and A. McLean.
The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation
of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation
of the proposed system of government. The authors of the Federalist
Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification
and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to
historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition
of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in
both breadth and depth by the product of any later American
writer."
Sun Tzu
The Art
of War
The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was written
during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each
of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been
praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics
of its time.
The Art of War is one of the oldest books on military strategy in
the world. It is the first and one of the most successful works on
strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western
military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu was the
first to recognize the importance of positioning in strategy and
that position is affected both by objective conditions in the
physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive
actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not
planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, but rather
that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing
conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a
competitive environment,
Henry David Thoreau
On the
Duty of Civil Disobedience
Thoreau wrote his famous essay, On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience, as a protest against an unjust but popular war and
the immoral but popular institution of slave-owning.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Walden (also known as Life in the Woods) by Henry David Thoreau
is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American.
Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's life for two years and two
months in second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond,
not far from his friends and family in Concord, Massachusetts.
Walden was written so that the stay appears to be a year, with
expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau called it an experiment in
simple living.
Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social
critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some
aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised.
The work is part personal declaration of independence, social
experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, and manual for self
reliance. (from Wikipedia)
James Madison
The
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme
law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the
legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of
America and the Federal Government of the United States. It
provides the framework for the organization of the United States
Government. The document defines the three main branches of the
government: The legislative branch with a bicameral Congress, an
executive branch led by the President, and a judicial branch headed
by the Supreme Court. Besides providing for the organization of
these branches, the Constitution outlines obligations of each
office, as well as provides what powers each branch may exercise.
It also reserves numerous rights for the individual states, thereby
establishing the United States' federal system of government. It is
the shortest and oldest written constitution of any major sovereign
state.
The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787,
by the Constitutional Convention (or Constitutional
Congress[citation needed]) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later
ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The
People"; it has since been amended twenty-seven times, the first
ten amendments being known as the Bill of Rights. The Articles of
Confederation and Perpetual Union was actually the first
constitution of the United States of America. The U.S. Constitution
replaced the Articles of Confederation as the governing document
for the United States after being ratified by nine states. The
Constitution has a central place in United States law and political
culture. The handwritten, or "engrossed", original document penned
by Jacob Shallus is on display at the National Archives and Records
Administration in Washington, D.C.
Adam Smith
An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations
Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the
foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most
important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern
capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of
Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding
of contemporary society.
Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of
Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement
adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing
that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain
were no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by
Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why
Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great
Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American
Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of
America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the
wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.
Karl Marx
Manifesto of
the Communist Party
Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der
Kommunistischen Partei), often referred to as The Communist
Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of
the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by
the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and
program. The Manifesto suggested a course of action for a
proletarian (working class) revolution to overthrow the bourgeois
social order and to eventually bring about a classless and
stateless society, and the abolition of private property.
Thomas Paine
The
Age of Reason
The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous
Theology, a deistic treatise written by eighteenth-century British
radical and American revolutionary Thomas Paine, critiques
institutionalized religion and challenges the inerrancy of the
Bible. Published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807, it was a
bestseller in America, where it caused a short-lived deistic
revival. British audiences, however, fearing increased political
radicalism as a result of the French revolution, received it with
more hostility.
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