Milestone Documents in World History
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Chapters
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the modern name for an epic poem tradition from southern Mesopotamia that dates to the third and second millennia BCE. The original narratives were composed in Sumerian, the earliest-known written language, using the ancient cuneiform script. These texts consist of separate stories about a monarch named Gilgamesh, some of which were not incorporated into the later Gilgamesh traditions. In the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1700 BCE), a number of the Gilgamesh stories were woven together into a coherent narrative and written in Akkadian, another language employing cuneiform. The longest existing version comes from Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (seventh century BCE), where the work was titled “He who saw everything,” after the first few words of the composition. Paraphrases of the Gilgamesh epic dating to the second millennium BCE have been found in Anatolia, Syria, Israel, and Egypt in the Hurrian and Hittite languages. The flood traditions in the Gilgamesh epic appear to have been known to such Hellenistic writers as Berossus as late as the third century BCE.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the modern name for an epic poem tradition from southern Mesopotamia that dates to the third and second millennia BCE. The original narratives were composed in Sumerian, the earliest-known written language, using the ancient cuneiform script. These texts consist of separate stories about a monarch named Gilgamesh, some of which were not incorporated into the later Gilgamesh traditions. In the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1700 BCE), a number of the Gilgamesh stories were woven together into a coherent narrative and written in Akkadian, another language employing cuneiform. The longest existing version comes from Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (seventh century BCE), where the work was titled “He who saw everything,” after the first few words of the composition. Paraphrases of the Gilgamesh epic dating to the second millennium BCE have been found in Anatolia, Syria, Israel, and Egypt in the Hurrian and Hittite languages. The flood traditions in the Gilgamesh epic appear to have been known to such Hellenistic writers as Berossus as late as the third century BCE.
Volume 1
- Reform Edict of Urukagina
- Code of Hammurabi
- Rig Veda (NEW)
- Hittite Laws
- Divine Birth and Coronation Inscriptions of Hatshepsut
- Great Hymn to the Aten (NEW)
- Epic of Gilgamesh (NEW)
- Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty
- Middle Assyrian Laws
- Homer: Iliad (NEW)
- Victory Stela of Piankhi
- “Mandate of Heaven: The Numerous Officers”
- Analects of Confucius (NEW)
- Twelve Tables of Roman Law
- Funeral Oration of Pericles
- Dao De Jing (NEW)
- Plato: “Allegory of the Cave”
- Aristotle: Metaphysics (NEW)
- Constitution of Sparta
- Constitution of Carthage
- Athenian Constitution
- Canon of Filial Piety
- Rock and Pillar Edicts of Asoka
- Discourses on Salt and Iron
- Law of Caesar on Municipalities
- Cicero: On the Laws (NEW)
- Deeds of the Divine Augustus
- Popol Vuh
- Heart Sutra (NEW)
- Laws Ending Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
- Augustine of Hippo: City of God (NEW)
- Theodosian Code
- Emerald Tablet (NEW)
- Code of Justinian
- Qur'an (Koran) (NEW)
- Prince Shotoku: Seventeen-Article Constitution
- New Year’s Day Taika Reform Edict
- Capitulary of Charlemagne
- Han Yu: “Memorial on the Buddha’s Bones”
- II Aethelstan, or the Grately Code
- Wang Kon: Ten Injunctions
- Russkaia Pravda, or Justice of the Rus
- Al-Mawardi: “On Qadis”
Volume 2
- Kai Kaus on the Purchase of Slaves
- Domesday Book
- Confessions of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (NEW)
- Nizam al-Mulk: Book of Government; or, Rules for Kings
- Urban II: Call to Crusade
- Constitutions of Clarendon
- Usama ibn Munqidh: “A Muslim View of the Crusaders”
- Great Yasa of Chinggis Khan
- Magna Carta
- Boniface VIII: Clericis Laicos and Unam Sanctam
- Marco Polo: Description of Hangzhou
- Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa (NEW)
- Ibn Khaldun: “Social Solidarity”
- Efforts to Introduce and Encourage the Use of Paper Currency and Metal Coins (NEW)
- Christopher Columbus: Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America
- Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince
- Requerimiento
- Nicolaus Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (NEW)
- Martin Luther: Ninety-five Theses
- Dutch Declaration of Independence
- Laws Governing Military Households
- Japan’s Closed Country Edict
- Hayashi Razan: Principle and Material Force (NEW)
- Treaty of Westphalia
- Ulozhenie, or Great Muscovite Law Code
- Habeas Corpus Act of the Restoration
- English Bill of Rights
