Skip to Main Content
library logo

Ask us!

U.S. History: 1877 to present - HIST202 - Primary Sources

Primary sources available in the library or on the Internet relevant to U.S. History after 1877

Resources in Library Catalog

eBooks on this list are only available to RVCC students, faculty, and staff and require a login with your G# and password.

War and politics

The center; people and power in political Washington

A portrait of Washington politics during one of the most turbulent eras in American history by the twentieth century’s premier U.S. government insider.

Deadly blue : battle stories of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations command

A first-hand account of the missions, equipment and people fighting the War on Terror from the air and on the ground (eBook).

Duty : memoirs of a Secretary at war

From the former secretary of defense, a candid account of his experience serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this unsparing memoir, meticulously fair in its assessments, he takes us behind the scenes of his nearly five years as a secretary at war: the battles with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military itself, and the vast Pentagon bureaucracy.

Embedded : a Marine Corps adviser inside the Iraqi army

In 2006, 1st Lt. Wesley Gray was deployed as a U.S. Marine Corps military adviser to an Iraqi Army battalion in the Haditha Triad. He offers a comprehensive portrait of the struggles of the Iraqi people to make their country a nation once again and includes a compelling report on the status and prospects of the U.S. government's strategy for success in Iraq (eBook).

The evil hours : a biography of post-traumatic stress disorder

Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, David J. Morris -- a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself -- crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.

A higher loyalty : truth, lies, and leadership

Former FBI director James Comey shares his experiences from his two decades in government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an entry into the corridors of power and a lesson in what makes an effective leader.

Into the fire : a first-hand account of the most extraordinary battle in the Afghan War

A Medal of Honor-awarded Marine sniper shares the controversy-marked story of his heroic contributions during a 2009 Taliban ambush during which he saved a company of Afghan soldiers and Marine advisors, a victory that compelled him to disobey orders and assume command without reinforcements or artillery support.

Living with honor

A Medal of Honor recipient shares the story of his military career, recounting his deployment to Afghanistan's volatile Korengal Valley and his life-risking efforts to provide medical aid to wounded fellow soldiers during an October 2007 Taliban ambush.

The long road home : a story of war and family

Documents the two-day firefight in Sadr City that began the Iraqi insurgency, during which eight 1st Cavalry Division soldiers were killed and numerous others wounded, an engagement that was vigilantly monitored by their loved ones back home.

Marching as to war : personal narratives of African American women's experiences in the Gulf wars

Seen through the eyes of eleven African American servicewomen, this book explores issues such as health care, child care, sexism/sexual harassment, racism, religion, career advancement, and serving in combat zones. Their stories illuminate the types of experiences black servicewomen have encountered during their time in the Gulf Wars (eBook).

Nights in the Pink Motel : an American Strategist''s Pursuit of Peace in Iraq

Nights in the Pink Motel is a graphic, first-person account of the political, military, and human efforts to dispel the fog of 21st century warfare. It is the first historical account of the strategic process that sought to reverse the negative consequences of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq (eBook).

No easy day : the autobiography of a Navy SEAL : the firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden

Writing under a pseudonym to protect his anonymity, a member of the elite SEAL Team Six provides a behind-the-scenes, first-person account of all his dangerous assignments around the globe, including the training, planning and execution of his most important mission, the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Reaching past the wire : a nurse at Abu Ghraib

Lt. Col. Germain offers an account of life as a nursing supervisor behind the fortified gates of Abu Ghraib. Her duty: To treat Iraqi prisoners in need of medical attention. Despite unbearable heat, frequent mortar attacks, medical supply shortages, substandard facilities, the relentless stench of war, sleepless nights quartered in a tiny prison cell, and constant reminders that all detainees were to be considered dangerous, Germain served the medical needs of each of her patients diligently.

Shoot like a girl : one woman's dramatic fight in Afghanistan and on the home front

On June 29, 2009, Air National Guard Major Mary Jennings "MJ" Hegar was shot down while on a Medevac mission on her third tour in Afghanistan. Despite being wounded, she fought the enemy and saved the lives of her crew and their patients. But soon she would face a new battle: to give women who serve on the front lines the credit they deserve.

