Office of the Historian - Historical Documents

E-Books

The Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce the release of its Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series in a new e-book format that is readable on popular electronic devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad. The e-book edition combines many of the benefits of print and web publications in a new form that is portable and extremely convenient. During the pilot phase of the FRUS e-book initiative, five selected FRUS volumes are available here. The public is invited to download the new e-books and provide feedback to help improve the FRUS e-book edition. At the conclusion of the pilot phase later this year, the Office will work to offer e-book versions of many more FRUS volumes both through the Office website and on a wide array of e-bookstores. The Office will continue to expand and enhance its e-book offerings, as part of the ongoing FRUS digitization effort.

The FRUS e-book initiative is an outgrowth of the Office of the Historian’s efforts to optimize the series for its website. Because the Office adopted the Text Encoding Initiative’s open, robust XML-based file format (TEI), a single digital master TEI file can store an entire FRUS volume and can be transformed into either a set of web pages or an e-book. The free, open source eXist-db server that powers the entire Office of the Historian website also provides the tools needed to transform the FRUS TEI files into HTML and e-book formats.

For questions about the FRUS e-book initiative, please see our FAQ below; for other questions or to provide feedback, please contact history_ebooks@state.gov. To receive updates about new releases, return to this page, or follow us on Twitter at @HistoryAtState.

The following 27 publications are available during the current phase of our release:

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Guatemala.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Suez Crisis, July 26–December 31, 1956, Volume XVI.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Berlin Crisis, 1959–1960, Germany, Austria, Volume IX.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume VIII, National Security Policy.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XI, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXI, Africa.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XII, Western Europe.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XVI, Cyprus; Greece; Turkey.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume III, Foreign Economic Policy; International Monetary Policy, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume V, United Nations, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume VIII, Vietnam, January–October 1972.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume X, Vietnam, January 1973–July 1975.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971.
E-book last updated: June 8, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XII, Soviet Union, January 1969–October 1970.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XVII, China, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXIV, Middle East Region and Arabian Peninsula, 1969–1972; Jordan, September 1970.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXI, Foreign Economic Policy, 1973–1976.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXII, SALT I, 1969–1972.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–12, Documents on East and Southeast Asia, 1973–1976.
E-book last updated: May 23, 2012.

FAQ

E-Reader Basics

Q: Which FRUS e-book should I download (i.e., ePub or Mobipocket)?
A: This depends on what e-reader you use. The Apple iBooks app, the Barnes & Noble Nook, and many other e-reader apps and devices use the ePub format. Amazon Kindle devices and apps use the Mobipocket format.

Q: What e-reader devices and apps have FRUS e-books been tested upon?
A: We have tested FRUS e-books on iOS devices (using iBooks, Kobo, Bluefire Reader, Subtext, and Kindle apps), Kindle (Keyboard and Fire), and Android (using Bluefire and Alkido). We encourage users of other devices and apps to report their experiences with the pilot FRUS e-books.

Loading FRUS E-Books

Q: From which e-bookstores can I download FRUS e-books during the pilot phase of the Foreign Relations e-book initiative?
A: FRUS e-books are currently only available from the history.state.gov website. We hope to make the FRUS e-books available from all major e-bookstores at a later stage in the FRUS e-book initiative.

Q: If FRUS isn’t available from an e-bookstore, how can I load the e-books onto my device or into my app during the pilot phase of the Foreign Relations e-book initiative?
A: Consult the instructions provided by your app developer or device manufacturer to “side-load” the e-book file into your e-reader. Please note that e-reader devices or apps that do not allow side-loading cannot be used to read “beta” Foreign Relations e-books.
- iBooks (Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch): Select “Can I download books from other websites?” from the iBooks: Frequently Asked Questions
- Amazon Kindle: Search Kindle Support for “transferring” and select instructions specific to your device/app
- Barnes & Noble Nook: Search Nook Support for “side-load” and select instructions specific to your device/app

Citing FRUS E-Books

Q: Since e-books do not have stable page numbers, how can I cite references to FRUS e-books?
A: Use document numbers rather than page numbers. Document numbers are persistent, media-neutral identifiers. For example, to cite this memorandum from the SALT I, 1969-1972 volume, use:
U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2010), Doc. 262.
rather than
U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2010), 774-781.

Known Issues

Issue: FRUS e-book footnote behavior on Kindle devices and the Kindle app.
Decription: Footnotes are hyperlinked in FRUS e-books so that activating a footnote reference will navigate directly to the text of the footnote (and vice versa). On Kindle devices and apps, activating the hyperlink from the footnote text back to the footnote reference in the document will navigate to the content immediately following the reference. We are investigating the issue.
Issue: Indexes in pre-Johnson era FRUS refer to page numbers rather than document numbers
Decription: In creating this e-book edition, we have endeavored to maintain fidelity with the original printed edition wherever feasible. Unfortunately, fidelity is not always possible. For example, representing original page numbers from printed editions in e-books remains a challenge. This has obvious implications for citations, as described in “Citing FRUS E-books” above. But since the indexes in pre-Johnson administration volumes refer to page numbers rather than document numbers, we have found they cannot be used “as is” in e-book versions. We continue to explore this issue in the hope that we can find ways to restore the valuable functionality provided by page number references and indexes, but in the meantime, we have suppressed indexes in e-books for pre-Johnson administration volumes. Volumes from the Johnson administration onward, whose indexes reference document numbers, are unaffected by this issue.

Helpful Tips

Tip: Using bookmarks.
Description: Many e-readers allow users to set multiple bookmarks and navigate to them quickly from an easily-accessible list of all the assigned bookmarks in a given e-book. FRUS e-book users can take advantage of this feature to place bookmarks on frequently-used resources, like the Persons, Source, and/or the Terms and Abbreviations lists that are located at the beginning of each volume. Many e-readers also allow you to jump back to a previous location, making it easy to take advantage of the information in a FRUS e-book’s front matter without losing your place in the volume.
Tip: Using the table of contents.
Description: In addition to a hyperlinked version of the table of contents listing chapters in the compilation that appears in the beginning pages of a printed FRUS volume, FRUS e-books provide users with richly detailed lists of individual documents and their source notes at the beginning of each chapter and in the general table of contents accessible via the e-reader’s table of contents feature.
Tip: Using full-text search.
Description: Like the volumes accessible on history.state.gov, FRUS e-books are fully text-searchable. The features and behavior of the search engine depends on your e-reader device/app.

Providing Feedback or Other Questions

Q: How can I provide feedback or ask a question not answered here?
A: We welcome your feedback or other questions not answered here. Please contact us at history_ebooks@state.gov.

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