LibGuides: HIS 3353: Contemporary United States History: Documents produced by Government

Government Information

The government produces a lot of valuable information for researchers in United States History in the post 1968 era. There are laws, court cases, reports from different government agencies, congressional or legislative hearings and reports that can be extremely valuable to historical research.

Presidential Libraries

National Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) building in Washington, D.C.

The United States Census

The U.S. Census Bureau counts each resident of the country, where they live on April 1, every ten years ending in zero. It includes populations of all states in the country, plus populations of counties and cities. It also includes agricultural data, industrial/manufacturing data, and other information, such as number of schools by state. The link below takes you to a page where you can gain access to any census from 1790 to 2010.

Decennial Census of Population and Housing--By Decade

American Presidency Project

The American Presidency Project
The American Presidency Project, non-profit and non-partisan, is the leading source of presidential documents on the internet. Our rapidly-growing collection is hosted at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For example, it has the complete set of The Public Papers of the Presidents: since 1929

Foreign Relations of the United States

U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations of the United States 1945-1980
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Covers from the Lincoln Administration (1861) through the Clinton Administration (2000)

Statistical Abstract of the United States

Statistical Abstract of the United States
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published from 1878 to 2012, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. These sources of data include the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations.

GovInfo

Govinfo
govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

Federal Government Sites

Image: The Capitol Building of the United States

National Capitol building in Washington D.C

USA.gov

Law

Congressional Record (CREC)
From 1994 to the present.
Congressional Record (crecb)
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873 and is still published today. This is the bound edition, and goes to 2013.
Law Library of Congress
Congress established its Law Library in 1832, recognizing its need for ready access to reliable legal materials. The Law Library has grown over the years to become the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world.
United States Code
The United States Code is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States.
United States Statutes at Large
This website contains the statutes from 1951 through 2012.

Supreme Court

United States Reports
United States Reports is a series of bound case reporters that are the official reports of decisions for the United States Supreme Court. This collection spans 1754-2003 or volumes 1 through 542.