- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Research Guides
- HISTORY 366: Fascism Then & Now (Fall 2020)
- Other Primary Sources
HISTORY 366: Fascism Then & Now (Fall 2020) : Other Primary Sources
What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are materials from the time period that report on what is happening. Examples include books (e.g., personal narratives, memoirs, and autobiographies, collected works, and collections of documents); journal and magazine articles, newspaper articles, government documents, archival sources (.e.g, diaries, interviews, memos, manuscripts, and other papers and records of organizations); and multimedia sources (e.g., photographs, audio recordings, and motion pictures or video recordings).
Suggested Databases
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The Ku Klux Klan in Northwestern Wisconsin, circa 1915-1950The Ku Klux Klan in Northwestern Wisconsin, circa 1915-1950 is a digital collection of records, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and artifacts. These materials document a popular movement that most Americans would rather forget -- a so-called "reform" movement driven by xenophobia and bigotry. In the post World War I era, however, the Klan was a popular and widely accepted organization that played a significant role in the social life of some American communities.
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The Rise of Italian Fascism and Its Influence on EuropeThis links contains a brief set of primary source items that all relate to Italy's fascist period. Click on an item, then "view in" to see it in its original interface and find related objects.
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Social Movements, Elections, Ephemera (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)Collections of ephemera related to the 2010 Presidential Election in Belarus, the 2011 and 2016 Russian Federation Duma elections, the 2012 and 2018 Russian Federation Presidential elections, the 2014 Ukrainian Presidential election and the Euromaidan social movement.
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Understanding Hate in America : White Nationalism and the Press in the 1920sThe Hate in America collection includes papers promoting as well as those opposing white nationalism. It brings together for the first time local, regional, and national newspapers published by Klan organizations and by sympathetic publishers from across the U.S. It also includes key anti-Klan voices from newspapers published by ethnic, Catholic, and Jewish organizations.
Finding Primary Sources in Books (in the Library Catalog)
Use the tips below to search the Library Catalog for books that contain primary sources.
- Words in catalog records can identify an item as a primary source. Search for format related words like: advertisements, autobiographies, correspondence, diaries, documents, interviews, journal, letters, manuscripts, personal narratives, sources, speeches, etc. You can combine a primary-source format word with words describing your topic (e.g., letters and Lincoln or diaries and civil war).
- To find diaries, letters, autobiographies, personal papers, etc., by a particular person, search for the person's name as an author.
- For more information about finding primary sources, see the Research Guides on this page.
Finding Newspapers
You can search for historical newspapers that could also be used as primary sources.
This newspaper research guide has an entire page dedicated to finding Historical Newspapers.
On This Page
This page suggests databases and digital collections where you can find primary source documents related to fascism as it is found in a variety of times and places.
Image from The Badger American, a pro-Klan newspaper published in Milwaukee and available in the database Understanding Hate in America.
Research Guides
See the Research Guides below for more information about primary sources. The Research Guides include many more online resources including ones with historical journals, magazines and newspapers and documents.