations in manufacturing and in the labor force, and many other problems appear throughout the collection and offer opportunities for contrast with current events. The growth of war production and problems in price stabilization, transportation and shipping, manpower, rationing, federal housing, and the allocation of raw materials demanded prompt coordination with scores of other wartime activities. In addition, the histories offer valuable insight into the development of agencies devoted expressly to the regulation of the country at war, including alien property and war assets, censorship, civilian defense, community war services, defense-related education, scientific research for the war effort, and public health during wartime.
Japan: U.S. Naval Technical Mission, 1945-1946
The U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan was established on 14 August 1945. The purpose of the mission was to survey Japanese scientific and technological developments of interest to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, Hokkaido; China; and parts of Korea. The enterprise entailed the seizure of intelligence material, its examination, the interrogation of personnel, and ultimately the preparation of reports which would appraise the technological status of Japanese industry and the Japanese navy. During the period of operation a total of 655 officers and men served the organization and 185 individual reports were published.
The records in this collection relate to political relations between China and Japan for the period 1930 -1939. The records are mostly instructions to and despatches from diplomatic and consular officials; the despatches are often accompanied by enclosures. Also included in these records are notes between the Department of State and foreign diplomatic representatives in the United States, and memorandums prepared by officials of the Department. There are records on: the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, beginning with the Mukden incident in 1931; military action at Shanghai in 1932; further Japanese political and economic penetration into China, 1935-1936; and the course of the undeclared war between Japan and China, 1937-1939.
The men and women of the Foreign Board of Missions served a variety of tribes. Their letters, intended to be reports from the field, are far more than dry discussions of mission business. Ranging in length from single fragments to reports of over twenty pages, they describe the Indian peoples and cultures, tribal factionalism, relations with the U.S. government, and the many problems and achievements of the work. The letters often become personal and even anguished, as the writers disclose their fears, worries, and hopes.
Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration
The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR) was organized in London in August 1938 as a result of the Evian Conference of July 1938, which had been called by President Roosevelt to consider the problem of racial, religious, and political refugees from central Europe. This collection comprises, in its entirety, the Primary Source Media microfilm collection entitled Records of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, 1938-1947.
Shanghai Municipal Council: The Municipal Gazette, 1908-1940
The Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) was founded on 11 July 1854 by a group of Western businessmen to govern the daily operation and infrastructure of the Shanghai International Settlement. By the mid-1880s, the Council had become a practical monopoly over the city's businesses. The SMC was dissolved on December 17, 1943. As the official organ of the Shanghai Municipal Council, The Municipal Gazette was established in 1908 and ceased publication in 1942. Published every Friday, the Gazette recorded notifications, departmental reports, letters from readers, minutes of Council meetings, municipal budget, monthly summary of revenue, financial statements on income and expenditures, and policies and orders formulated by the council. This is a complete collection of the Gazette, containing all 35 volumes.
War on Poverty Community Profiles: Northeastern States
The most ambitious and controversial part of the President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was its initiative to end poverty. The centerpiece of the War on Poverty was the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), which was established to oversee a variety of community-based anti-poverty programs. Central to OEO’s mission was the idea of "community action," the participation of the poor in framing and administering the programs designed to help them. To assess the scale of poverty in America, the OEO developed the Community Profile Project, designed to increase the scope, accessibility, accuracy, and utility of information supporting the planning and evaluation of programs for community improvement. The Project compiled data for 3,135 U.S. counties and county equivalents that subdivided each state into independently-administered localities. Each profile, composed as a narrative with statistical indices, contains information showing general poverty indicators, size and composition of the poor population, and selected aspects of geography, demography, economy, and social resources. The Community Profiles provide an in-depth analysis of poverty in America with an extensive inventory of historical data of the United States at a local level. Northeastern states in this collection include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
King and the People in Morocco, 1950-1959
Morocco’s strategic location has shaped its history. After gaining independence in 1956, Morocco made great strides toward economic and political liberalization. The sultan Muhammad V, ruling his newly independent nation, proclaimed his intention of turning it into a constitutional monarchy. His first act was to transform himself into a monarch and assume the title of king. The Moroccan government undertook a number of economic, social, and political reforms, including the drafting of a constitution.
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. attorney general from 1960 to 1964 and a presidential candidate in 1968, came under special scrutiny by the FBI because the bureau’s aging but popular director, J. Edgar Hoover, considered him a political enemy. The materials in this file document not only many of Robert Kennedy’s activities but also Hoover’s enmity toward him. In addition to coverage of Kennedy’s public appearances and speeches, the file includes allegations of an affair between him and Marilyn Monroe and details of his trip to Alabama to meet with Governor George C. Wallace. The second half of the file documents the infamous public feud over wiretapping, in which Hoover released to the press memorandums suggesting that Kennedy had authorized wiretaps as early as 1961. The strength of Hoover’s dislike for the young Kennedy is borne out by the unusually large number of marginal notes written by Hoover on bureau memorandums in the file. This collection thus sheds light on the careers of both Hoover and Robert Kennedy, plus the bureaucratic resistance the Kennedy administration faced in its attempts at reform in the 1960s.
Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, 1920-1983
The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal was a British defence journal established in 1920 by Guy Dawnay and Cuthbert Headlam, both former British Army officers. It was known colloquially as the "AQ". Its early contributors included T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Hugh Trenchard, and Basil Liddell-Hart, as well as junior officers. Later on it acted as a conduit for the dissemination of British Army orthodoxy among the armies of the British Empire, and as a forum for the discussion and questioning of British defence policy among the military of former colonies. Discussion of the failures and successes of the First World War gave way to articles about guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency after the Second World War, and then to the concerns of the Cold War and nuclear age. Supplements were published titled The Army Quarterly Series and describing the defence forces of individual countries. It ceased publication in 1999.
