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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta Liberatum
-Charter agreed to by King John of England on June 15, 1215
-Drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between an unpopular King and a group of rebel barons.
-Promised protection of Church Rights, protection for barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the crown.
-Annulled and re-written/re-issued several times until 1297
-Basis of many future legal principles and laws, including the United States Constitution. -
Peace of Westphalia
-Ended the 30 Years War, European Wars of Religion
-Stripped Ferdinand the III of power over the Holy Roman Empire and returned power to the Imperial States
-Princes of Imperial States regained the rights to determine their own state’s religion – Catholicism, Lutheranism, or Calvinism.
-Christians were guaranteed the right to practice their own faith if it conflicted with the religion of the State
-General recognition of each sovereignty over it’s lands, people, and agents abroad -
Committees of Correspondence
-Emerging in 1773 as Shadow governements organized by Patriot leaders of the 13 original U.S. colonies, with 7,000-8,000 patriots participating.
- Function was to inform citizens of the common threat of British rule faced by all the colonies, and to disseminate this information from cities to more rural areas.
- Took the lead in boycotts and political activism, promoting home manufacturing over imported goods
-Instrumental in setting up the first Continental Congress -
The Wealth of Nations
-Most well-known work of Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith, published in 1776
-Considered a fundamental work in classical economics
- Smith presents a description of what build's a nation's wealth, and argues that a free market will automatically regulate itself, limited only by monopolies, tax preferences, lobby groups and other privileges extended to certain groups.
-Cited by James Madison when writing in opposition to the National Bank -
Mary Wollstencraft
-English writer, philosopher, and advocate for Women's rights
- In 1792 wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" which argues that woman only seem inferior to men because of a lack of education
- Series of unconventional relationships with men and women throughout her life, and published many pieces concerning her lack of ability to secure financial independence because of her gender.
- Memoir of her life published after her death detailing her unconventional life choices. -
"Democracy in America" - Alexis de Tocqueville
-Published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840
-Primary focus is an analysis of why Republican representative democracy succeeded in the U.S. while failing in so many other places, including his Native France
- Discusses a change in social conditions as men had become more equal over the previous 700 years, and the Aristocracy disappeared.
- Alexis was originally sent, with his partner, by the French government to study the American prison system. -
Declaration of Sentiments
-Document created in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-Signed by 100 of the 300 attendees at the first Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, NY (Seneca Falls Convention)
- Described the ways in which men had heretofore deprived women of their natural rights, using language modeled after the Declaration of Independence
- Garnered criticism from some who believed it detracted from public support of Women’s Rights for things like voting rights -
'Ain’t I a Woman'
-Speech delivered by Sojourner Truth at the Women’s Convention in Akron, OH on May 29, 1851
-In the speech, Truth compares her qualities to that a man, and asks why rights should be withheld from her.
-Historians believe Truth modeled this phrase, “Ain’t I a Woman” after “Am I Not a Woman and a Sister,” a transformation of a popular British abolitionist phrase, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother,” in essence evoking questions of quality for both race and gender in one question. -
Max Weber - "Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"
-Founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general, completed in 1905.
-Weber was a German sociologist, economist, and politician
-Wrote that modern capitalism was a result of Protestant values and work ethic.
-Believed that Calvinist and Reformation ethics encouraged people to engage in work in the secular world, trading and accumulating wealth and giving rise to Capitalism, as opposed to traditional religious devotion that taught abstention from worldly goods and pursuits. -
John Maynard Keynes
- British economist and founder of modern macroeconomics, basis of Keynesian economics.
- "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" was published in 1936.
- Spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking during the Great Depression -Disagreed that free markets would automatically provide full employment, and argued that overall demands for goods and services determined economic activity and could lead to prolonged periods of unemployment if demand was low.
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Simone de Beauvoir
- French writer, existentialist, philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
- Published "The Second Sex" in 1949, an analysis of women's oppression and an argument for contemporary feminism. -Argued existentially that "one is not born but becomes a woman" -First argument that sex and gender expression are different
- Believed women are oppressed because they have been historically and socially defined as being The Other to men.
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Milton Friedman
- American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
- Challeneged Keynesian economic theory with his theoreis of monetarism
- Promoted steady expansion of money supply
- Advisor to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher -Also promoted policies such as a volunteer military, floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, negative income tax, and school vouchers.
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Judith Butler
- American philosopher and gender theorist who was a major influence on third-wave feminism and queer theory.
- In 1988 published "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution," which proposes the theory of gender performativity, or that gender is a performance.
- Asserted that gender is a performative repetition of acts associated with male and female, that are transmitted socially to maintain and legitimize a gender binary that does not actually exist.