1. Introduction
[Last modified: 14 December 2022]
Primary sources are just about every source of evidence on the recent or more remote past not produced by someone like me (a secondary source). They provide what are often called ‘first hand’ evidence. Wikipedia has quite a good piece on this, although I suspect better ones will not be difficult to find on the Internet. This page provides a guide to some of the key primary sources for the study of diplomacy, with emphasis on those FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE. Their main classes are newspapers; published works by diplomats; oral history; official documents, divided into those published at time of origin and those originally classified but subsequently released or leaked; and private papers.