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US World History: The Enlightenment

What is the Enlightenment?

An intellectual movement which began in England in the seventeenth century, but then spread to have eventual influence over all sections of the world. The term "Enlightenment," rooted in an intellectual skepticism to traditional beliefs and dogmas, denotes an "illumined" contrast to the supposed dark and superstitious character of the Middle Ages. From its inception, the Enlightenment focused on the power and goodness of human rationality.

Some of the more characteristic doctrines of the Enlightenment are

1) Reason is the most significant and positive capacity of the human

2) Reason enables one to break free from primitive, dogmatic, and superstitious beliefs holding one in the bonds of irrationality and ignorance

3) In realizing the liberating potential of reason, one not only learns to think correctly, but to act correctly as well

4) Through philosophical and scientific progress, reason can lead humanity as a whole to a state of earthly perfection

5) Reason makes all humans equal and, therefore, deserving of equal liberty and treatment before the law

6) Beliefs of any sort should be accepted only on the basis of reason, and not on traditional or priestly authority

7) All human endeavors should seek to impart and develop knowledge, not feelings or character

(Definition from PBS)

Suggested European Digital Collections

Avalon Project (Yale Law School)
Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy from 4000 BCE to Present

British History Online
Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook (Fordham University)
Links to visual and aural material with emphasis on access to primary source texts for educational purposes.

Early Modern Resources
Research portal for the early modern period (c.1500-1800 CE). It only lists websites that are free to access and focuses on high-quality resources that are suitable for advanced research, study and teaching.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
Links to sites with primary historical documents for European countries and regions. Includes prehistoric and ancient Europe.

Europeana
Portal to digital libraries all over Europe, but also to archives, museums and audiovisual collection

Labryinth: Resources for Medieval Studies (Georgetown University)
The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth's easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world.

Library of Congress (LOC)

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

ASM History Databases 1500AD+

Login information is available on your teacher's Google Classroom site..
 

History Reference Center (Ebsco)
Designed for academic research, this database features full text for more than 1,990 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers.

Modern World History Online
Covers the full scope of world history from the mid-15th century to the present. Thousands of fully hyperlinked subject entries, biographies, images and videos, maps and charts, primary sources, and timeline entries.

Oxford Research Premium
Over 2 million digitized entries across Oxford’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias; Oxford Reference is the premier online reference product, spanning 25 different subject areas.

EBSCO Ultra Online
A comprehensive collection of full-text reference resources including ERIC, Newspaper Source, and TOPICsearch.

MAS Ultra Electronic Periodicals (Ebsco)
MAS Ultra provides full text for tens of thousands of magazines, biographies and primary source documents, hundreds of reference books (including the Columbia Encyclopedia and the CIA World Fact Book), an Image Collection containing photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full-text back files (back to 1975) for key magazines.

Statistica
https:www.statistica.com

This company provides current market figures and forecasts for the most important consumer goods within a total of more than 200 markets. All key figures are internationally comparable and are based on extensive analyses of data from national and international statistical offices, associations, company reports and the trade press.
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Password: See Ms. Keating

 

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