Landmark Speeches and Documents

Machiavelli's political treatise on power and statecraft

Thomas Paine's pamphlet arguing for American independence

Rousseau's work arguing that legitimate authority rests on a collective agreement

Gandhi's call for British withdrawal from India

Thomas Paine's defense of liberty and the French Revolution

an early written law code from ancient Babylon

Nehru's speech marking India's independence

the 1945 treaty that established the United Nations

Adam Smith's foundational work on political economy

Martin Luther's challenge to Church practices that helped spark the Reformation

the 1215 charter that limited royal power and affirmed rule of law

Marx and Engels' pamphlet on class struggle and communism

Churchill's early wartime speech as prime minister

the framework of the U.S. federal government

the 1948 UN statement of fundamental human rights

the 1776 statement that the American colonies were separating from Britain

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech calling for civil rights and racial justice

Abraham Lincoln's brief Civil War speech on union and equality