POL 2009
Spring 2009
Useful Internet Addresses for Research on the United States
(Challenge to Students: This is just a start – and internet addresses change. Help keep this updated and
expanding. Send corrections & additions to: jennifer.bailey@svt.ntnu.no.)
Note: Lack of commentary on any given source just means that I haven’t gotten to it yet!)
U.S. Congress, centralized:
http://thomas.loc.gov/
U.S. Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
U.S. House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
Congressional Research Service: Web site does not link to their publications, but these publications
are occasionally posted by others. CRS does a good, respectable job. They turn short research
papers for Congressmen and their staffs.
Washington Post database on Congressional voting: This site has information on how Senators and
Representatives voted since 1991:. You can also break the votes down by category: party,
gender, region – an astrological sign:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/?referrer=email
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/index.html
Texts of older Supreme Court decisions and other government documents can be found at
http://www.fedworld.gov/index.html. Bound volumes of SC decisions from 1991 are on the
net at: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/boundvolumes.html CAUTION: these can
be huge – over one thousand pages in length. You can find a great deal navigating around the
site.
For some related documents on various recent cases see:
http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/home.html
Executive Branch
CIA: The CIA fact book offers many statistics and information on most countries; countries can be
rank-ordered for some factors. Information on CIA, including some press releases. See
exciting homepage for children! http://www.cia.gov/
Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil/
US Pacific Command: www.pacom.mil/
US Central Command: www.centcom.mil/
U.S. Northern Command: www.northcom.mil/
(All the Commands have web-sites)
Department of Education: Look at laws regarding educations and the support available for schools.
Note the assistance available for private schools and homeschoolers. You can also research
college and university accreditation. http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
Department of Homeland Security: Check the National Threat Advisory level and recent events in the
world of security and get tips for emergency preparedness and travel advisories for US
citizens: http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm.
Department of State: Press releases, information on various current issues. You can click through to
the famous Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series. This on-going, multivolume work publishes key internal government (mostly State Department) documents from
the archives. Many volumes are on specific geographical areas and on some specific issue
areas. Some volumes now available on-line – totally cool! Note that the FRUS series is
historical – there is a significant time lag for publication of these documents: www.state.gov
Access online volumes (from some Truman volumes to some Nixon volumes) at
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/c1716.htm
Government Printing Office: various government reports & documents and much other information:
www.gpoaccess.gov/indel.html
US Embassy, Oslo homepage: The embassy posts many speeches, press releases and other material on
a routine basis. You can subscribe and receive daily notice of the postings. www.usa.no
US National Archives and Records Administration: The official US historical archives, with much
available on the net. Also contains useful information on, for example, how the US electoral
college works. Click on “America’s documents” and then “our documents” (lower right) , and
then on “100 milestone documents” to find an amazing assortment of key documents from US
history. Also search from homepage by topic. http://www.archives.gov/index.html
United States Agency for International Development (USAID): www.usaid.gov. Look for the
“Greenbook”(US Overseas Loans and Grants, annual publication):
http://qesdb.usaid.gov/gbk/ . It has many long-term statistics on US assistance programs.
Another useful publication is “Foreign Aid in the National Interest”
(http://www.usaid.gov/fani/ ), a publication that embodies the views of the Bush
administration. See the glossary of terms that may help you understand US aid and the
agency: http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/cp2000/cp00gloss.html
Whitehouse: www.whitehouse/gov Here you can find speeches, history and policy papers.
Statistics on the US: http://www.census.gov/ This also include the Historical statistical abstracts
back to 1878 and as recent as 2005. Good stuff!
Selected historical statistics from Census Bureau:
http://www.census.gov/statab/www/minihs.html
For statistical abstracts (as published) : http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html
For 1878 to 1900 see: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab1878-1900.htm
See also http://www.fedworld.gov/index.html for US government documents.
Papers of the presidents: the following site has many documents for presidents from Hoover on -http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php.
US History
All US agencies (including the armed services) have historians, even the CIA. Some things are
available one line, other things can be ordered. (Some are classified & not available)
The American Presidency Project - http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ has a range of resources to
offer on the topic of the US president – including some of the presidential papers on line.
Their data page (at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data.php) has cool graphics and data on
the presidency over time – tracking for example, its growth.
Army War College: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/ Studies & analyses.
Command and General Staff College, Leavenworth: http://www-cgsc.army.mil/ Some studies and
resources from important US Army advanced studies institute
Center for Military History: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/default.htm Has some information
available on-line and also lists publications than can be ordered. Go to “Reference Questions”
and then to “Campaigns and Casualties” to find information on US casualties in various wars,
for example. Useful links to other military history sites, including other services.
Cox & Stokes website: http://www.usaid.gov/fani/ This site has student resources: monthly
commentaries, an interactive map on for foreign policy, time-line, useful links and multiple
choice questions – to help you study.