- John Locke: Second Treatise on Civil Government
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract (NEW)
- British Regulating Act
- Catherine II of Russia: The Grand Instructions to the Commissioners (NEW)
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
- Qianlong: Letter to George III
- Constitution of Haiti
- Leeds Woolen Workers Petition (NEW)
- Diplomatic Correspondence between Muhammad al-Kanami and Muhammad Bello
- Alexander Falconbridge: An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (NEW)
- Kaiho Seiryu: The Law of the Universe Commodities Transactions (NEW)
- Simon Bolivar: Cartagena Manifesto
- Carlsbad Decrees
- Treaty of Cordoba
- Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies
Volume 3
- Louis Blanc: The Organization of Labor (NEW)
- Lin Zexu: “Moral Advice to Queen Victoria”
- Treaty of Nanjing
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- Feng Guifen: On the Adoption of Western Learning (NEW)
- Communist Manifesto
- John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (NEW)
- Queen Victoria: Proclamation concerning India
- Constitution Act of Canada
- Yukichi Fukuzawa: Good-bye Asia (NEW)
- Constitution of the Fante Confederacy
- Zongli Yamen (Circular on Unequal Treaties) (NEW)
- Treaty of Limits between Mexico and Guatemala
- Pandita Ramabai: The High-Caste Hindu Woman (NEW)
- Meiji Constitution of Japan
- Theodor Herzl: “A Solution to the Jewish Question”
- Bernhard von Bulow on Germany: “Place in the Sun”
- Jose Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses (NEW)
- Emperor Guangxu: Abolition of the Examination System
- D’Arcy Concession
- Proclamation of the Young Turks (NEW)
- Vladimir Lenin: What Is to be Done?
- Emiliano Zapata: Plan of Ayala
- Articles Providing for the Favorable Treatment of the Great Ching Emperor after His Abdication
- Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic
- Balfour Declaration
- Korean Declaration of Independence
- Covenant of the League of Nations
- Treaty of Versailles
- Resolution of the General Syrian Congress
- Government of India Act
- Resolutions of the National Congress of British West Africa
- Sun Yat-sen: Three Stages of Revolution (NEW)
- Sun Yat-sen: “The Three Principles of the People”
- Treaty of Lausanne
- Mao Zedong: “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan”
- A. B. Xuma: “Bridging the Gap between White and Black in South Africa”
- Benito Mussolini: “The Doctrine of Fascism”
- Adolf Hitler: Proclamation to the German People
- Nuremberg Laws
- Meher Baba: Discourses (NEW)
- British White Paper on Palestine (NEW)
- Lahore Resolution
- Japan’s Fourteen-part Message
Volume 4
- Mahatma Gandhi: Speech to the All India Congress Committee
- Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
- Winston Churchill: “The Sinews of Peace”
- Japanese Constitution
- Jawaharlal Nehru: Speeches on the Granting of Indian Independence
- Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War
- Constitution of India
- Juan Peron: “Twenty Fundamental Truths of Justicialism”
- Fidel Castro: History Will Absolve Me
- Proclamation of the Algerian National Liberation Front
- Freedom Charter of South Africa
- Gamal Abdel Nasser on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal
- Patrice Lumumba: Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence
- “Mao Tse-tung: Thought Is the Telescope and Microscope of Our Revolutionary Cause”
- Arusha Declaration
- UN Security Council Resolution 242
- Palestinian National Charter
- Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A World Split Apart (NEW)
- Wei Jingsheng: The Fifth Modernization: Democracy (NEW)
- Biological Weapons Convention
- Helsinki Final Act
- Constitution of the People’s Republic of China
- Nelson Mandela: We Have Waited Too Long for Our Freedom (NEW)
- Agreement on Reconciliation between South and North Korea
- Treaty on European Union
- Nelson Mandela: Inaugural Address
- Osama bin Laden: Declaration of Jihad against Americans
- Northern Ireland Peace Agreement
- Constitutive Act of the African Union
- Netherlands: Marriage Opening Act (NEW)
- Alexander Jung: Ponzi Planet: The Danger Debt Poses to the Western World (NEW)
- Hassan Rouhani: Letter to the UN General Assembly (NEW)
- Paris Climate Accords (NEW)
- WHO Statement on Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) (NEW)
- Vladimir Putin: Victory Day Speech (NEW)
"This cross-cultural slice of world-changing works offers high school and college-level students and scholars an especially astute contrast between major thinkers, encouraging references, associations, and discussions which might otherwise prove challenging to assemble.... The scholarship, presentation, contents, and nature of this updated second edition makes Milestone Documents in World History a top recommendation for any world history collection considering itself to be authoritative and inclusive."
