From its beginnings as a loosely definable group of philosophical ideas to the culmination of its revolutionary effect on public life in Europe, the Age of Enlightenment is the defining intellectual and cultural movement of the modern world. Using reason as its core value, the Enlightenment believed that progress and the betterment of the human […]
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It is possible that no man has ever dominated a time as much as Charles the Great dominated the Early Middle Ages. It is true that the era had its kings, warriors, scholars, and religious leaders, but in many ways, Charlemagne was all of these things. Inside you will read about… ✓ Charles the Carolingian✓
Old Hickory. King Mob. The Peoples President. King Andrew I. The nicknames by which the seventh president is known reflect the different facets of his complicated nature. He believed in the rights of the common man because he came from humble beginnings and distrusted the vested institutions of power. The first American president born to
The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted from the end of World War II until the end of the 1980s. Over the course of five decades, they never came to blows directly. Rather, these two world superpowers competed in other arenas that would touch almost every corner of the globe.
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin came from humble beginnings to take his place in the annals of history as one of the most celebrated Americans ever to stand on the world stage. The Boston apprentice who ran away because of his brother’s ill-treatment found his destiny in Philadelphia, where he became a printer, a scientist, an
Everyone knows who Christopher Columbus is, and everyone knows what he discovered and what he is famous for. Who, really, is this man, so shrouded in mystery? Columbus would tell you he was inspired by God to make his voyages, and it takes a brave soul indeed to sail out into the ocean blue where
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One of the most controversial figures in British History, Oliver Cromwell entered the world as an insignificant member of the English gentry and left it as the all-powerful Lord Protector of the entirety of England, Scotland and Ireland. A radical Puritan, Cromwell believed that his meteoric rise through the ranks of the English military and
The Battle of Antietam was a turning point in the Civil War. In the span of several hours, there would be more loss of American life than in any other battle before or since, leaving one in four of the soldiers who took part either dead or wounded by the end of the day. Inside
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In 1642, King Charles I and the elected Parliament of England went to war over the future of the Stuart kingdom. Over the next nine years three Civil Wars would be fought, devastating the populations of England, Scotland and Ireland and claiming a death toll of an estimated 800,000 people, including King Charles I himself.
Mary Stuart was born into a powerful royal dynasty that was at war with the rest of Europe and with itself. Mary’s ascent to the throne was disarmingly easy and she reached adulthood completely unprepared for the plots and betrayals she would be subject to. As the head of a resolutely unstable country, Mary struggled
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