List of date of statehood for all US states: http://www.50states.com/statehood.htm
Walter LaFeber’s website: find primary source documents and links to relevant websites, organized by
chapter. www.mhhe.com/lafeber
NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations)
There are billions and billions of choices here. This is just a sampling:
League of Women Voter’s DemocracyNet: www.lwv.org; www.dnet.org/ (non partisan election
information).
Project for the New American Century: the now famous home to the neocon clique said to be the
dominant force today in Washington, D.C. Includes reports, press releases, opinion pieces and
the like, many of which can be printed or downloaded.:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/index.html
American Civil Liberties Union: the organization that US conservatives love to hate—an old champion
of civil liberties in the US with a very broad interpretation of free speech and in opposition to
virtually any limits on it.: http://www.aclu.org
The Federalist Society: An organization of conservative lawyers. Members of the FS were appointed to
key positions by the Bush administrations. They mission is to promote their take on the law
and the US Constitution. http://www.fed-soc.org/
The American Constitution Society: The liberal response to the Federalist Society: http://acslaw.org/
Press/Media:
The American Prospect (liberal-left) http://www.prospect.org/ . Important voice for promenient
members of Democratic Party
Christian Science Monitor: While it is published by a church (The First Church of Christ,
Scientist) it is not a religious publication. Its coverage and analysis are recognized to be
outstanding. Excellent coverage. http://www.csmonitor.com/
C-SPAN- The 24/7 public affairs channel – radio and TV. Covers all the political news, broadcasts
Congress in session, speeches of public officials, academics on a variety of political and
political history issues, has in-depth interviews with authors . Non-partisan. Great source:
http://www.cspan.org/
CNN: www.CNN.com: middle of the road-ish
Daily Show with Jon Stewart : Where far too many younger Americans get their news. Comedy
but Stewart’s interviews frequently tackle important topical issues:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Fox News: Very right-wing & ideological. http://www.FOXNews.com.
Los Angeles Times: An excellent if sometimes overlooked paper. http://www.latimes.com/
2004 elections coverage: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/lapolldatapage,1,1906511.htmlstoryThe Nation (leftist) Important critical journal, a
venerable 140 years old. http://www.thenation.com/
National Public Television/Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Publicly financed (that
means some money from the government, public contribution, sharply limited advertising)
television with good (but liberal) reputation: http://pbs.org
There are many documentaries archived on PBS. See Cheney’s Law which documents the
power of the last Vice President – highly recommended:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/
Newsweek (weekly news magazine, middle of the road)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/
New York Times: The so-called “newspaper of record” in the US. Possibly the single most
important. Tends to be liberal. Good book review section on Sundays (New York Times Book
Review.): www.nytimes.com 2004 election coverage:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/
Wall Street Journal: right wing editorial page, excellent news reporting http://wsj.com
Time (weekly news magazine, middle of the road): http://www.time.com/time/ - must pay for many
archival articles.
The Washington Post: Somewhat liberal but increasingly conservative editorial page; good news
coverage. Washington politics covered in detail. www.washingtonpost.com:
Journals: Academic & Poitical
Under construction. Here there are many, many journals to list. What should I add? Many of these
are best accessed through the library’s search engines (which may get you free access)
American Political Science Review – the Premier Political Science Journal in the US
Atlantic Monthly: excellent journal, often featuring long articles on timely foreign and domestic
politics. Frequently publishes long articles written by authors of major books that are the
subject of hot debate. Electronically searchable archives, but must pay a small fee. More
Foreign Affairs: Where the political and foreign policy elites publish their views on foreign policy
topics. Important to watch for Washington debates. Much on net, but some things have to be
purchased. Published by the venerable Council on Foreign Relations (see below)
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/
Foreign Policy. Excellent articles on a wide variety of foreign policy issues, often by prominent
academics and practitioners. An excellent source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com Published
by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. See, below.
International Security (scholarly, premier journal on security questions, connected to Harvard
University)
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/project/58/quarterly_journal.html?parent_id=46
New Yorker Originally geared to New York intelligentsia and the literary crowd, this journal is an
increasingly important source of political articles and had excellent articles on the Iraq war.
http://www.newyorker.com/
recent articles can be printed out without charge: http://www.theatlantic.com/
The National Interest (NeoCon) http://www.nationalinterest.org/
The American Interest (Fukuyama’s breakaway journal) http://www.the-americaninterest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=72&MId=1
Commentary (Conservative-right) http://www.commentarymagazine.com/ Wikipedia says:
Commentary was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945, and bills itself as
"America's premier monthly magazine of opinion." Initially a strong voice for liberal anticommunism, the magazine turned left during the early 1960s. Starting in the late 1960s it
reversed this leftward shift, eventually becoming the flagship of neoconservatism in the
1970s.[1][2][3]Currently edited by John Podhoretz, its founder and original editor was Elliot E.
Cohen. He was succeeded after his death in 1959 by Norman Podhoretz, who served as editorin-chief until 1995 and is currently the magazine's editor-at-large. Neal Kozodoy was editor
between 1995 and January 2009.
