Founding Fathers Samuel Adams John Hancock John Adams Paul Revere Benjamin Franklin Thomas Paine Thomas Jefferson Alexander Hamilton Patrick Henry George Washington Samuel Adams Born 1722, Died 1803 Harvard Degree 1740 “The Son’s of Liberty” Mastermind behind the Boston Massacre propaganda campaign and the Boston Tea Party Declined to participate in the Constitutional Convention of…
Jim Crow A minstrel character of a black man, portrayed by a white man, by blackening his face with charcoal and jumping up and down and speaking with broken English the Jim Crow idea was one of many stereotypical images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the mid to late 1800’s Plessy V.…
The Political Background When Louis XIV took control of his country’s government in 1661 there was a good chance he might not last long. Kingship in the seventeenth century was a dangerous occupation. For evidence he had only to look at his own family. Louis’ grandfather IV Henry IV had been assassinated by a mad…
James I – The Divine Right of Kings The following is an excerpt from a doctrine in defense of monarchial absolutism. This document states that the king’s power is derived from the authority of God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament. Originating in…
The European world of the sixteenth century was a world of change. Though it still retained many of the institutions such as the Church, the universities, the manufacturing, and commercial guilds, and the feudal system of land-holding that had emerged during the Middle Ages, a new structure was developing. In religion, politics, economics, and society,…
Europe was just beginning to emerge from the medieval period. Historians define the medieval period from 410 CE (the fall of Rome) to the beginning of the Renaissance (c.1450 CE) POLITICS Western Europe was a myriad of small states. Ancient Roman laws were mixed with local practices. Most states were ruled by absolute monarchs. Most…
Pre-Revolutionary Russia Up until 1905, Czar Nicolas II had managed to contain the forces of change The failure of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war increased the general desire for reform Bloody Saturday in 1905 only led to more protests in both the cities and the countryside With the army tied up fighting the Japanese, the…
Imperialism In The Nineteenth Century A significant shift occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century. After 1870 and even more dramatically after 1885, there was a remarkable increase in the European acquisition of colonial territories in the South Pacific, Asia, and Africa In 1870, about 10% of Africa had been colonized, whereas by…
The Rise of the Nation-State Political leaders driven to consolidate power By 1871 the process of consolidation and unification had created modern Germany and Italy, altering the balance of power The struggle between states for land and wealth occurred primarily outside Europe through imperialism The process of expanding a nation’s territory through the acquisition of…
The social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution were significant The Industrial Revolution brought with it an increase in population and urbanization, as well as new social classes The poor living conditions in the towns can be traced to: Lack of good brick, the absence of building codes, and the lack of machinery for…
The introduction of liberalism in the 18th century meant a new age in British politics, which continued through the Industrial Revolution Gladstone (Liberal) and Disraeli (Conservative) were two of the most influential political leaders of the late Industrial Revolution Both advocated reform of social structure; as a result, some of the more productive governments came…
Industrial Revolution, a term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on complex machinery rather than tools. Dramatic changes in the social and economic structure took place as inventions and technological innovations created the factory system of…
Ideas laid out in The Republic (380 BCE) Individual human beings are not self-sufficient- can’t acquire all necessities of life working alone Thus, form communities in which we work for common goals Goals better achieved if each person specializes in a specific role (farmer, carpenter, merchant etc.)- Each person should ONLY perform task for which…
[B]asically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here…. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea…. You…
Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American naturalist and writer. This work of his has become the basis of non-violent protest throughout history and the world. Thoreau believed that nonviolence or passive disobedience was necessary whenever government edict conflicted with higher moral law- the ideal natural law, from which human law was derived. I heartily accept the…
In the Hellenistic and Roman periods after Plato, there were two kinds of Skeptics, and they were something like rivals: the Academics and the Pyrrhonists (stemming from Pyrrho of Elis, c. 360 – 270 B.C.). Sextus Empiricus was the last great Pyrrhonist. The Academics, according to Sextus, maintained that “all things are inapprehensible,” whereas the…
We know very little about Shakespeare’s life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the “lost years.” The lost years fall into two periods: 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582. The second period covers…
Shakespeare died in 1616 on his birthday, which was April 23, at Stratford-upon-Avon, which is in England. He died when he was 52. We have two different sources. The first one says his cause of death was unknown. The second one says he died after drinking with his theater friends. He was buried at the…
In 1989, the Cold War was declared officially over at a meeting between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.- Who Won? “The end of the Cold War is our common victory”- Mikhail Gorbachev “Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a…
With onset of Cold War in late 1940s began 2nd Red Scare. This included: House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was est. in WW2 to investigate ‘unpatriotic behavior’- late 1940s devoted to catching Communists -Highest profile investigation into Hollywood motion picture industry- produced a list called ‘The Red Channels’ identifying suspected Commies in Hollywood High…