Enlightenment In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, a scientific revolution occurred which gave humankind a much better understanding of the universe and its functioning than ever before. One of those scientists was Isaac Newton, who, in addition to his work with gravitational laws, also developed principles of light and refraction. From this revolution in science came an intellectual and cultural movement who's name came from a metaphor based in

Works Cited Baumgarten, Linda. (2002). What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Bilhartz, Terry D., and Elliott, Alan C. (2007). Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States, Volume 1. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Crunden, Robert Morse. (1996). A Brief History of American Culture. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Fisher, John Hurt. (2001). "British and American, Continuity and Divergence"

Enlightenment is the term given to a historical era in the eighteenth century, roughly, that falls between the Scientific Revolution and the American and French Revolutions. As befits an epoch that followed the Scientific Revolution, the chief hallmark of the Enlightenment was a faith in reason and rationality -- the basic notion was that the scientific progress achieved by Sir Isaac Newton meant that the human mind might be capable

' His ground-breaking "Principia Mathematica" published in 1687 argued that the universe could be explained completely through the use of Mathematics without resorting to theology or the scriptures; that the universe behaved in an entirely rational and predictable way explainable by the laws of physics. Newton thus argued, and proved his arguments by observation and the use of mathematics, that the universe was 'mechanistic' and behaved like a vast machine

Great Awakening and the Enlightenment The Great Awakening, was not, as many believe a continuous spiritual awakening or revival in colonial America, instead it was a several revivals in a variety of locations (Matthews). However, The Great Awakening is an appropriate name. The new Americans had found their lives much different from their lives in England. In England the communities were compact, but in America people lived in great expanses

Revolutions The history of modern human civilization reflects the gradual evolution of thoughts, ideas, political reform, and technological progress. At various times, specific periods of change were important enough to have been recorded as revolutions. Some of the most significant of these revolutions contributed to human history and societal development individually as well as in conjunction with other simultaneous or nearly simultaneous changes. The Scientific Revolution was responsible for fundamental changes