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1215
Magna Carta
"1215, thanks to years of unsuccessful foreign policies and heavy taxation demands, England’s King John was facing down a possible rebellion by the country’s powerful barons. Under duress, he agreed to a charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) that would place him and all of England’s future sovereigns within a rule of law." -
1517
Martin Luther: 95 Thesis
"Acting on this belief, he wrote the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” also known as “The 95 Theses,” a list of questions and propositions for debate. Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church." -
Inclosure Acts (Enclosure Acts)
"The Inclosure Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament that empowered enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land that was previously held in common." -
Mayflower Compact
"a set of rules for self-governance established by the English settlers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower. When Pilgrims and other settlers set out on the ship for America in 1620, they intended to lay anchor in northern Virginia." -
Peace of Westphalia
"European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on January 30, 1648." -
Immanuel Kant
"Kant was one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment and arguably one of the greatest philosophers of all time.Kant is best known for his work in the philosophy of ethics and metaphysics, but he made significant contributions to other disciplines. He made an important astronomical discovery about the nature of Earth's rotation, for which he won the Berlin Academy Prize in 1754" -
The Committees of Correspondence
"The Committees of Correspondence were provisional Patriot emergency governments established in response to British policy on the eve of the American Revolution throughout the Thirteen Colonies." -
Declaration of Independence
"In mid-June 1776, a five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence–written largely by Jefferson–in Philadelphia on July 4." -
US Constitution
"The Constitution of the United States established America’s national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia." -
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
"Declaration of Sentiments, document, outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens, that emerged from the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in July 1848." -
Karl Marx
"Evolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement." -
Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Women
"Ain't I a Woman?" is the name given to a speech, delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth, (1797–1883), born into slavery in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851, and did not originally have a title. -
Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg Address
"President Lincoln delivered the 272 word Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania." -
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
"In the book, Weber wrote that capitalism in Northern Europe evolved when the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the Protestant work ethic was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated emergence of modern capitalism." -
John Maynard Keynes
"English economist, journalist, and financier, best known for his economic theories (Keynesian economics) on the causes of prolonged unemployment. His most important work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1935–36), advocated a remedy for economic recession based on a government-sponsored policy of full employment." -
Simone de Beauvoir
"De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics and social issues. She was known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism" -
Milton Friedman
"Milton Friedman was an American economist and statistician best known for his strong belief in free-market capitalism. His first book came out in 1957 -
Port Huron Statement
"The Port Huron Statement is a 1962 political manifesto of the North American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)." -
Martin Luther King: I have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963" -
Robert Putnam: Civil Society
"Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work implies a conception of civil society with claims to republican ancestry."