Now trialling: Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War
Ends: Friday 8th December 2017.

This e-resource is available through library PCs only.

Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War: Intelligence, Strategy and Diplomacy provides access to government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 – 1953.

Provides 144,000 pages of British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files sourced from The National Archives U.K. Content which is only available elsewhere by visiting the National Archives in London.

Contains nine file series which span four major Twentieth-Century conflicts – the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the early years of the Cold War and the Korean War. Includes multiple search and filter options and a series of essays written by the resource Editorial Board of academic experts that contextualize the material and highlights key themes.

At the heart of this resource are the files from the Permanent Undersecretary’s Department (PUSD), which was the liaison between the Foreign Office and the British intelligence establishment. These files provide new insights into key moments of the twentieth century.

Another highlight are the original intelligence reports that were intercepted and decoded by the British Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. These files include reports coming from high-grade cyphers such as ENIGMA. These reports were delivered to Churchill and in a lot of instances include Churchill’s own handwritten annotations in red ink.

Taken together, the nine series included in Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War provide a chance to study the in-depth history of the Second World War – its causes, course and consequences and the early Cold War, from a high level government and secret intelligence perspective.

Secret intelligence has long been regarded as the ‘missing dimension’ of international relations. However, thanks to the Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War project, Britain’s spies, security agents, codebreakers and deceptioneers are no longer missing in action. Denis Smyth, University of Toronto, Canada

Please note: The My Archive and the Document and Citation Download functions are not available on this trial edition of Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War. Documents can be viewed using the image viewer function.

If you have any feedback, please let us know through twitter @IHR_Library, email: ihr.library@sas.ac.uk, or come and see us in the Library Enquiries Office on Floor 1.