100 documents that changed the world : from the Magna Carta to Wikileaks

Summary: A tour of the history of the world through the declarations, manifestos, and agreements from the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence to Wikileaks. This fascinating collection gathers the most significant written documents that have influenced and shaped the way we think about the world and the course of history. From the Magna Carta (1215) to the Gettysburg Address (1863) to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (1963), the documents showcased here chart dramatic high points of world history. In addition to official charters and famous treaties, there are also less well known yet nonetheless interesting items included, such as the Apollo flight plan, Apple's 1976 incorporation documents, and the check with which the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia. Equally interesting are Watson and Crick's scrawled notes leading to the discovery of DNA, Darwin's journal, and the annotated manuscripts for Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Orwell's novel 1984. Beautifully illustrated in full color, this book not only informs but also entertains as it demonstrates how the power of the written word has shaped, changed, enhanced, and even revolutionized the world.

Item details

ISBN: 9780789329363
ISBN: 0789329360
Physical Description: print
223 pages : color and black & white illustrations, map, plates, charts ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : Universe, 2015.

Contents / Notes

General Note:

Includes index.

Formatted Contents Note:

I Ching (2800 BC) -- Code of Hammurabi (1754 BC) -- Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey (c. 750 BC) -- The Art of War (512 BC) -- Dead Sea Scrolls (408 BC-AD 318 ) -- Mahabharata (c. 400 BC) -- Kama Sutra (400 BC-AD 200 ) -- Plato's Republic (c. 380 BC) -- Gandharan Buddhist Texts (AD 50 ) -- The Quran (AD 609-632 ) -- The Magna Carta (1215) -- Ad Extirpanda (1252) -- Summa Theologica (1265-74 ) -- Hereford Mappa Mundi (1280-1300 ) -- 1450s Gutenberg Bible -- Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks (1478-1519) -- Alhambra Decree (1492) -- Christopher Columbus's Letter (1493 ) -- Petrucci's Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (1501) -- Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517) -- Edict of Worms (1521) -- Journal of Magellan's Voyage (1522-25) -- Destruction of the Indies (1542) -- Gregorian Calendar (1582) -- King James Bible (1611) -- Mayflower Compact (1620) -- Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) -- Galileo's Dialogue (1632) -- Execution Warrant of Charles I (1649) -- Samuel Pepys's Diary (1660-69) -- Isaac Newton Papers (1660s-1727) -- First Printed Newspaper in English (1665) -- English Bill of Rights (1689) -- Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) -- Declaration of Independence (1776) -- The Wealth of Nations (1776) -- Constitution of the United States (1787) -- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) -- Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (1791 ) -- Louisiana Purchase (1803) -- Meriwether Lewis's List of Expenses (1803 ) -- Napoleonic Code (1804) -- Deciphering the Rosetta Stone (1822) -- First Photograph (1826) -- Slavery Abolition Act (1833) -- Charles Darwin on Natural Selection (1837-59) -- First Telegram (1844) -- The Communist Manifesto (1848) -- Roget's Thesaurus (1852) -- John Snow's Cholera Map (1854) -- First Underground Train System (1854-63) -- Fort Sumter Telegram (1861) -- Emancipation Proclamation (1863)-- Alaska Purchase Check (1868) -- War and Peace (1869) -- Phonograph (1878) -- The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) -- Sinking of the Titanic (1912) -- Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) -- Balfour Declaration (1917) -- The Zimmermann Telegram (1917) -- Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918) -- Nineteenth Amendment (1919) -- Treaty of Versailles (1919) -- Hitler's Twenty-Five-Point Program (1920) -- Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb (1922) -- Empire State Building (1929-31) -- Edward VIII's Instrument of Abdication (1936) -- Television Listings (1936) -- Munich Agreement (1938) -- The Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact (1939) -- Declaration of War Against Japan (1941) -- Manhattan Project Notebook (1942) -- Wannsee Protocol (1942) -- Anne Frank's Diary (1942-44) -- Germany's Instrument of Surrender (1945) --United Nations Charter (1945) -- George Orwell's 1984 (1946-49) -- Marshall Plan (1947) --Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) -- Geneva Convention (1949) -- Population Registration Act (1950)-- 1953 DNA -- Treaty of Rome (1957) -- John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (1961) -- Beatles' Recording Contract with EMI (1962) -- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream" (1963) -- Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1964) -- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) -- Apollo 11 Flight Plan (1969) -- Apple Computer Company (1976) -- Internet Protocol (1981) -- Two Plus Four Treaty (1990) -- First Website (1991) -- "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" (2001) -- Iraq War Resolution (2002) -- First Tweet (2006) -- WikiLeaks (2007) -- 3-D Map of the Universe (2011) -- Edward Snowden Files (2013).