United States History
Christopher Columbus, "Journal of the First Voyage" (1492)
Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" - the "City on a Hill"
The Examination of Anne Hutchinson
Witchcraft
Virginia Slavery Legislation
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Speech to the Virginia Convention
Paine, "The Crisis, Number One"
Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence" (1776)
"Articles of Confederation" (1777)
Virginia Recommendations for a Bill of Rights
United States Constitution
Federalist #10
On Manufactures
Washington's Farewell Address1800-1877
Jefferson's First Inaugural Address
Marbury v. Madison
Monroe Doctrine
David Walker, "Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World" (1829)
Appeal of the Cherokee Nation
John G. Burnett's Story of the Removal of the Cherokees
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance" (1841)
Frederick Douglass, What to a Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852)
Margaret Fuller, Women in the 19th Century (1845)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Seneca Falls Declaration" (1848)
Benton, "Destiny of the Race"
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
Dread Scott v. Sanford (1857)
John O'Sullivan, Annexation (1845)
Mississippi Resolutions on Secession (1860)
Alexander Stephens, "Cornerstone Speech" (1861)
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
Scribner's Monthly, "What the Centennial Ought to Accomplish" (1875)1877 - 1900
Mark Twain, "Glances at History"
Mark Twain, "Concerning the Jews" (1898)
Frederick Douglass, Address to the Louisville Convention (1883)
"Wealth" - Andrew Carnegie (1889)
"Triumphant Democracy" - Andrew Carnegie (1886)
Preamble to the Constitution of the Knights of Labor (1878)
Samuel Gompers, "What Does the Working Man Want?" (1890)
Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Albert Beveridge "In Support of an American Empire" - "America's Destiny" (1900)20th Century
T. Roosevelt, "Message on the Caribbean" (1905)
T. Roosevelt, "Monroe Doctrine Corollary" (1904)
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair - selected text (1906)
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair - complete text
Jane Addams, “Spirit of Youth” FULL (1909)
Jane Addams, “The Spirit of Youth” SECLECTION (1909)
Bourne, "Trans-National America" (1916)
Mary Antin, "Russian Jews" (1916)
Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress (1917)
Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress "14 Points" (1919)
Erich Maria Remarque, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
In Our Time
Henry Cabot Lodge, Speech to the Senate on the League of Nations (1919)
Congress Debates Immigration (1921)
Meyer v. Nebraska (1923)
Langston Hughes, "Let America Be America Again" (1936)
Meridel Lesueur, "Women on the Breadlines" (1932)
Immigration Act of 1924
Franklin Roosevelt "First Inaugural Address" (1933)
The Social Security Act (1935)
Franklin Roosevelt, Speech to the Democratic National Convention (1936)
Herbert Hoover, On the New Deal (1936)
Franklin Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms (1941)
African Americans and the Four Freedoms (1944)
Franklin Roosevelt, "Address to Congress" (1941)
Franklin Roosevelt, Fireside Chats:
On the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933)
On the First 100 Days (July 24, 1933)
On the Works Relief Program and Social Security (April 28, 1935)
On World War II (1943)
Steinbeck, Harvest Gypsies (1936)
Sara M. Evans, American Women at War (1989)
Justice Jackson, Dissent in Korematsu v. US (1944)
The Falling Sun: Hiroshima (1945)
John Hersey, "Hiroshima" (1946)
Harry Truman, “Address to Congress” (March 12, 1947) aka “Truman Doctrine”
George Kennan "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" (1947)
Churchill, "The Sinews of Peace" aka "Iron Curtain Speech" (1946)
George Orwell, "You and the Atomic Bomb" (1945)
"If an A-Bomb Falls" (Delaware Department of Civil Defense, 1951)
George Marshall, "Laying the Foundations for Recovery" (1947)
Interview with Wolfgand Leonhard regarding the Communist Takeover of E. Germany
Gedye, "Witness to the Czechoslovak Coup" (1948)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Heller, "The Hungarian Revolution" (1956)
McCarthy, "Lincoln Day Address" (1950)
Margaret Chase Smith, "Declaration of Conscience" (1950)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Farewell Address" (1961)
John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address
John F. Kennedy, "Alliance for Progress" (1961)
John F. Kennedy, "Civil Rights Speech" (1963)
Lyndon Johnson, The American Promise (1965)
Cold War Weapons Mechanic
Friedan, NOW (1966)
Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Time to Break Silence” (1967)
Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963)
Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream" (1963)
Betty Friedan, "The Feminine Mystique" (1963)
Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet (1964)
Interview with Malcolm X (1965)
Stokely Carmichael, Black Power (1966)
LBJ, “Message on the Gulf of Tonkin” (1964)
Mendez at al. v. Westminster School District (1946)
American GI Forum of Texas and Texas State Federation of Labor (AFL) (1953)
P. Potter, Antiwar Movement (1965)
Stokely Carmichael, "Black Power" (1966)
Dolores Huerta, "Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers" (1969)
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, "I Am Joaquin" (1967) [Listen to the poem here.]
