Internet History Sourcebooks Project (original) (raw)

Internet History Sourcebooks Project

[2023]

Welcome to The Internet History Sourcebooks Project, a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here mainly for use in high-school and university/college courses. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.

Search engines such as Google now deliver many users directly to relevant documents, but the various Index pages are the key to the best use of this site. You can access the major divisions of the site from the subject indexes at the top of each page. Within each major division the left panel on each page directs you to more focused indexes. Any given document may be listed in several indexes.

The IHSP is both very large and fairly old in Internet terms. At the time it was begun (1996), it was not clear that web sites and the documents made available there would often turn out to be ephemeral. The index pages therefore contained links to the thousands of documents available at this Fordham University website alongside links to documents at other websites. As a result of a process called "link rot" (where a broken link results from someone having taken down a web page) this means some links no longer worked. An effort has been made to repair or remove bad links. If you come across one, though, you will often be able to find archived versions of such documents by using the Wayback Machine [www.archive.org\].

This site at Fordham can now be searched via the Search box at the top of each page.

I am always happy to hear from people who wish to submit

copy permitted

texts to the various sites below.

Statement on Copyright and Fair Use

The Internet History Sourcebooks

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
A "classroom usable" sourcebook of copy-permitted material for Ancient history and civilization courses.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
This is an online sourcebook of copy-permitted, although not necessarily copyright-free, source material for Medieval Studies. It is the largest online resource of medieval and Byzantine textual sources.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Now with almost as many online texts as the Medieval Sourcebook, this also constitutes a "classroom usable" sourcebook of copy-permitted material for Modern European history and Modern Civilization courses. North American and Latin American documents are located within its structure.

SUBSIDIARY SOURCEBOOKS

The following consist of thematically based subsets of texts, with some additional documents and links, of the three main Source-books listed above.

SOURCEBOOK THEMES

The following consist of thematically based subsets of texts entirely taken from the three main Sourcebooks listed above, along with documents from the subsidiary source-books

Travelers' Accounts
Traveler's accounts of their journeys and the lands they visit are important sources in understanding the past. As outsiders, travelers often note aspects of a culture that are too commonplace for local commentators to mention. More than this, travelers often provide some insight into how their own society understood itself in relation to other cultures.
Slavery in World Cultures
Slavery has been a cross-cultural social and legal insititution in many human societies. Throughout the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, there are a number of primary source documents related to slavery and this page brings them together.
Legal History:
Laws and formal prescriptions or codes of behavior are some of the commonest types of primary source documents.
* Ancient Law
* Medieval Law
Historical Movies
* Film: Ancient History in the Movies
* Film: Medieval History in the Movies
* Film: Modern History in the Movies

Historical Studies Websites

Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet
This page reflect my primary interest as a historian - the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire.
Medieval New York
A guide prepared by students in my Fordham medieval courses to the Middle Ages in New York City.

Comprehensive Bibliographies

Articles, etc.

Paul Halsall, [Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos](Paul Halsall - Life of Thomais of Lesbos from Holy Women of Byzantium - Alice-Mary Talbot editor 1996.pdf) (introduction and translation) in Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints’ Lives in English Translation, edited by Alice-Mary Talbot, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996. 291-322 [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Wedded to Christ: Nuptiality and Gender Reversal in the Lives of Byzantine Male Saints, Byzantine Studies Conference, Wisconsin, 26-28 September 1997, updated version [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Male-Bonding: Homosexuality and Friendship in Byzantine Saint's Lives. Queer Middle AgesConference, New York, November 6, 1998 [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Men's Bodies, Women's Souls: Sanctity and Gender in Byzantium. PhD Dissertation, Fordham University, New York, 1999 [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Judith Bennett's Contribution to Doing a History of and for Lesbians and Gays. Panel 1298: "Lesbian Like" and its Theoretical and Historical Implications for the Study of the History of Women's Sexuality: A Roundtable Discussion with Judith Bennett. 35th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo MI., May 5, 2000.
Paul Halsall: [Same-Sex Marriage, the Majesty of the Law, and the Power of Language: _____ and ____vs. the Attorney General of Canada (Affidavit of 2001)](PaulHalsall-MarriageHistoryandCulture -ver7-2019.pdf). 2001 [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Thinking about Historical Film: Is it Worth the Trouble? 2002 [PDF]
Paul Halsall: Early Western Civilization under the Sign of Gender: Europe and the Mediterranean (4000BCE-1400CE), in Blackwell Companion to Gender History, edited by Teresa A Meade and Merry E Wiesner-Hanks, Cambridge: Blackwell, 2005, 285-306. [PDF]

Course Web Sites by Paul Halsall

Various course websites which reflect the use of IHSP documents.

Western Civilisation Courses

Core I: Western Civilisation to 1715
A website created for my 2004 course at UNF. This includes lecture/class outlines [Archived Version]

Core II: Western Civilisation since 1715
A website created for my 2004 course at UNF. This includes lecture/class outlines [Archived Version]

Modern History Course: The West: Enlightenment to Presents
A page created for my Fall 1998 Modern History survey course at Fordham University, The West: From the Enlightenment to the Present.

European History and Historians I
A website created for my 2004 course training graduate students how to teach introductory history courses. This course parallels a typical undergradiuate survey course, but with a reading load directed at graduate students who will be teaching such courses. [Archived Version]

European History and Historians II
A website created for my 2004 course training graduate students how to teach introductory history courses. This course parallels a typical undergradiuate survey course, but with a reading load directed at graduate students who will be teaching such courses.[Archived Version]

Medieval History Courses

Medieval Studies Course or low graphics version
A page created for my Fall 1996, and after, Medieval survey course at Fordham University, The Shaping of the Medieval World.

Medieval Europe
A website created for my 2004 course on Medieval Europe at UNF. This includes lecture/class outline [Archived Version]

Byzantium
A website created for my 2004 course on Byzantine History at UNF [Archived Version]

The Crusades
A website created for my 2005 course on the Crusades at UNF [Archived Version]

Power and Protest in Late Medieval England [Archived]
A website/course outline for a course on 14th-15th century England at the University of Manchester 2011

World History Courses

Core 9: Chinese Culture
A website created for my 1996-1999 courses in Chinese Culture at Brooklyn College. [Archived Version]

Islamic History to 1798
A website created for my 2005 course on Islamic History at UNF [Archived Version]

Themed Courses

Myth, Epic, and Romance: Medieval History in Film
A website created for my 2005 course at UNF [Archived Version]

Saints, Sainthood and Society
A website created for my 2005 seminar on the history and culture of sainthood at UNF with extended outline [Archived Version]

Sex and Gender in Pre-Modern Europe
A website created for my 2002 course on sex and gender in history UNF [Archived Version]

How to Cite Documents at the Internet History Sourcebooks Project

The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University. Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.