A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Novel by Mark Twain A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Some early editions are titled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Twain wrote the book as a burlesque of Romantic notions of chivalry after being inspired by a dream in which he was a knight himself, severely inconvenienced by the weight and cumbersome nature of his armor. It is a satire of feudalism and monarchy that also celebrates homespun ingenuity and democratic values while questioning the ideals of capitalism and outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. Plot[edit] The novel is a comedy set in 6th-century England and its medieval culture through Hank Morgan's view; he is a 19th-century resident of Hartford, Connecticut, who, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England where he meets King Arthur himself. "'Bridgeport?'
Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography is Christopher Hitchens's contribution to the Books That Changed the World series. Hitchens, a great admirer of Thomas Paine, covers the history of Paine's 1791 book, The Rights of Man, and analyzes its significance.[1] Reception[edit] References[edit] Mark Twain American author and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist this country has produced",[2] and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".[3] His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),[4] the latter often called "The Great American Novel". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it—such as the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. Biography Early life Pilot was the grandest position of all. As Twain describes it, the pilot's prestige exceeded that of the captain. Travels Writing Views
On the Origin of Species A work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream. Summary of Darwin's theory[edit] Darwin pictured shortly before publication Background[edit] Developments before Darwin's theory[edit] Inception of Darwin's theory[edit] Further development[edit]
Charles Darwin English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882) Charles Robert Darwin ([5] DAR-win; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist,[6] widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept.[7] In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.[8] Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.[9][10] Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Biography
Oxford University Press Publishing arm of the University of Oxford We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away. Hi, reader in Canada, it seems you use Wikipedia a lot; that's great! Thank you! Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of University of Oxford. Early history[edit] The university became involved in the print trade around 1480, and grew into a major printer of Bibles, prayer books, and scholarly works.[5] OUP took on the project that became the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th century, and expanded to meet the ever-rising costs of the work.[6] As a result, the last hundred years has seen Oxford publish further English and bilingual dictionaries, children's books, school textbooks, music, journals, the World's Classics series, and a range of English language teaching texts. The first printer associated with Oxford University was Theoderic Rood. 17th century: William Laud and John Fell[edit] Laud also made progress with internal organization of the Press. Fell's scheme was ambitious.
The New York Times American daily newspaper The New York Times (NYT)[b] is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the Times serves as one of the country's newspapers of record. The Times was founded as the conservative New-York Daily Times in 1851, and came to national recognition in the 1870s with its aggressive coverage of corrupt politician William M. In 1971, The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, an internal Department of Defense document detailing the United States's historical involvement in the Vietnam War, despite pushback from then-president Richard Nixon. History The New York Times extensively covered World War II through large headlines, reporting on exclusive stories such as the Yugoslav coup d'état. Following World War II, The New York Times continued to expand. Management
Moncure D. Conway Moncure Daniel Conway (March 17, 1832 – November 15, 1907) was an American abolitionist minister. At various times Methodist, Unitarian, and a Freethinker, the radical writer descended from patriotic and patrician families of Virginia and Maryland but spent most of the final four decades of his life abroad in England and France, where he wrote biographies of Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine and his own autobiography. He led freethinkers in London's South Place Chapel, now Conway Hall.[1] Family[edit] Two of his three brothers later fought for the Confederacy. Early life[edit] Conway was born in Falmouth, Virginia, While in Cincinnati as discussed below, Conway married Ellen Davis Dana. Career[edit] After studying law for a year in Warrenton, Virginia, partly out of a moral crisis caused by seeing a lynching of a black man whose retrial had been ordered by the Court of Appeals,[6] Conway became a circuit-riding Methodist minister. In America[edit] Civil War[edit]
Abolitionism in the United States Movement to end slavery in the United States Abolitionism (or the Anti-Slavery Movement) in the United States of America was the movement which sought to end slavery in the United States, active both before and during the American Civil War. In the Americas and western Europe, abolitionism was a movement which sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and set slaves free. In the 17th century, enlightenment thinkers condemned slavery on humanistic grounds and English Quakers and some Evangelical denominations condemned slavery as un-Christian. At that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans were also enslaved. In the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, at least a third of them on British ships to North America. During the Age of Enlightenment rationalist thinkers criticized slavery for violating people's natural rights. There were a number of antislavery movements, which at times made for strange bedfellows.
Robert G. Ingersoll Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll (; August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was an American writer and orator during the Golden Age of Free Thought, who campaigned in defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic". Early life[edit] Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden, Yates County, New York. Though for many years the most noted of American infidels, Colonel Ingersoll was born and reared in a devoutly Christian household. During 1853, "Bob" Ingersoll taught a term of school in Metropolis, Illinois, where he let one of his students, the future Judge Angus M. Lawyer[edit] Later that year, the family settled in Marion, Illinois, where Robert and his brother Ebon Clarke Ingersoll were admitted as lawyers during 1854. While in Marion, he learned law from Judge Willis Allen and served as deputy clerk for John M. When he relocated to Shawneetown, he continued to practice law with Judge William G. Ingersoll was married, February 13, 1862, to Eva Amelia Parker (1841-1923). Civil war[edit]
Age of Enlightenment 17th- to 18th-century European cultural movement The Enlightenment was preceded by and overlapped the Scientific Revolution, which included the work of Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Pierre Gassendi, Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton, among others, as well as the rationalist philosophy of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and John Locke. The dating of the period of the beginning of the Enlightenment can be attributed to the publication of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, with his method of systematically disbelieving everything unless there was a well-founded reason for accepting it, and featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Influential intellectuals [edit] One of the most influential Enlightenment publications was the Encyclopédie (Encyclopedia). In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. Sociology, economics, and law
Benjamin Waterhouse Benjamin Waterhouse (March 4, 1754, Newport, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – October 2, 1846, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a physician, co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School. He is most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he carried out on his own family.[1] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Medical career[edit] Smallpox vaccine[edit] Waterhouse first wrote to then-President John Adams, his former roommate, hoping to spread the word about cowpox vaccinations preventing smallpox. Jefferson replied with a letter dated Christmas Day, 1800, and soon offered his support. Personal life[edit] In 1788, he married Elizabeth Oliver, with whom he had six children. Waterhouse was a prickly character, with a tendency to become involved in controversy.[13] Military service[edit] Waterhouse had a commission in the U.S. Final years and death[edit] Legacy[edit] Works[edit] References[edit] Dr. External links[edit]