Recent content by parrotjohn2001

1. The First Amendment, which prohibits the government from supporting or hindering any religious group 2. Checks and Balances. Each of the three branches of government have ways of restricting the power of the others. 3. Courts can review the constitutional validity of a law. 4. Protected...

In case you missed it, in the 1770s, the United States had a revolution, in which it threw out the British King. Since the King was a tyrant who had absolute authority, the new nation of the United States was afraid of giving any one person (or even group of people) too much power. Democracy...

Imperial as in emperor, a ruler with broad, almost unlimited powers. FDR did have very broad powers during his administration, first to deal with the economic crisis and later in waging the war. Truman inherited those powers, and used his powers broadly, even though he did have an opposition...

I would argue Genghis Khan and the Mongols. Their empire stretched from China all the way to Vienna, and they stood on the brink of destroying all of Europe in the 1240s. But for the good fortune of the death of the leader, the Mongols could well have ended western civilization in the space of...

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson (1962). The book that gave birth to the environmental movement The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Freidan. (1960) The book that started the feminist movement Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. Two key works in the modern Conservative movement The...