Henry B. Gonzales, Congressional Record, 91st Congress, April 22, 1969
El Plan de Aztlan (1969)
Luis Valdez, "The Tale of the Raza
Ruben Salazar, "Strangers in One's Land" (1970)
Armando Rendon, "Chicano Manifesto" (1971)
Schlafly, Fraud of the ERA (1972)
Harry Blackmun, Roe v. Wade (1973)
Coretta Scott King, "Gay Rights and African-American Civil Rights"
Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address (1981)
Ronald Reagan, “Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals” (1983)
Betty Friedan - Interview, September 1994
George Bush, "National Security Strategy of the United States of America" (2002)
A. Kennedy & S. O'Connor, Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
Archbishop Mahoney, Called by God to Help (2006)
Barack Obama, Inaugural Address (2009)
Barack Obama, "Cairo Speech" (4 June 2009)
Kennedy (and others) Obergefell et al v. Hodges (2015)
B. Obama, Eulogy at Emanuel AME Church (2015)
Western Civilization
Ancient/Classical
The Myth-Making Outlook of the Ancient Near East
Hebrew Scriptures
Genesis
Psalm 8
Exodus: The Ten Commandments
Leviticus: Neighbor and Community
Deuteronomy: Judges, Witnesses, and Justices
Amos and Isaiah: Social Justice
Isaiah: Peace and Humanity
Job
Jonah
Homer: The Iliad, Selections from books VI and XXIV (full text here)
Homer, "The Odyssey" (full text)
Hesiod, Theogony (c. 750 BCE)
Hesiod, Works and Days (c. 750 BCE)
Critas, Religion as a Human Invention (c. 480-403)
Thucydides, Method of Historical Inquiry (c. 460-400)
Thucydides, The Melian Dialogue (c. 430)
Thucydides, The Funeral Oration of Pericles
Hippocrates, The Sacred Disease (c. 377)
Sophocles, "Antigone" (442 BCE)
Selections from Antigone
Sophocles, "Antigone" (selection on Lauding Human Talents)
Pindar, “The Pursuit of Excellence”
Xenophon: A Spartan Childhood (c. 350 BCE)
Xenophon: The Role of An Athenian Wife (c. 350 BCE)
Plato, Allegory of the Cave
Plato, The Apology
Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics"
Polybius, “The Roman Army”
Cicero, "On Duty" (c. 40 BCE)
Selection from “On Duty” justifying Caesar’s assassination
Livy, "Rape of the Sabine Women" (c. 15 CE)
Livy, "Rape of Lucretia" (c. 15 CE)
Livy, “The Second Punic War”
Virgil, "The Aeneid"
Josephus, "Description of the Roman Army" (c. 37-95)
Dio Cassius, “In Defense of Caesar and Monarchy”
Dio Cassius, “Caracalla’s Extortions”
Dio Cassius, “Petition to Emperor Philip”
Plutarch, "Dialogue on Love" (c. 120)
Tacitus, "Dialogue on Oratory" (c. 120)
Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations" (167) selections
Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations" (167) full
Jerome, “The Fate of Rome” (409)
Athenagoras, “Sexuality and Family Life” (2nd c.)
Tertullian, What Has Jerusalem to Do with Athens? (c. 240))
Clement of Alexandria, In Defense of Greek Learning (c. 220)
Saint Benedict, The Virtuous Christian (c. 547)
Augustine, City of God (c. 410)
Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians (c. 407)
Medieval
Theophylact Simocattes, “The Value of Reason and History” (7th c.)