This collection records one of the most famous cases of the 20th century, which pitted lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) against the politician and fundamentalist William Jennings Bryant (1860–1925). The Scopes Case, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, took place in July 1925. The trial highlighted the ongoing debates in the United States between creationism and evolutionism, and involved a high school teacher, John T. Scopes (1900–1970), who was accused of teaching evolution at a school in Dayton, Tennessee. His trial became a highly controversial spectacle, sparking debates across the country. The so-called "Monkey Trial" became less about a law getting broken and more about whether science or religion should take priority in U.S. education.
The Observer: News for the American Soldier in Vietnam, 1962-1973
The Observer was a weekly newspaper published by the Command Information Division of the U.S. Military Assistance Command’s Office of Information. It was the official organ of the Military Assistance Command, and it carried official news about and for American troops in Vietnam. As such, it goes without saying that it was carefully edited to make certain it did not print news articles favorable to the communist enemy. The Military Assistance Command spread more than 80,000 weekly Observers among all points in Vietnam in which American troops were domiciled.
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Commercial Relations, 1950-1963
This archive reproduces Decimal File 494 and is based on the microfilm title Records Relating to U.S. Commercial Relations with Japan, for the years 1950-1954, 1955-1959, and 1960-1963. The documents in this collection are predominantly instructions to -- and dispatches from -- diplomatic and consular officials, which are often accompanied by enclosures. Notes between the Department of State and foreign diplomats in the United States; memoranda prepared by State Department officials; and correspondence with officials of other government departments, private businesses, and persons are also included.
Afghanistan and the U.S., 1945-1963: Records of the U.S. State Department Central Classified Files
Afghanistan’s history, internal political development, foreign relations, and very existence as an independent state have largely been determined by its geographic location at the crossroads of Central, West, and South Asia. Over the centuries, waves of migrating peoples passed through the region—described as a "roundabout of the ancient world," by historian Arnold Toynbee—leaving behind a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. This collection provides an opportunity to peer into the mountains, valleys, villages, and cities that is called Afghanistan.
Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London
Testaments to the Holocaust is the online publication of the archives of the Wiener Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party. It contains documentary evidence collected in several different programmes: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of ‘educational’ children’s’ books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included. 75% of the content is written in German.
Official and Confidential Files of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
The 164 files reproduced here were collected and maintained in Hoover's own office during his directorship, from 1924 to 1972. This unique collection contains extensive documentation, mostly derogatory, on such figures as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Several of the files also concern controversial FBI activities, such as attempts to discredit the civil rights movement. The files are arranged in the following categories: congressional, administrative, investigative, prominent persons, informative, policy, personnel, information from other agencies, presidential, and miscellaneous. Each file is preceded by an abstract prepared by the bureau.
This collection consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by the American consular post in Jerusalem. The topics covered by these records include the protection of interests of American citizens, foreign trade, shipping, and immigration. But there is more to these records than traditional consular activities – the Jerusalem post provides a unique look into the British Mandate in Palestine. Consular officials reported on the administration of the Mandate, Jewish immigration, terrorism, and Arab rebellion. There are unique materials on the relationship of Palestinians to other Arab countries, British policies, the Zionist movement in Palestine and abroad, Communist influence in Palestine, reports on Islamic conferences, racial and religious disturbances and riots, the “holy places question,” partition of Palestine and the Arab Entente, Jewish-Arab relations and impact on Palestine, and Jewish and Arab national aspirations.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945
This new series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement—concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. FDR assumed the presidency of a nation in which white supremacy was a significant cultural and political force. Many states denied or severely restricted voting rights to African Americans and used their political power to further diminish their status and to deny them the benefits and opportunities of society. There was constant pressure on FDR to support anti-lynching legislation. But civil rights were a stepchild of the New Deal. Bent on economic recovery and reform and having to work through powerful Southern congressmen, whose seniority placed them at the head of key congressional committees, the president hesitated to place civil rights on his agenda. FDR’s record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. This new collection from FDR’s Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities.
This collection is from the Records of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations (ODCSOPS) relating to the use of Federal marshals, U.S. Troops, and the federalized National Guard in Oxford, Mississippi, 1962-1963, on the occasion of James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi. The records cover events such as the riots of September 30 and Governor Barnett’s efforts to obstruct Federal marshals, as well as daily events on campus and Meredith’s progress under integration. The files detail the extensive Federal involvement, including preparations for the military operation, Executive Orders , after action reports on the costs and lessons of Federal involvement, congressional correspondence on the military’s involvement, and effects on the media, public, and in particular, students and staff at Ole Miss.
City and Business Directories: Alabama, 1837-1929
City directories are among the most comprehensive sources of historical and personal information available. Their emphasis on ordinary people and the common-place event make them important in the study of American history and culture. One of the few means available for researchers to uncover information on specific individuals, these directories provides such information as: Addresses; City and county officers; Heads of families, firms and names of those doing business in the city; Lists of city residents; Occupations; and Street Directories. In addition, researchers can learn much about day-to-day life through analysis of information on churches, public and private schools, benevolent, literary and other associations, and banks. Finally, most directories include advertising, often illustrating the products being sold. This information lends valuable insight into the city’s lifestyles and illustrates popular trends.