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1450
Nicolaus Copernicus
Discovered the sun was the center of our universe, not the Earth. https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/copernicus.html -
Mayflower Compact
A document that gave the pilgrims permission to maintain order and establish a civil society. Puritan belief or not, this is an example of direct democracy. Every adult man had a say in the community. The compact was the first of its kind to create ideal democracy within the United States and a social structure. https://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/mayflower-and-mayflower-compact -
Peace of Westphalia
Peace treaties signed between multiple countries to end the war of religion.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Peace-of-Westphalia -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Discovered that religion was getting in the way of society, arts and sciences. The basis of American Democracy, his philosophical ideas influenced democracy. Started a socail contract that included equl right and freedom for all citizens.
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/copernicus.html -
Enclosure Acts
A document that gave the open land to individual people.
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/enclosure-acts-industrial-revolution/ -
Committees of Correspondence
Emergency governments that acted as communication for the thirteen colonies.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/10c.asp -
Declaration of Independence
Document created for the people of America become independent from the British rule.
http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/declaration-of-independence -
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Shellers mother, she never took on her husband's name. She wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Women. Her argument was, women are born equal to men, and fifty percent of the population was women. She voiced her thoughts on the hypocrisy of equality and democracy. Mary said that "women have the same place in society as men." Women should have access to education, and this should be the basis for a democratic society. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft -
U.S. Constitution
A law-abiding document for the people of the US.The constitution was the first modern-day document written with intent for a republic. For its time, it was open and a good experiment in democracy. The Constitution porvided political and socail stabilioty for the people. https://www.usconstitution.net/constkids4.html -
Immanuel Kant
Argues that the human mind creates the human experience.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Immanuel-Kant -
Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Two researchers from France came to America to study the prison system and they discovered how democracy was different in the United States from Europe.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/de-tocqueville/democracy-america/introduction.htm -
Karl Marx
Anti-capitalist who thoughts religion controlled people. On the front lines of the industrial revolution in Germany. Everday people taking off from their oppressors. Voiced to people that you do not have to be oppressed. Viewed religion as a force to further oppression. Marx thought religion was the opium of the masses so that people could not rise up.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx -
Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Women
Advocate for human rights.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm -
Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg Address
Speech Lincoln gave during the Civil War about equality and freedom.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/transcript.htm -
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
The study of Protestant society changing to capitalism society.
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/protestantethic/summary/ -
Jurgen Habermas
Developed social theory.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jurgen-Habermas -
Derrick Bell
Pioneer of the protest movement.
http://professorderrickbell.com/ -
Martin Luther King: I have a dream
A speech that was given that all men are equal. Martin Luther King did not believe in capitalism. Believed in a nonviolent solution to racism. The beginning of the speech started out with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, also a time when black people were not given equal rights. The speech spearheaded social change for equal freedom for all.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp -
Eve Sedgwick
Gender Studies/Queer Theory
http://as.cornell.edu/college-years-eve-kosofsky-sedgwick-founder-queer-theory -
Judith Butler
Gender Theory
https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/judith-butler