Muhammad, The Qu-ran (selections)
Avicenna, Love of Learning (c. 1037)
Urban II: Speech at Clermont, 1095 (Robert the Monk version)
Anna Comnena, A Greek View of the Crusaders (Twelfth Century)
Odo of Deuil, A Crusader’s Criticism of the Greeks (c. 1148)
Usamah, An Arab View of the Crusaders (Twelfth Century)
The First Contact of Crusaders and Turks, (1097-1099)
William of Tyre, The Capture of Jerusalem (1099)
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), “Second Letter to Bishop Herman of Metz” and the Dictatus Papae
Feudal Documents: Vassal and Warrior (11-12th c.)
Documents Relating to Francis of Assisi (d. 1226)
Innocent III, On the Misery of the Human Condition (c. 1198)
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (c. 1274)
Peter Abelard, Inquiry into Divergent Views of Church Fathers (c. 1140)
John of Salisbury, On the Liberal Arts, What is a Scholar?
Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis (1324)
Jean de Venette: The Black Death (c. 1350)
Kramer and Sprenger Malleus Maleficarum (1486) SELECTION
Kramer and Sprenger “Malleus Maleficarum” (1486) FULL TEXT
Petrarch, Ascent of Mount Ventoux
Petrarch, On the Italian Language and Literature
Petrarch, "Letter to Posterity"
Bruni, “Study of Greek Literature and a Humanist Educational Program” (1405)
Pico, "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (c. 1494)
Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509) (full text here)
Thomas More, Utopia (1516) (full text here)
Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1513) (selection)
William Shakespeare, Selections on Human Nature and HUMAN CONDITION
K. Sale, The Noble Savage and the Savage Beast (a secondary source)
de las Casas, Apologetic History of the Indies (1566)
Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1548)
Martin Luther, On Papal Power, Justification by Faith, The Interpretation of the Bible, and the Nature of the Clergy,
On Christian Liberty (1520)
John Calvin, The Institutes, Ecclesiastical Ordinances, and the Obedience Owed Rulers
Council of Trent (1545-1563)
The Life of St. Teresa of Avila (c. 1565)
Jean Bodin, The Six Books of the Republic, Book 1, (1576)
Johannes Junius, A Confession of Witchcraft Explained (1628)
Nicholas Malebranche, Search After Truth (1675)
Modern
Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637)
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
John Locke, "On the Origin of Government" (Chapter VIII) [full text here]
Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1725)
Rousseau, "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men" (1754) [full text here]
Rousseau, "Discourse on Political Economy" (1755)
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)
Documents Relating to the French Revolution
Declaration of Rights of Man and of Citizen (1789)
Petition of the Jews of Paris, Alsace, and Lorraine to the National Assembly (1790)
Society of the Friends of Blacks, "Address to the National Assembly in Favor of the Abolition of the Slave Trade" (1790)
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Napoleon Bonaparte (miscellaneous documents)
William Wordworth, "Tables Turned" (1798)
William Blake, Milton (1804)
A Petition Against Scribbling Machines (1786)
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798, 1807)
John Aikin, A Description of Manchester (1795)
Robert Owen, Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System (1815)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama" (1820)
Klemens von Metternich, "The Odious Ideas of the Philosophes" (1820)
Joseph de Maistre, Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1809)
Benjamin Constant, On the Limits of Popular Sovereignty (1815)
Giuseppe Mazzini, Young Italy (1831)
John Stuart Mill,
On Liberty (1859)
On the Subjection of Women (1869)
Joseph Chamberlain, “The White Man’s Burden”
Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
Lord Ashley, Women Factory Workers (1844)
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) Selections
Sadler Commission, Report on Child Labor (1832)
James Kay, The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes in Manchester (1832)
John Henry Newman, Tracts for the Times, No. 1 (1833)
Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Women of England, their social duties and Domestic Habits (1839)
Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures (1835)
Lin Tse-Hsü, Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)
Jane Carlyle, Father Mathew (1843)
Edward Baines, The Religious State of the Manufacturing Districts (1843)
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
James Wilson, The First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Progress of the Nation and the Race (1851)
William Rathbone Greg, Shall We Retain Our Colonies? (1851)
Thomas Hill Green, Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract (1861)
Isabella Beeton, Domestic Servants (1861)
