A collection of first-hand narratives chronicling communist, socialist, and far-left Groups.
This archive provides insight into how communist, socialist, and far-left groups and figures saw themselves and the world around them during the major political and social events that occurred in the twentieth century.
The primary sources in this collection come from multiple regions, thereby offering the opportunity for the comparative study of left-wing thinking. For example, how communist parties differ around the world, why communism or socialism succeeds in some countries and not others, as well as the characteristics of these movements in different countries.
Handwritten Technology Recognition (HTR) has been applied to maunscripts included in the Archives of the Independent Labour Party collection. HTR allows handwritten documents to be full-text searchable, just as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allows printed books, newspapers, and other works to be searched. This technology makes the documents in this collection more accessible to those without paleography skills and enables inclusion in digital humanities projects.
COLLECTIONS INCLUDED
Radical Left Political Movements and Social Issues: American Old Left
Source: University of California, Davis
Size: c. 270 000 pages
Date range: 1800-1950
Books, pamphlets, and ephemera documenting a wide range of nineteenth and twentieth-century left-wing political, social, and cultural issues and movements. Specific topics in this research collection include the history of socialism and communism, free thought, social protest, anarchism, pacifist and peace movements, third-world liberation movements, and the anti-globalisation movement.
Senate House Library, University of London Collections
Size: c. 118,000 pages
Date range: 1900-2012
These archival collections from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Institute of Latin American Studies largely pertain to Trotskyism as well as Marxism, Leninism, anarchism, and other left-wing thinking.
Includes:
Al Richardson/Jim Higgins Papers | Radical periodicals | Chile & Bolivia: political pamphlets
Baruch Hirson Papers | Will Fancy Papers | Pelling Collection | Alan Clinton Papers
Balázs Nagy Papers | Stephen Graham | Workers Party of South Africa
Rose Pastor Stokes Papers
Source: Yale University
Size: c. 7600 pages
Date range: 1900-1958
Rose Pastor Stokes was an American writer and activist. A prominent socialist and founder member of the Communist Party of America, she was deeply committed to both the labour movement and women’s issues. Her papers consist of correspondence, 1905–1933; writings, including manuscripts and published material, 1900–1958; printed material, consisting mostly of newspaper clippings, 1904–1953; drawings, some of which were either exhibited or published, 1923–1932; and miscellaneous material irelated to Pastor-Stoke's literary interests and political activities, 1904–1944.
Anna Strunsky Walling Papers
Source: Yale University
Size: c. 24,300 pages
Date range: 1871-1964
Anna Strunsky Walling was an American socialist and author. She wrote about the cause of labour and social issues. This collection mainly consists of correspondence
Papers of Walter Lippmann
Source: Yale University
Size: c. 210 400 pages
Date range: 1906-1974
Walter Lippmann was an American journalist, writer, and political analyst. His papers, starting in 1906 with his undergraduate years at Harvard and ending with his death in 1974 at the age of eighty-five, constitute an important contribution to the history of the twentieth century. They give a picture of the public life of this century from the angle of vision of an author, editor, journalist and political philosopher. In the political drama, Walter Lippmann was back stage, on stage, and among the critics in the stalls.
Alger Hiss Defense Collection
Source: Harvard Law School Library
Size: c. 70,000 pages
Date range: 1922–1980
The Alger Hiss Defense Collection contains the Defense Files and the Subject Files from the Hiss Defense Files collection at Harvard Law School. This collection features correspondence, notes, reports, interviews, memos, and investigative work that went into the Hiss defense team’s preparation and strategy—all of which provide a more complete picture of the case than what is available anywhere else. Included are personal and name files that relate to Hiss, his family, friends, work associates, accusers, supporters, and witnesses, as well as members of his legal defense.
