1700 to 1799: Constitution of the USA to Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Chronology of World, British and American Literature.

U.S. Congress. American. 1787/89. Nonfiction. Constitution of the United States of America. Establishes a republican form of government. Separates the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. 26 amendments.

Immanuel Kant. German. 1788. Philosophy. Critique of Practical Reason. Constructed philosophy of ethics based on practical reason or free will of man. Morality (conscience) is unconditional, universal, and is called the “categorical imperative.”

Goethe. German. 1788. Play. Egmont. Upright, straightforward hero unable to survive subtle political machinations.

Sarah Wentworth Morton. American. 1789. Novel. The Power of Sympathy. First U.S. novel. Letters. Hero discovers he can’t marry his socially inferior lover. She is his half-sister. The shock of this discovery kills her. He commits suicide.

Anonymous. French. 1789. Nonfiction. Declaration of the rights of Man. Document setting forth the principles of the French Revolution. Modeled on the American Declaration of Independence.