The things they cannot say : stories soldiers won't tell you about what they've seen, done or failed to do in war

In this work the author asks the difficult questions of these combatants, many of whom he first met while in Afghanistan and Iraq and others he sought out from different wars. He compiles the accounts of soldiers, Marines, their families and friends, and also shares the unsettling narrative of his own failures during war and the redemptive powers of storytelling in arresting a spiraling path of self-destruction.

Waiting for an ordinary day : the unraveling of life in Iraq

A Wall Street Journal correspondent's wrenching portrait of ordinary Iraqis, their lives possessed by "the genie of terrorism chaos and mayhem" unleashed by the American invasion (eBook).

When Janey comes marching home : portraits of women combat veterans

This powerful collection juxtaposes 48 self-posed photographs by Sascha Pflaeging with oral histories collected by Laura Browder to provide a dramatic portrait of women at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women from all five branches of the military share their stories here--stories that are by turns moving, comic, thought-provoking, and profound (eBook).

Social issues

The AIDS crisis : a documentary history

Chronicles the history of the HIV and AIDS viruses and discusses their impact on the world.

The AIDS generation : stories of survival and resilience

For young gay men who came of age in the United States in the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was a formative experience in fear, hardship, and loss. This book examines the strategies for survival and coping employed by those who were diagnosed before 1996, who together constitute the first generation of long-term survivors of the disease.

Around the world on hot air & two wheels

Adventurer, business guru, collector, patron of the arts, genial gadfly, the peripatetic and irrepressible publisher of Forbes magazine is one of the few people to whom the much over-used phrase "Renaissance Man" actually applies, a modern Marco Polo who has traveled the world--including some of the more exotic and hard-to-get-to parts of it--by the unusual combination of hot-air ballooning and motorcycles.

The California dream

A collection of observations on what makes California and the Californians different from any place or any personalities anywhere. Writers and social commentators, past and present, such as Cesar Chavez, Mark Twain, Thomas Pynchon, and Aldous Huxley, sound off on the golden state's politics, landscape, lifestyles and people.

Coming of age : the story of our century by those who've lived it

This book is a collective portrait of our times, woven from the voices of seventy very different people, the youngest of whom is seventy and the oldest ninety-nine. Together they give us an extraordinary panorama of American life and work throughout this century and underscore the ways in which the times have changed.

Cure unknown : inside the Lyme epidemic

This book is an investigation into the science, history, and politics of Lyme disease as observed by a journalist whose entire family contracted the illness traces its significant rise and the atypical presentations that have made its diagnosis and treatment difficult.

The door of last resort : memoirs of a nurse practitioner

This memoir describes the education of nurse practitioners, their scope of practice, their abilities to prescribe medications and diagnostic tests, and their overall management of patients' acute and chronic illnesses. In doing so, it explores the issues in primary health care delivery to poor, urban populations and investigates the factors affecting health care delivery in the United States that have remained obscure throughout the current national debate (eBook).

The evil hours : a biography of post-traumatic stress disorder

Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, David J. Morris -- a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself -- crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.

Hurricane Katrina : the Mississippi story

This book presents the fullest account yet written of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in a wealth of oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty five thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities (eBook).

Nights in the Pink Motel : an American Strategist''s Pursuit of Peace in Iraq

Nights in the Pink Motel is a graphic, first-person account of the political, military, and human efforts to dispel the fog of 21st century warfare. It is the first historical account of the strategic process that sought to reverse the negative consequences of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq (eBook).

Waiting for an ordinary day : the unraveling of life in Iraq

A Wall Street Journal correspondent's wrenching portrait of ordinary Iraqis, their lives possessed by "the genie of terrorism chaos and mayhem" unleashed by the American invasion (eBook).

Younger-Generation Korean Experiences in the United States : Personal Narratives on Ethnic and Racial Identities

compares the formation of ethnic and racial identities in two generational cohorts of a contemporary immigrant group. Through personal essays, the book reveals how external factors helped younger-generation Korean Americans who grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s retain more of their cultural heritage than had preceding generations (eBook).

Resources in Library Databases

Off campus, these resources are available only to RVCC students, staff, and faculty and require a login with your G# and password.

Perform a keyword search, then select Primary Sources from the tabbed results.

Primary sources

 
To browse, select Primary Sources and then an appropriate era such as The Eighties: 1980-1989 or The 21st Century: 2000-present

Primary Sources     

Resources on the Internet