World History by Region: Europe

Primary sources provide immediate, firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an event or topic.

Examples of primary sources include letters and diaries; photographs, audio and motion picture recordings; transcribed speeches; books, newspapers and magazines published during the period under consideration; government documents and other publications; oral histories, autobiographies and memoirs; and even artifacts, like clothing, furniture, and other items of material culture from the period.

American Geographical Society Library. Digital Photo Archive: Europe. 
Images from the American Geographical Society Library, digitized and hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries.

Biblioteca Nacional de Espana: Colecciones Digitales. 
Digitized books, manuscripts, drawings, photographs, engravings, maps, music scores, sound recordings, periodicals and more from the National Library of Spain

Bibliotheca Palatina digital. 
The most important collection of books from the 17th century Holy Roman Empire, the Bibliotheca Palatina is now divided between two principal locations: Heidelberg and the Vatican.

Das Bundesarchiv. 
The German Federal Archives preserve documents from the Holy Roman Empire (1495-1806), the German Confederation (1815-1866), the German Reich (1867/71-1945), the occupation zones (1945-1949), the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) and the Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949).

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History. 
European primary historical documents, transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.

European History Primary Sources. (EHPS) 
The European University Institute's (Florence, Italy) EHPS provides an index to digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.

Europeana. 
Database of millions of items found in Europe's leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums, including books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, television and film, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps, sheet music and recordings, and more.

Die Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften = Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 
Primary source materials from German history, from the Middle Ages to contemporary times (such as Documents for the Imperial German Diet; and Acts of the Reich Chancellery, Government Hitler, 1933-1945) in print and online. The material published so far comprises approximately 700 volumes.

Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum = Munich Digitization Center. (MDZ). 
Digitized cultural heritage materials preserved by the Bavarian State Library and by other institutions.

Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection. 
Nearly 150 bound volumes of Nuremberg trial transcripts and documents from the personal archives of General William J. Donovan (1883-1959). The Donovan papers contain both original statements from the defendants in German and typed translations in English prepared by the Allies.

Nuremberg Trials Project. 
The Harvard Law School Library has approximately one million pages of documents relating to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) and to the twelve trials of other accused war criminals before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT).

Broad, comprehensive histories are often good places to start your reading. They are also good sources for citations to guide your further reading. 

- Search the Library Catalog portion of UCSB Library Search for the "Oxford history of modern Europe" series; which includes such titles as Germany, 1800-1870 (2004), The Russian empire, 1801-1917 (1967) and Spain, 1808-1939 (1966).

For example, if you search for "Short Oxford History of France" you will find:

France in the central Middle Ages: ages 900-1200.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Main Library DC61 .F58 2002 

France in the later Middle Ages, 1200-1500.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Main Library DC61 .F584 2003

Renaissance and Reformation France, 1500-1648.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Main Library DC111 .R43 2002 

Old Regime France, 1648-1788.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Main Library DC125 .O53 2001 

Revolutionary France: 1788-1880.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Main Library DC148 .R4886 2001

Modern France: 1880-2002.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Main Library DC361 .M58 2003 

Other important series covering European history include the "Short Oxford history of Germany," the "Short Oxford history of Italy," the  "Short Oxford history of Europe," the "Oxford history of early modern Europe," the "Oxford history of modern Europe" (noted above), the "Cambridge economic history of modern Europe," and multi-volume titles like the "Cambridge history of Russia."

Chronology of European History. 
Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 1997
Ref D11 .C57 1997, v.1-3

Association of College and Research Libraries. European Studies Section. (ESS) European Studies: Regional and Historical Resources. 
Links to guides covering:
- Classics Studies
- Dutch Studies
- French Studies
- German Studies
- Iberian Studies (Spain and Portugal)
- Irish Studies
- Italian Studies
- Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- Scandinavian Studies

Harvard University. Finding Primary Sources Online. 

History: Europe: Primary Sources - East. 
History: Europe: Primary Sources - North. 
History: Europe: Primary Sources - South. 
History: Europe: Primary Sources - West. 
More links to primary source collections, from the University of Washington

Links and citations to additional sources of information on the history of the British Isles might be found on the UCSB Library research guides for:

• French 
• Germanic Studies 
• Italian 
• Slavic and Eastern European Studies 
• Spanish and Portuguese