Henry Mayhew, Prostitution in London (1862)
E. Lynn Linton, The Girl of the Period (1868)
Samuel Smiles, Self Help (1882)
William Booth, In Darkest England (1890)
Emmeline Pankhurst, Why We Are Militant (1913)
Charles Darwin, Natural Selection (selected readings)
Samuel Wilberforce, Darwin's Faults (1860)
Thomas Huxley, Darwin's Virtues (1860)
Herbert Spencer, Man Versus the State (1884)
Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum Novarum" (1891)
A. V. Iartsev, Proclamation (1873)
Alexander III, April Manifesto (1881)
Douglas Hyde, On the Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland (1892)
William E. Gladstone, The Case for Home Rule (1886)
Marquess of Hartington, The Case Against Home Rule (1886)
Gustave Le Bon, “Mass Psychology” (1895)
Hermann Ahlwardt, "The Semitic Versus the Teutonic Race" (1896)
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896)
Joseph Chamberlain, The True Conception of Empire (1897)
Joseph Chamberlain, The Boer War Defended (1900)
Joseph Chamberlain, "I Believe in a British Empire" (1903)
David Lloyd George, The Boer War Criticized (1900)
Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Will to Power” (1901) and “The Antichrist”
John Hobson, Imperialism (1902)
Heinrich von Treitschke, "The Greatness of War" (1900)
Friedrich von Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War (1911)
Petition to Nicholas II (Bloody Sunday Petition) (1905)
Nicholas II
October Manifesto (1905)
Imperial Manifesto (1907)
V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done (1902)
"Marxism and Revisionism" (1908)
"War and Revolution" (1929)
Sigmund Freud:
“A Legacy of Embitterment” (1915)
The Unconscious (1912)
Civilization and its Discontents (1930)
Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum est” and “Disabled”
Paul Valéry, “Disillusionment” (1919/1922)
Quarter-Master Sgt Major E. S. Fendley documents (Great War)
Benito Mussolini, "What is Fascism" (1932)
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf / selections (1925, 1926)
Munich Pact (1938)
John H. Hallowell, The Crisis of Our Times (1950)
Andor Heller, The Hungarian Revolution 1956
Milovan Djilas, The New Class (1956)
Mikhail Gorbachev
Address to the 43rd U.N. General Assembly Session (December 7, 1988)
Dissolving the Soviet Union (1991)
David Rieff, Slaughter in Yugoslavia (1995)
WORLD HISTORY
The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000 BCE)
Selections from the Epic of Gilgamesh
Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE)
Selections from the Code of Hammurabi
Enuma Elish (written c. 1100 BCE)
Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature
Hymns to the Pharaohs (2600/1166)
Guidelines for the Ruler (Egyptian)
Hymn to Aton (c. 1353 BCE)
Inscription of Tiglathpileser I (Assyria, c. 1077 BCE)
Inscriptions of Cyrus and Darius I (Persia, c. 525 BCE))
Ban Zhao, Lessons for Women
Han Fei Zi (d. 233)
Bernal Diaz, “The Aztec Civilization of Mexico” (ca. 1519)
Three Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico(1519-1521)
Benito Juarez, on La Reforma (1857)
Declaration of Philippine Independence (1898)
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)
Mohandas Gandhi, "Indian Home Rule" (1908)
Francisco Madero, Plan de San Luis Potosi (1910)
Plan de Ayala (1911)
Documents Related to the Armenian Genocide, 1915
Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 5, "The Aftermath" (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929).
Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.: 1919), pp. 307-309, 321-323.
Armenian National Institute
Mao, Critique of the Versailles Peace Conference (1919)
Mustafa Kemal, "Speech to the Congress of the People's Republican Party" (1927)
The Muslim Brotherhood, "Toward the Light" (1936)
Japanese Note to the United States (December 7, 1941)
Documents Related to the Holocaust (1933-1945)
Filip Müller, Eyewitness Auschwitz, or Auschwitz inferno : the testimony of a Sonderkommando.
The Wannsee Protocol (1942) aka "The Final Solution"
Elie Wiesel "Reflections of a Survivor" (1987)
Elie Wiesel Night (1960) selection
United Nations Charter
Ho Chi Minh, Declaration of Independence, Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945)
Instrument of Surrender by Japan (1945)
Constitution of Japan (1946)
Fidel Castro, History Will Absolve Me (1953)
Mao Zedong, "China Will Take a Giant Stride Forward" (1964)
Ruholla Khomeini, "Islamic Government" (1970)
Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (1982)
Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” (1993)
Ralph Nader, "Free Trade and the Decline of Democracy" (1993)
Osama bin Laden, "Declaration of Jihad Against Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" (1996)
Burtless et al, "Globaphobia. Confronting Fears About Open Trade" (1998)
Mohammed Atta, "The Last Night" (2001)
Abbas Amanat, "Empowered Through Violence" (2001)
Economist, "Martyrdom and Murder" (2004)