Twentieth-Century Parliamentary Papers

The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1901-2005 is the most detailed primary source for twentieth-century Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. They are a major part of the historical record. The Parliamentary papers influenced public opinion and social and political philosophy, and provided a forum for ideas for hundreds of thinkers, among them Marconi, Keynes, and Beveridge. They are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy, showing how issues were explored and legislation was formed.

This is a comprehensive collection, including all of the papers issued by the House of Commons after 1901, in all formats: Bills, Reports of Committees, Reports of Commissioners, Accounts and Papers and Command Papers (included within the Reports of Commissioners and Accounts and Papers). These are just a few of the topics covered:

The Boer War; Women's suffrage; World Wars I and II; the Russian Revolution; independence of Australia, India, Pakistan, and African nations; creation of the British Broadcasting Corporation; the Great Depression; the IRA; British withdrawal and formation of Israel; formation of the Commonwealth, United Nations, World Bank, IMF, NATO, and  the European Union; the Suez Crisis; abolition of the death penalty in Britain; the Cold War; the Falklands War; Gulf Wars I and II; Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; AIDS epidemic; equality; dismantling of Apartheid; Margaret Thatcher; September 11, and anti-terror laws.

All of the papers are full text searchable with hit term highlighting, and accompanied by the bibliographic data and subject indexing from the acclaimed Subject Catalogue to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1901-2004. High-quality scans of the original printed papers will also allow users to see all of the accompanying illustrations, statistics, and maps.

In addition to full text, users will be able to search and browse numerous fields, including:

• Paper title
• Subject (both alphabetical and hierarchical subjects)
• Chair/author
• Session
• Paper type
• Paper number
• Year

Initial results include brief bibliographic citations. After receiving them, researchers can view more detailed records, find related documents by clicking on hyperlinked subjects and related bills, mark specific documents for printing or downloading in PDF, and sort results by relevance or by date.

Researchers can view complete, digitized images of original pages from all the works in the database and even manipulate them by, for example, zooming in and out or printing pages one at a time, or navigating between illustrations only.

The digital version of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1901-2005, makes this essential primary source material easily and quickly accessible to undergraduates, researchers, and reference staff for the first time ever.

Keep your House of Commons Parliamentary Papers current by adding years from 2005 onwards. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers is updated quarterly with new full text and indexing, making it a vital resource for current affairs as well as an essential historical archive for any library.