Mein Kampf was Hitler’s manifesto that was published in two volumes and was started while Hitler was in jail for leading an uprising against the government in Munich. The first part came out in 1925 and the second part in 1926. It detailed Hitler’s views on who and what he blamed for the poor state of Germany. His primary blame fell on the Jews and what he felt was their desire to control the world. The book became very popular in Germany and contributed to Hitler’s reputation and rise to power. Das Kapital (1867) was written by Karl Marx and edited by Friedrich Engels.

Fukuyama argued that with the fall of the Soviet Union, Western liberal democracy had triumphed over communism and had no remaining ideological challengers.

Unheard of for the time, citizens of Prussia were almost universally educated to some degree. The vast majority of citizens could at least read or write, and many had even greater educations than that due to the push for education from Frederick the Great.

The Enlightenment was in compliment to the Scientific Revolution. Where the Scientific Revolution catered to the "hard sciences" of math, chemistry, and physics, the Enlightenment brought about a major influx of people to the "soft sciences" of philosophy and social science. The major figures of the Enlightenment focused most of their work around the lives and social constructs of people.

Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the founding voices of the feminist movement. She argued that women were not naturally inferior to men and pushed to have men and women recognized as equals. A Vindication of the Rights of Women was published in 1792. Letters on the French Revolution was published in 1790 by Edmund Burke. "Ode on the Peace" was a poem published by Helen Maria Williams in 1801. The Theory of Moral Sentiments was published in 1759 by Adam Smith.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a founding voice of Feminism in the late 1700's. Her treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is her most famous work, and is an outline of the idea that women are not inferior to men, and deserve the same rights.

John Locke pushed the epistemological notion of the Tabula Rasa, meaning blank slate. He said that when humans are born they have no knowledge and are therefore ready to be taught everything about the world. Therefore, the environment we grow up in will give us a perspective of world events.

Voltaire believed in the separation of Church and State. This was in large part due to the carnage that he had seen when religion became a part of the national government. Wars fought between nations of different religions, and people forced to worship in the church of the national leader led to countless conflicts.

Thomas Hobbes believed that a monarch should be an enlightened despot, meaning that they should rule over their nations. In terms of the content of that enlightenment, Hobbes believed it was to be found in the ideals of the enlightenment, such as religious tolerance, civil liberties, and education.

John Locke said that all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality had certain rights that no government should be allowed to violate. These basic principles were life, liberty, and property. You may recognize "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" from the Declaration of Independence, the authors of this document were definitely, and obviously from the phrasing, deeply influenced by Locke's writings, but Locke was long dead by the writing of the Declaration.