Peace, man
This 1919 treaty included German reparations, German war-guilt clause, and the creation of the League of Nations.
Treaty of Versailles
This 1862 law gave any farmers moving to western states 160 acres of land for growing crops and raising cattle.
Homestead Act
This document was written by Jefferson in 1776 and included a list of grievances concerning the English king and an assertion of natural rights.
Declaration of Independence
This photo-essay was published by Jacob Riis, and helped garner attention toward the poor conditions of tenement living in the cities.
How the Other Half Lives
This 1848 document mirrored the format and ideas found in the nation's founding documents and was signed by attendees at the first women's rights convention to be organized by women.
Declaration of (Rights and) Sentiments
This 1898 Treaty ended the Spanish American War and passed ownership of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines over to the US.
Treaty of Paris
This agreement between England and various Native American nations angered colonists after the French and Indian War, as it banned their settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains,
Proclamation of 1763
Thomas Paine wrote this pamphlet in 1776 to help convince colonists that it was both logical and their duty to separate from the English empire.
Common Sense
The Meat Inspection Act was passed in 1906 after the publication of this book by Upton Sinclair.
The Jungle
This document was written by Dr. King in 1963, and reinforced the ideas behind nonviolent civil disobedience and the importance of breaking unjust laws.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Treaty of Ghent ended this war between England and the United States-- it also helped end the Federalist Party.
War of 1812
This law, passed under the Articles of Confederation government, created 5 new states in the Ohio River Valley that would be closed to slavery, and created protocols for admitting new states.
The Northwest Ordinance
These 1798 laws, passed under the Adams administration, restricted both immigration and free speech in the hopes of bolstering the Federalist Party.
And Alien and Sedition Acts
This 1914 law added to the Sherman version, and was meant to prevent anti-competitive, monopolistic behavior in business.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
This landmark law, signed by LBJ, outlawed any discrimination in hiring and the segregation of public spaces based on race, national origin, creed, or ethnicity.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The treaty that ended the Mexican War in 1848, increasing US landholdings by a third. Also known by some as, "The best treaty in the world"
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This 1862 law gave tens of thousands of acres away to railroad companies in order to construct the transcontinental railroad.
Pacific Railway Act
This series of essays was written to convince states to ratify the constitution, which strengthened the the federal government,
Federalist Papers
The Atlanta Compromise was a speech, delivered by this Black Progressive who founded the Tuskegee Institute, in which it was argued that blacks would tolerate segregation if given economic, vocational opportunities.
Booker T Washington
This executive order from 1863 declared all slaves held in rebellious states to be free. It made the Civil War a fight for freedom.
The Emancipation Proclamation
This 1794 treaty (named after the man who made it happen) didn't get England to stop impressing our sailors, but it did create more amicable trade and political relations between our two nations.
Jay's Treaty
This exchange between Mexico and the US after the Mexican War gave the US thousands of acres of land (in what is now New Mexico) to the US so that we could complete the transcontinental railroad.
Gadsden Purchase
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 were attempts by Jefferson and Madison to test this process which allows states to dismiss federal laws if deemed unconstitutional.
Nullification
This poem, written by Rudyard Kipling, implied it was the duty of Western civilization to help uplift the rest of the uncivilized world.
White Man's Burden
Betty Friedan wrote this book in 1963 Friedan to challenge the belief that "fulfillment as a woman had only one definition for American women after 1949—the housewife-mother." It helped sparked the "second wave feminism" of the 1960s-70s.
The Feminine Mystique