A vast majority of the moral values we hold as self evident in today's society were actually derived from a period as little as three hundred years prior: the French Enlightenment. Ideas such as freedom of speech and thought, human rights for all citizens, and the concept that people are basically good natured, can be traced to the Enlightenment. Although the population of France attempted to institutionalize the ideas on a constitutional level in the late 1780s, they frequently broke their moral code. Instead of a peaceful reformation of their government, the citizens and state broke out into a bloody, decade long civil war - The French Revolution. Nonetheless, when the guns were lowered, enlightened beliefs endured throughout France. Furthermore, many of the ideas effused into surrounding Europe, and to some extent, the Americas. The result? Over 200 years later, during the 1950's, the majority of Americans simply accepted...