Contact Info
Citation Help
- Chicago Manual of Style This link opens in a new windowThe Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format.
Essay Prompts
If Latin America is often seen as a “periphery” to the “center” of the world (Euro-North America), how does the production of science fit into this paradigm? Pick two countries for this question.
How has perceptions of the US-Mexico border changed over time by people on both sides of the border? For this question, I would suggest sticking to either the time period of the 1840s-1910s or to the 1920s to the 1990s.
People across the Americas developed and proposed radical left-wing analyses and organizing schemes in the early twentieth century. Why might one become an anarchist in this time period? For this question, pick two locations.
The Southern Cone went through a terrible phase of authoritarian regimes in the latter half of the twentieth century. For this essay, pick two countries (out of Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay) and discuss the overlaps and differences in two of the following categories: economics, violence, disappearance, national politics, and international diplomacy.
When looking at the twentieth century, we might categorize it as one of various yet different revolutions across Latin America. For this essay, pick one country (out of Mexico [1910s onward], Cuba [1890s or 1959 onward], Bolivia [1950s and/or 2000s], Chile [1970s], Nicaragua [1980s]) and answer the question: was it really a revolution?
Search the Olin Library
Primary Sources on the Web
- Sources And General Resources On Latin AmericaA collection of links to primary sources online compiled by Stephen Volk, a Professor of History at Oberlin College
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)The DPLA offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Users can browse and search the DPLA’s collections by timeline, map, format, and topic; save items to customized lists; and share their lists with others. Users can also explore digital exhibitions curated by the DPLA’s content partners and staff.
- Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection"More than 5,000 titles including many scarce and unique Latin American pamphlets published during the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico are the countries most heavily represented in this collection."
- Latin America and the Caribbean Primary Sources, World Digital Library325 primary sources from Latin America and the Caribbean from the World Digital Library, Library of Congress.
- Latin American Posters CollectionThe posters included in this collection were created by a wide variety of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, and other types of organizations across Latin America, in order to publicize their views, positions, agendas, policies, events, and services.
Primary Sources
Primary sources are documents, images or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an historical topic under research investigation. Primary sources are original documents created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched. Primary sources enable researchers to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.
Primary sources can include:
- Memoirs or speeches
- Statements or reports released by a political party, agency, nonprofit, or association
- Official documents such as congressional hearings and reports
- Magazine and newspaper articles
- Court documents
- Legislation or treaties
Country Specific Primary Sources
Specialized Resources
- The Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Economist Historical Archive offers full-color and full-text coverage of each weekly issue of the magazine from 1843-four years ago, with a new year of content added each year.
- Time Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
The Time Magazine Archive consists of cover to cover processing dating back to issue number one in 1923 of the American popular magazine Time, published by Time Inc.
- Life Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-color, cover-to-cover coverage of the photojournalism magazine from its first issue in November 1936 through December 2000.
- National Geographic Magazine This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive, timely articles and legendary photos documenting life on our planet any beyond. The National Geographic Archive offers full-color and full-text coverage of each issue of the magazine from 1888-current.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
With over 12 million articles available, the archive supports research across multiple disciplines and areas of interest, including business, humanities, political science, and philosophy, along with coverage of all major international historical events.
- Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research.