New York Review of Books (Not the New York Times Book Review!! This is independent of the
New York Times). An important place for first rate book reviews and also political
commentary. Tends to be liberal. Much available on the net. Searchable archive. (Let me
know if you are required to pay for an article you want.) http://www.nybooks.com
Web Sites that Follow Politics
RealClearPolitics.com: compiles election information, including polls. Also compiles opinion pieces.
Very useful:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Kos: a left –leaning site. http://www.dailykos.com/
Research Institutions/”Think Tanks”
American Enterprise Institute (right wing, conservative) http://www.aei.org/
Brookings Institution (center to liberal) Useful information of US foreign and domestic policy. Some
reports and articles can be printed out http://www.brook.edu/
Carnegie Institute for International Peace (center to liberal) Publishes journal Foreign Policy (see
above) . Many other reports and resources: http://ceip.org/
CATO Institute (right wing, conservative perhaps libertarian): http:// www.cato.org
Council on Foreign Relations: The most prestigious think tank foreign relations, publishes Foreign
Affairs journal. Web site has reports, studies, opinion-pieces and many other resources on US
Foreign policy. http://www.cfr.org/
Heritage Foundation (right wing, conservative) http://www.heritage.org/ See their section on
research for reports on a variety of subjects.
Institute for Policy Studies (left-wing): http://www.ips-dc.org/index.htm
National Security Archive. Compiles government documents on historically significant domestic and
foreign policy events. Seeks to publicize documents that have been secret, throwing new light
on past events. Connected to The George Washington University (a leading US university
located in Washington, DC.) Note the links to key documents of the Cold War towards the
bottom of the page. www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/indes.html
RAND Security & defense oriented, tendency to right wing, but an independent, and respected
research organization. Some things available via the net. Also references and things that can
be ordered.: http://www.rand.org/
Electronic Journals/Blogs
Salon.com A lively, in, left of center, highly influential & informed web site: http://www.salon.com/
Slate A popular electronic journal left of center. Very trendy and topical: http://www.slate.com/
US public opinion
Collection of polling information on 2004 Presidential elections:
New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/
Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-polldatapage,1,1906511.htmlstory
PEW Research Center for People and the Press: much polling information on a variety of relevant
topics, links to other polling data, well respected source: http://people-press.org/
The Program on International Policy Attitudes is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and
the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Affairs,
University of Maryland. PIPA: www.pipa.org
Gallup: http://gallup.com
University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/ Look for the Institute for Social Research the select
Centers and Projects. From there you can find links to the National Election Studies and the
very famous Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
pages (also accessible via NESSTAR). ICPSR has been collecting data on all kinds of things for
years. Note that you can find out what’s available but can’t download data unless you work
through a member institution. But fortunately for us, NTNU is such a member. Contact me if
you want to get access to this.
Zogby International: http://www.zogby.com/ Zogby International has been tracking public opinion
since 1984 in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe...
Universities (many, many more could be listed . . . please tell us of those you think especially
good. . .)
Dartmouth College Library: makes available government documents relating to September 11, the War
with Iraq, Social Science Statistics, Election of 2004. : http://www.dartmouth.edu/~govdocs/
Harvard’s Belfer Center for Seience and International Affairs, J.F. Kennedy school of government.
Some academic papers and op-eds published on the site, also many references.
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/index.html.
Political Parties:
These generally have many links to affiliated groups, and journals. Lotsa information on their own and
opposing candidates. Naturally highly partisan:
Democratic National Committee (DNC): http://www.democrats.org
Republican National Committee (RNC): http://www.rnc.org (note: GOP = Grand Old Party =
Republicans)
Organizing for America: This is the transformation of Obama’s grassroots campaign organization into
a standing grassroots organization. It does not seem to be up and running yet, but check later:
http://my.barackobama.com/ofa
But the US has other parties as well:
Green Party: http://www.gp.org (Once Ralph Nadar’s party)
Reform: http://www.reformparty.org (founded by Ross Perot, but has since fractured)
Libertarian: http://lp.org (Party of Lyndon LaRouche, link to the Cato Institute)
“Move On” is an independent but leftist internet organization that emerged in 2004 in support of
Howard Dean: http://moveon.org/
Religious
Beliefnet: An independent religious blog: http://www.beliefnet.com/
Christian Coalition http://www.cc.org /
Christians United for Israel (John Hagee):
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=learn_teachings
Focus on the Family http://www.focusonthefamily.com/ Jim Dobson’s organization
Faithful Democrats: http://www.faithfuldemocrats.com/ A Democratic response to the 2004
elections, here Democrats showcase their faith.
Various
Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. presidential elections Useful historical data. Private source.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/
Geographic atlas of US presidential elections, via the University of Virginia Library:
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/elections/maps/
Information on 2004 elections:
Federal Election Commission: candidates have to register their campaign finances with this
agency:
http://www.fec.gov/
New York Times has many resources and links on current election at:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/
Los Angeles Times has collected polling information and other information at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-polldatapage,1,1906511.htmlstory
Princeton for election maps and materials: http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/