document_title: The Wonder Years (season 6)

question_text: how many episodes in season 6 of wonder years

text: The Wonder Years (season 6)

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text:
The Wonder Years (season 6)

Country of origin
United States

No. of episodes
22

Release

Original network
ABC

Original release
September 23, 1992 (1992-09-23) – May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)

Season chronology

← Previous
Season 5

List of The Wonder Years episodes

text: The sixth and final season of The Wonder Years aired on ABC from September 23, 1992 to May 12, 1993.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Fred Savage was present for all episodes
Danica McKellar was present for 19 episodes
Dan Lauria was present for 17 episodes
Jason Hervey was present for 15 episodes
Alley Mills was present for 14 episodes
Josh Saviano was present for 10 episodes
Olivia d'Abo guest stars in the final episode
Recurring guests include Paula Marshall as Bonnie Douglas, Giovanni Ribisi as Jeff Billings, Scott Menville as David "Wart" Wirtshafter, Michael Paul Chan as Mr. Chong, and Lindsay Sloane as Alice Piedermier.

text:
No. in
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No. in
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Directed by
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Production
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94
1
"Homecoming"
Michael Dinner
Bob Brush
September 23, 1992 (1992-09-23)
02S0059202

Kevin is now in the eleventh grade, alongside girlfriend Winnie; and Paul, who is now class president. Becoming bored with his routine school life, Kevin becomes a wise guy in school like his new friend, Jeff Billings (Giovanni Ribisi). After McKinley's rival school steals McKinley's knight mascot, Kevin tries to make a name for himself when he steals--and eventually frees--the rival's owl mascot. Kevin is also now the delivery guy at Mr. Chong's, having to advertise the business on his car, making Winnie embarrassed to ride with him. Wayne now works in the mailroom at NORCOM, and has moved from sharing Kevin's room to living in the family basement. Meanwhile; Wayne's old buddy, David "Wart" Wirtshafter, returns home from a tour in Vietnam a changed man. But he doesn't feel welcome at the big high school football game when an anonymous shout of "murderer" is directed at him, apparently from a war protestor. Kevin and Wayne later find Wart sitting alone in the stadium's parking lot in his underwear, with his clothes folded neatly on the ground. When Wayne goes to see what's wrong, a tearful Wart tells him nothing seems to fit any more; however, he wasn't referring to the size of his clothes. Even so, Wayne offers Wart the shirt off his own back.
Guest starring: Giovanni Ribisi as Jeff Billings; Don Perry as Kevin's history teacher Mr. Deeks.
Recurring guests: Scott Menville as David "Wart" Wirtshafter; Michael Paul Chan as Mr. Chong.

95
2
"Fishing"
Greg Beeman
Phil Doran
September 30, 1992 (1992-09-30)
02S0059203

Kevin and Wayne reluctantly join Jack for their final tri-annual weekend fishing trip and some male bonding at Berlinger Falls, Jack's beloved secluded fishing hole. However, during a stop at the bait shop for fishing supplies, the woman at the counter tells the guys the road leading there is now closed and no longer accessible, and Jack's once-beloved secret spot is now isolated and overgrown. However, that doesn't stop Jack from risking damage to his car and driving there. Meanwhile, Kevin becomes annoyed at Jack and Wayne still treating him like a child, joking at his expense and rebuffing his attempts at having a beer. Irked, Kevin tells his father that his lifelong dream of building a retirement cabin in the area would never happen. Things then go from bad to worse when Wayne and Kevin start fighting, causing their tent to go up in flames. But by the next morning they figure out why they went there in the first place: to say goodbye to a time and place full of shared and sentimental memories.
Absent: Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Danica McKellar as Winnie Cooper; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.

96
3
"Scenes from a Wedding"
Michael Dinner
Story by : Michael Curtis & Gregory S. Malins
Teleplay by : Jon Harmon Feldman
October 7, 1992 (1992-10-07)
02S0059204

The Arnolds are invited to the wedding of Candy Jensen, the daughter of Jack's boss Arthur. Later, at the reception, Wayne tries to make small talk with Candy, whom Wayne dated before she met her new husband; however, for some reason, Candy haughtily ignores Wayne. Jack becomes frustrated with Arthur, who had been flirting with Norma the whole night; but Jack finally lays down the law ("If you don't get your arm off my wife, I'm gonna break it off!"). Meanwhile, Kevin tries to impress Linda Carr, a girl he met at the reception, by telling her he can get champagne, even though he's too young to be served--but somehow still manages to obtain a full bottle of champagne. Linda then tells Kevin to meet her at the gazebo. However, Linda stands up Kevin, who helps himself to the bubbly and ultimately gets drunk; and when Linda finally shows up, Kevin throws up on her. After the groom's final speech, Wayne tells Kevin that even though the groom had "waited" until he got married, the bride certainly didn't (indicating that she had sex with Wayne--hence her cold-shoulder treatment of him).
Absent: Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Guest starring: Tom Wood as Peter Rotelli (the groom); Aimee Graham as Candy Jensen (the bride); Paul Gleason as Arthur Jensen; Sara Melson as Linda Carr.

