Sparks Commentary

“In the reign of king Henry the seventh, his ministers (not to say the king himself) were more industrious in hunting out prosecutions upon ...

In 1517,  Martin Luther  wrote the “Ninety-Five Theses,” a written attack on the  Catholic Church . Luther may or may not have pinned this ...

He had more influence upon the  English language  than any other individual – perhaps even more than the Biblical translator William Tyndale...

Note: By writing the work “Utopia,” Thomas More created a new literary genre: utopian and dystopian fiction. This genre is still popular tod...

Warning: This post contains some mature themes in it. Although I have tried to discuss them tastefully, there’s no way to take them out of t...

“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost!” – Willia...

The “Age of Exploration” is today known for shameless imperialism, but it also saw many advances in our scientific understanding of the ear...

The battle over the Sun-centered universe was as much political as it was scientific. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries , a th...

Étienne de la Boétie When “Discourse on Voluntary Servitude” was first published in 1577, its author had been dead for more than a decade. ...

I had read “The Prince” itself before listening to this audiobook, sometime during the winter of 2006-2007. It was in English translation ...

“The great revolutions that had happened, in manners and in property, had paved the way, by imperceptible yet sure degrees, for as great a r...

The greatest outbreak of disease in recorded human history (the Black Death) … It is still the greatest outbreak of disease in recorded ...

“We hope that this book, which knows how to say the important and say it well, contributes to spread linguistic knowledge that usually re...

"Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise . God help me. Amen!" - Martin Luther's "Speech at the Diet of Worms" (1521...

“To the Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De' Medici : Those who strive to obtain the good graces of a prince are accustomed to come befo...

“However, considering the reign of queen Elizabeth in a great and political view, we have no reason to regret many subsequent alterations in...

Warning: This post contains some mature themes in it. Although I have tried to discuss them tastefully, there's no way to take them ou...

"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of th...