Key Works of Literature, Art, and Music
“Common Sense”, 1776.In January 1776, a huge step towards the decision to declare independence was taken when Thomas Paine released his book, Common Sense, which was an instant bestseller and had an enormous impact b/c of its challenge of colonial assumptions about the colonies’ relationship to Britain.
The Federalists Papers, 1787Highly persuasive essays written for a New York newspaper by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. The 85 essay, later published in a book form as The Federalist Papers, presented cogent reasons for believing in the practicality of each major provision of the Constitution.
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the sectional conflict leading to the American Civil War.
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783 a history of naval warfare written in 1890 by Alfred Thayer Mahan. It details the role of sea power throughout history and discusses the various factors needed to support and achieve sea power, with emphasis on having the largest and most powerful fleet. Scholars consider it the single most influential book in naval strategy; its policies were quickly adopted by most major navies.
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890) Jacob Riis was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing the slums to New York City’s upper and middle class.
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History, “1893
Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented this paper to a special meeting of the American Historical Association at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His assessment of the frontier's significance was the first of its kind and revolutionized American intellectual and historical thinking.
The Jungle, 1906 novel written by author and journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote this novel to highlight the plight of the working class and to remove from obscurity the corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early-20th century.