French Revolution

Ignorance has often been blamed for problems that the society finds itself in. Strategies aimed at fighting social problems base their strengths in enlightening the society on strategies that can be employed to better lives. This has been going on for quite sometime and many are of the view that enlightenment was a key driver […]

France prior to 1789 had been ruled by the highest order of nobility. The king and queen commanded the country from afar while the middle and lower classes agonized in pain at their excessive life of luxury. The constant strain that this was putting on the lower classes created much resentment towards the monarchy; continually […]

Advocating feminism nearly 200 years before it emerged as a mainstream movement in the West, Olympe de Gouge may appear to us way ahead of her times. Yet by no means was she so. Her idea of equality of men and women could be seen as very much a product of Enlightenment in so far […]

“O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” When Francis Scott Key wrote these closing lyrics to our national anthem in 1814, he clearly understood what it meant to be free. But do we know what freedom really means? Webster’s dictionary defines freedom as a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restrictions. When the […]