Alger Hiss Collection
Source: New York University
Size: c. 26,700 pages
Date Range: 1892–2004
The Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collection is a compilation of material selected from four archival collections: the Hiss Family Papers, the John Lowenthal Papers, the Agnese Nelms Haury Papers, and the William A. Reuben Papers, each of which has been filmed in its entirety. Material selected for filming consists of the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Alger Hiss and members of the Hiss family, interview transcripts, legal documents, and memorabilia, as well as non-Hiss correspondence and research material, which sheds light on Hiss’s life and later efforts to reopen and reexamine the Hiss case. This collection contains no overlap with the Alger Hiss Defense Collection.
Anti-Socialist Organisations in Britain
Source: British Library, United Kingdom
Size: c. 30,400 pages
Date range: 1870-1914
Offers complete surviving runs of several major journals with the rallying cries for “radicalism” and “libertarianism” in the fight against socialism in Britain. Covers topics such as the UK Constitution, the monarchy, and the right to private property.
Titles in this collection include:
• The Journal of the Vigilance Association for the Defence of Personal Rights (1881–1886)
• The Personal Rights Journal (1886–1892)
• Personal Rights: A Monthly Journal of Freedom and Justice (1893– 1903)
• The Individualist: A Monthly Journal of Personal Rights (1903–1914)
• The Liberty Review: A Weekly Journal Devoted to the Defence of Freedom and of the Right of Property (1893–1894)
• The Liberty Review: Property Owners; Guardian and Free Labour Advocate (1895–1895)
• The Liberty Review: A Journal of Politics, Economics, Sociology and Individualism (1895–1909)
• Jus: A Weekly Organ of Individualism (1887–1888)
• Capital and Labour: A Weekly Journal of Facts and Arguments on Questions Relating to Employers and Employed (1873–1882)
• The Anti-Socialist: A Newspaper and Review of Politics, Events and Literature (1909–1910)
• Liberty: The Organ of the Anti-Socialist Union of Great Britain (1911–1912)
• Free Labour: A Monthly Journal Devoted to the Emancipation of Industry as a Voluntary Right (1896–1897)
• Free Labour: Ashore and Afloat (1897–1899)
• The Free Labour Press and Industrial Review (1899–1909)
• The Elector: The Official Organ of the Centre Party Union and the Middle-Class Defence Organisation (1909–1911)
FBI American Legion Contact Program
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Size: c. 1300 pages
Date range: 1940-1942
A conservative outlook, plus widely dispersed members, made the American Legion useful to the FBI in its investigations of communist infiltration. This file documents the FBI’s relationship with the Llegion from the 1940s through to the 1960s.
Archives of the Independent Labour Party
Size: c. 103 500 pages
Date range: 1856-1975
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a left wing British political party, established in 1893 in response to the Liberal Party’s reluctance to endorse working-class candidates. The archive contains pamphlets and leaflets; minutes, organisational and related records of the National Administrative Council as well as regional branches; and Francis Johnson’s correspondence.
Socialist and Labour Thought in Britain Since 1884
Size: c. 29,200 pages
Date range: 1884-1945
This collection of British Political Pamphlets is a landmark in Labour Publishing. Coverage includes a range of pressure groups and radical presses including the National Temperance League, Land Nationalisation Society, Christian Social Union, Humanitarian League, Glasgow Trades Council, Labour Prophet, Women's Emancipation Union, Brotherhood Trust, Commonweal, Metropolitan Radical Federation, United Kingdom Alliance, Clarion, Socialist League, Dundee Labour Church, Hammersmith Socialist Society, and the Legitimation League as well as many others.
FBI File on J. Robert Oppenheimer
Size: c. 7300 page
Date range: 1940-1959
J. Robert Oppenheimer, chairman of the general advisory board of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), opposed development of the hydrogen bomb and supported international civilian control of nuclear weapons. This stance led to his investigation by the FBI, and in 1953 he was suspended from the AEC as an alleged security risk. The material in this file, consisting mainly of covertly taped telephone conversations, opened mail, and interrogations of colleagues and acquaintances, gives an interesting perspective on the American intellectual and scientific community of the early 1950s, as well as Oppenheimer himself.
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Additional Details
subjects covered
- British Studies
- History
- Government
- Political Science & Diplomatic Studies
- Politics
- Twentieth Century Studies
- Social History
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