The Historic Documents series makes primary source research easy by presenting in one volume key excerpts from documents relating to the important events of each year for the United States and the world. Each volume includes eighty to ninety documents from a particular year, from official or other influential reports and surveys, to speeches from leaders and other opinion makers, to court cases, legislation, and testimony, and much more.
Historic Documents is renowned for the well-written and informative background, history, and context it provides for each document. Each volume begins with an insightful essay that sets the year’s events in context. Full source citations are provided, and links to Web addresses containing complete documents are given if available. Readers have easy access to material through a detailed table of contents, a thematic table of contents, and a cumulative five-year index that directs them to related material in earlier volumes.
Featured documents in Historic Documents of 2007 cover topics including:
- Tony Blair steps down as the Labour party’s longest-serving prime minister
- Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law and suspension of the constitution
- Thousands of Burmese monks march in protest of the government
- General Petraeus reports to Congress on the progress of the troop “surge” in Iraq
- The Supreme Court upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Act in Gonzales v. Carhart
- Major recalls of Chinese consumer products after serious concerns arise about their safety
- A National Security Estimate reveals that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003
- Congress fiercely debates the future of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
- Israel and Palestine join the United States for peace talks in Annapolis
- Conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center reveal serious flaws in veterans’ health care