British history

The extraordinary strength, in both breadth and depth, of the Bodleian Library’s printed collections relating to post-1800 British history derives primarily from the workings of the legal deposit privilege which the Library has enjoyed since 1610. Collections for this period provide remarkably rich resources for historians within the University and attract many researchers from worldwide.

Holdings in the Bodleian, relating to all aspects of post-1800 British history, are complemented by very rich collections on the topography and local history of almost all areas of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Books and scholarly journals published in the British Isles are received almost comprehensively. Newspapers are acquired more selectively, and the post-1900 newspaper collections comprise mainly sets of the national daily and Sunday newspapers, broadsheet and tabloid, as well as Oxfordshire local newspapers.

Bodleian Library’s collections of early 19th century manuscripts are particularly strong in political, military and diplomatic history. For instance, the Library holds the papers of 19th- and 20th- century politicians, public servants, journalists and others involved in public affairs. They include among many others, the papers of six Prime Ministers, Disraeli, Asquith, Attlee, Macmillan, Wilson and Callaghan, but also of many cabinet ministers, public servants, diplomats and journalists. In addition the Bodleian holds on deposit the archives of the Conservative Party.

The excellent Modern Political Papers collection is supplemented by a comprehensive Official Papers collection. A complete set of British parliamentary papers from 1801 to the present is available electronically as well as on open-shelf, as well as non-parliamentary papers, and papers of the Republic of Ireland.

Worthy of note are also the extensive collections relating to the history of the Second World War and post-1945 history. For instance, the collections relating to the 1956 Suez Crisis are exceptionally strong, including correspondence and papers contemporary with the event. Papers and archives of all major political parties are held in microform.

European history

The Bodleian Library’s printed collections relating to modern history of Western Europe include significant holdings in all the major Western European languages, such as German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Scandinavian, etc.

The Bodleian’s Official Papers collection also includes the official journals/gazettes of various western European countries. The European Documentation Centre is located in the Bodleian Law Library.

The Library’s collections of research resources are particularly rich for modern German, French and Italian history as outlined in the following:

German history

Notable collections include publications produced in Germany during the First World War, books and pamphlets relating to the Second World War, the Third Reich, the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party and the Nuremberg tribunals.

Major microform sets include the Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP and the extensive Records and Documents Relating to the Third Reich. In particular, of major international importance - and unrivalled within the British Isles - is the Gutteridge-Micklem Collection of books, pamphlets, journals, and ephemera concerning the Kirchenkampf between the Nazi regime and the churches within Germany.

Extensive sets of parliamentary proceedings are also held from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as good collections of documentary sources relating to the regional history of these three countries. These include, for example, Protokolle der deutschen Bundesversammlung 1815-1866 and its various successors and Switzerland’s Schweizerisches Bundesblatt from 1942 onwards.

Collections relating to the history of the former German Democratic Republic ( East Germany) are also held in the Bodleian, with strong holdings of source materials on the former East German State, as well as secondary sources relating to the Reunification of Germany, acquired since 1989.

The Bodleian’s collections in German studies are supplemented by those held in the Taylor Institute Library.

French history

The Bodleian’s post-1900 collections relating to the History of France are particularly strong in primary and documentary sources relating to the regional history of the country. Notably, there is the extensive series of Inventaires-sommaires des archives départementales, collected continuously from the 19th century onwards. These constitute various local records of the French Departmental Archives.

Other major holdings include the annals of learned societies in France, covering French social and cultural history. Of particular note is the strength and interest in collections for the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, French regional history,  and material on the French resistance (e.g. Voices from Wartime France microfilm collection).

Many publications from France printed during the Second World War were acquired retrospectively as part of a concerted effort at the end of the War, including university theses from Paris, which were collected almost comprehensively.

The Bodleian’s collections in French studies are supplemented by those held in the Taylor Institute Library and the Maison Française d’Oxford.

Italian history

Printed collections relating to the history of Italy across the range of Western European languages are very extensive. In particular, publications relating to the cultural, social, and political history of Italy during the 20th century constitute one of the Bodleian Library’s notable areas of collections strength. Immediately following the end of the Second World War, there was a determined effort for a number of years on the part of the Bodleian retrospectively to acquire Italian publications which had been produced during the years of the War (and were frequently absent even from libraries in Italy), and collecting in the field of Italian-language materials relating to the history of Italy was then more intensive in Oxford than at the British Museum Library in London.

Since 1987, the well-known historian of the Italian Risorgimento and fascist regime in Italy, Denis Mack Smith, has been donating in instalments to the Bodleian his vast personal collection of books and periodicals in this subject area, which has considerably enhanced the depth and scope of the Library’s holdings of 20th century Italian history, and ensured its growing international significance.

The Bodleian’s collections in Italian studies are supplemented by those held in the Taylor Institute Library.

Russian and East European history

The Bodleian Library has one of the UK’s largest collections of material from and dealing with Russia, the former USSR and Eastern Europe, other than the British Library and the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies in London. As well as actively purchasing monographic material, the Library also provides access to much contemporary documentation from the Cold War era onwards is available. These include, for instance, press summaries from several British embassies in Eastern Europe, and reports from the Foreign Broadcasting Information Service (FBIS).

The Bodleian’s collections in Eastern European studies are supplemented by those held in the Taylor Bodleian Slavonic and Modern Greek Library and St Antony’s College.

Electronic resources

Oxford University Library Services (OULS) provides access to a growing collection of electronic resources via its resource discovery tool OxLIP+. These range from online databases and CD-ROMs to electronic journals. In addition to subscriptions to major databases, such as Historical Abstracts, Royal Historical Society Bibliography, Dictionary of National Biography, Cambridge Histories Online, Oxford Reference Online, Blackwell Reference Online, etc. and electronic journals, other major electronic subscriptions relevant to modern history include:

• ABSEES – American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies
• BBC Monitoring Global Newsline
• Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS)
• Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO)
• Empire Online, 1492-1969
• The English Reports 1220-1865
• Gerritsen Collection (Women’s History online 1543-1945)
• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (18th-20th centuries)
• Lexis Nexis Professional
• Macmillan – Cabinet Papers 1957-1963
• Making of the Modenr World, 1450-1850
• Margaret Thatcher – Complete Public Statements, 1945-1990
• UK Official Publications (UKOP)
• United Nations Treaty Collection, 1946-
• Wilfrid Owen Memorial Digital Archive

Newspapers

• 19th century British Library Newspapers
• The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2003
• The Guardian (1821-2003_/ The Observer (1791-2003)
• The Irish Times (1859-2007)
• The Scotsman (1817-1950)
• Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
• Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive
• Waterloo Directory of Victorian Periodicals
• Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900

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