Collins Memorial Library: FREN 250: Culture and Civilization of France: Primary Sources

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Finding Primary Sources with Primo

Library of Congress Subject Headings are quite useful for discovering primary sources. The following subheadings usually are added to indicate that the material is a primary source: sources, personal narratives, correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, "early works to 1800" or notebooks. Once you've discovered the subject heading for secondary sources, try adding one of the primary source subheadings to see what you find.

Secondary source subject heading: France -- History -- Revolution, 1789 1799

Primary source subject heading: France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Sources

Featured Primary Sources in Print

Anthologies of primary sources, typically edited and annotated by scholars, offer a useful avenue for perusing primary source materials. Here are a few selections, available for check out at Collins Library.

From Roman to Merovingian Gaul: a reader by Alexander C. Murray (Editor); Paul E. Dutton (Editor)
Call Number: DC60 .F93 2000 Print Books
ISBN: 9781551111025
Publication Date: 2000
Covering the origins and history of the Merovingian kingdom, this text provides coverage of a central but often overlooked part of European history. Selections include Attila the Hun's meeting with the Pope, Queen Balthild's life and more.
"A Few Acres of Snow'': documents in pre-confederation Canadian history by Thomas Thorner (Editor); Thor Frohn-Nielsen
Call Number: F1032 .F49 2003 Print Books
ISBN: 9781551115498
Publication Date: 2003
This collection presents many new documentary sources on pre-Confederation Canadian history. Each chapter offers a group of source materials on particular themes or events, beginning with reports of First Nation contacts published in the Jesuit Relations and ending with the drive to Confederation.
Louis XIV and Absolutism: a brief study with documents by William Beik
Call Number: DC124.5 .B45 2000 Print Books
ISBN: 9780312227432
Publication Date: 2000
This collection of documents with commentary explores the meaning of absolute monarchy by examining how Louis XIV of France became one of Europe's most famous and successful rulers.
The French Revolution: a history in Documents by Micah Alpaugh (Editor)
Call Number: DC141 .F74 2021 Print Books
ISBN: 9781350065307
Publication Date: 2021
Explores the rapidly evolving political culture of the French Revolution through first-hand accounts of the revolutionary (and counterrevolutionary) actors themselves. This unique collection of 13 visual sources and over 90 documents, incorporating perspectives from across class, gender, race and nationality, provides you with insights into the fervent debates, pronouncements and proposals that spawned modern politics.
The French Revolution Sourcebook by John Hardman (Editor)
Call Number: Print books DC136.A2 F72 1999
Publication Date: 1998
This collection of original documents examines the constitutional and political problems of France between 1785-1795.
French Revolution and Human Rights by Lynn Hunt
Call Number: DC158.8 .F6895 1996 Print Books
ISBN: 9780312122492
Publication Date: 1996
The rich selection of 38 primary documents - many never before published in English allows students to read and analyze, firsthand, the intense debates and subsequent legislation related to civil rights engendered by the French Revolution.
The Press in the French Revolution by compiled by J. Gilchrist and W.J. Murray.
Call Number: DC141 .G5 1971 Print Books
A selection of documents taken from the press of the Revolution for the years 1789-1794.
The Revolutionary Atlantic: Republican visions, 1760-1830: a documentary history by Rafe Blaufarb
Call Number: D299 .R47 2018 Print Books
ISBN: 9780199897964
Publication Date: 2017
A sourcebook on the "revolutionary Atlantic," a term historians increasingly use to describe the way the many revolutions from 1776 (USA) to 1826 (end of the wars of independence in Latin America) can be viewed as part of a connected whole.
French Anti-Slavery: the movement for the abolition of slavery in France, 1802-1848 by Lawrence C. Jennings
Call Number: HT1178 .J46 2000 Print Books
ISBN: 9780521772495
Publication Date: 2000
This book fills the huge gap in existing historiography by providing a detailed study of French anti-slavery forces, explaining why France abolished colonial slavery fifteen years later than Britain but fifteen years before emancipation in the United States.
From Enlightenment to Romanticism: anthology by Ian L. Donnachie (Editor); Carmen Lavin (Editor)
Call Number: D288 .F76 v. 1-2 Print Books
ISBN: 9780719066702
Publication Date: 2004
Provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the changes and transitions in European culture between 1780 and 1830 with sources on the death of the Old Regime, the Napoleonic phenomenon, slavery, religion and reform. Each selection is accompanied by a detailed introduction explaining the context and significance of the sources.
Napolean:Symbol for an Age: a brief history with documents by Rafe Blaufarb; Claudia Liebeskind
Call Number: DC203 .B62 2008 Print Books
ISBN: 9780312431105
Publication Date: 2007
In this collection of wide-ranging primary sources -- including confidential memoranda and correspondence, speeches, memoirs, letters, police reports, and songs, most of which appear in English translation for the first time -- Rafe Blaufarb situates Napoleon within his time while opening a broad perspective on the nature and impact of Napoleonic rule.
France: Empire and Republic, 1850-1940 : historical documents by selected and introduced by David Thomson
Call Number: DC340 .T52 Print Books
Publication Date: 1968
The documents in this book span, in political terms, two of the ten régimes France has known since the beginning of the nineteenth century: the Second Empire of Napoleon III and the Third Republic.
France and the Dreyfus Affair: a documentary history by Michael Burns
Call Number: DC354 .B88 1999 Print Books
ISBN: 9780312111670
Publication Date: 1998
This book highlights the many issues connected with the case, including anti-Semitism, militant nationalism, socialism, the birth of modern Zionism, and the separation of church and state. Sixty-six documents are embedded in the narrative, offering a broad range of sources to examine, including newspaper editorials, letters, trial testimony, and diary entries.
Politics and society in contemporary France (1789-1971): a documentary history. by Eric Cahm, compiler.
Call Number: JN2451 .C27 Print Books
Publication Date: 1972
Texts in French, with introductory essays in English.

Digital Collections of Primary Source Materials

ARTFL Encyclopédie
A database of nearly 2000 French texts, covering time periods from medieval to the 20th century and subjects of literary criticism, biology, history, economics and philosophy.
Artstor on JSTOR
A digital library of images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images.
Artstor is now available in its new home on JSTOR! When you search JSTOR, you will find Artstor’s 2+ million licensed images and more than 1,700 additional primary source collections alongside JSTOR’s vast collection of books, journal articles, and research reports.

Gallica
Digital library from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). Essential site for French digital images and documents.
EuroDocs: History of France
Annotated bibliography of primary source documents on the Web.
French Revolution Digital Archive
A collaboration of the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The archive is based around two main resources, the Archives parlementaires and a vast corpus of images first brought together in 1989 and known as the Images de la Revolution française.
Manuscrits Médiévaux France-Angleterre 700-1200
A collaboration between the BnF and the British Library. Explore digital editions of medieval manuscripts by theme, author, place, and century. Provides additional links to resources for scholars.
The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe
Maps the trade of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), a celebrated Swiss publishing house that operated between 1769 and 1794.
Liberty, Equality, Eternity: Exploring the French Revolution
Over 600 primary documents from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Newberry French Pamphlet Collection
Primarily consists of material published between 1780 and 1810 from the French Revolution Collection (FRC), the Louis XVI Trial and Execution Collection, and several smaller collections of French Revolution era material.
Paris: Capital of the 19th Century
This site, initiated by the French Studies and Comparative Literature Departments of Brown University, provides a window into the cultural, political and social context of 19th century Parisian culture. Includes a chronology, an annotated bibliography, and links to online resources.