97
4
"Sex and Economics"
Ken Topolsky
Story by : John Bunzel
Teleplay by : Jon Harmon Feldman
October 14, 1992 (1992-10-14)
02S0059201

Despite having an after-school job, Kevin's financial hardship is taking a toll on his life. When his young and beautiful history teacher Miss Farmer (Rebecca Staab) posts an ad on the school bulletin for a painting job, Kevin quickly accepts. Miss Farmer informs Kevin that she will pay him $500, but Kevin will have to furnish the paint and supplies. Thinking the job will be easy, Kevin is surprised when he is told he needs to paint the whole exterior of the house. This makes Kevin realize he needs to hire a crew to help him tackle this time-consuming job; so he desperately recruits Jimmy Donnelly, Joey Spinoza, and Eddie Horvath (Jeremy Davies). Between their salary and the cost of paint and supplies, Kevin's cash soon disappears. Kevin is further frustrated when the prepaid hired help suddenly quits, leaving him to finish the job alone and at a loss. Kevin then learns that Miss Farmer sold the house to Mr. Kaplan (Jack McGee), another person she manipulated; and Kevin learns his lesson--namely of being taken advantage of by a beautiful woman.
Absent: Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Guest starring: Rebecca Staab as Miss Farmer; William Bronder as Mr. Glidden (paint store clerk); Jeremy Davies as Eddie Horvath; Michael Weiner as Dominick; Jack McGee as Mr. Kaplan.

98
5
"Politics as Usual"
Bryan Gordon
Craig Hoffman
October 21, 1992 (1992-10-21)
02S0059205

When Kevin's high school holds a debate for the McGovern/Nixon presidential race, the students don't seem to be interested until Mike Detweiller (Lance Guest), a charismatic speaker heading Senator George McGovern's local campaign, gets everyone's attention with his anti-establishment views. Winnie enthusiastically joins the McGovern campaign committee; but Kevin is unconvinced, believing that Mike has a romantic interest in Winnie. Suspicious, Kevin breaks into campaign headquarters late at night and catches Mike and Winnie together; but it only turns out to be a meeting with McGovern himself. The next day, seeing the early promising returns, Kevin celebrates with the team; but it was premature as Nixon soon wins convincingly. Kevin arrives to find Winnie upset, as Mike leaves with his assistant Peggy. It seems Mike wasn't interested in Winnie after all; he only wanted to harness her enthusiasm to encourage young people to become more politically motivated. The present-day Kevin narrated that from that point on, Winnie would remain a liberal.
Guest starring: Lance Guest as Mike Detweiller; Renee Faia as Peggy Kimball.

99
6
"White Lies"
Peter Baldwin
Jon Harmon Feldman & Robin Riordan
October 28, 1992 (1992-10-28)
02S0059206

Kevin is feeling pressure from the guys in the locker room to reveal intimate details of his and Winnie's relationship, since they have been together for six years now. Kevin then sees an opportunity to be alone with Winnie at his house when his parents take a trip out of town for a night, so he asks her over to study for the SATs. Surprisingly, Winnie agrees; and even though Kevin creates a darkened romantic atmosphere, Winnie still wants to study, but finally figures out Kevin's intentions. Despite Kevin's attempts at intimacy, he and Winnie end up doing what they always do--reminiscing about their past. They end up falling asleep together on the couch while watching a Humphrey Bogart movie and Kevin panics the next morning after he fully wakes up and discovers Winnie on the couch, still asleep. After Winnie tells her parents where she was all night, and how much they trust him, Kevin feels frustrated. The guys catch wind of Kevin's mood in gym class; and when the guys pressure Kevin to share with them the details of his night with Winnie, he tells them to "use their imagination." By lunchtime, the cafeteria is ablaze with gossip, publicly shaming Winnie. That night, at Jack's command, Kevin goes to Winnie's to apologize, but Winnie cannot see how to fix the unfixable. Kevin is left alone to ponder how readily he hurt the person most important to him in trying to impress those who weren't.
Absent: Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Guest starring: Chance Quinn as Kenny Steuben; Jason Horst as Jay.

100
7
"Wayne and Bonnie"
Greg Beeman
Sy Rosen
November 11, 1992 (1992-11-11)
02S0059207

Wayne begins dating Bonnie Douglas (Paula Marshall), an older co-worker whom he met on the job. Over dinner, the family finds out Bonnie is 23 years old and divorced with a six-month old son named David. Norma then invites them to the NORCOM family picnic and learns that Wayne is serious about their relationship--so much so that he decides to move in with Bonnie and help her take care of David. Meanwhile, still upset over Winnie apparently holding a grudge and not being in his life for the past few weeks, Kevin tries to make up with Winnie by buying a gift. But when he goes to her house with a huge teddy bear, Kevin was stunned when he discovered that Winnie had over a classmate for a study date. Later, seeing Winnie and her study date at a diner together, Kevin feels lonely but meets a girl at an adjacent booth named Cindy, who just moved into town. Kevin then invites Cindy to the picnic--but is later shocked to discover that her immature behavior is due to the fact she's only in the seventh grade and still in junior high. As the day winds down and the Arnolds are about to leave the picnic, Kevin notices Wayne arguing with Norma over his wishes to move in with Bonnie. During this, Cindy notices the big bear in the open trunk of Jack's car intended for Winnie and Kevin gives it to Cindy instead. With all this happening to his family, Kevin needs someone to talk to; so again he turns to Winnie, who in return now seems willing to give their relationship another chance.
Absent: Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Guest starring: Paula Marshall in her first appearance as Bonnie Douglas; Bret Anthony as Phil; Heather Allen as Cindy Fleming.
Notes: The episode's subplot was obviously a continuation of "White Lies," as Winnie is seen still holding a grudge on Kevin, who struggles to reconcile their relationship throughout the episode. Also, this episode marks the second time in the series that Kevin gives a girl a stuffed animal that she names after Kevin (possibly a reworking of the scene in "Summer Song" from Season 3 where Kevin gives his summer vacation fling Teri a stuffed animal, which she also names after Kevin). In addition--and coincidentally--another Heather (McComb) also portrayed a character named Cindy in an earlier episode ("Full Moon Rising" from Season 5).

101
8
"Kevin Delivers"
Arthur Albert
Frank Renzulli
November 25, 1992 (1992-11-25)
02S0059208

With his two-night-a-week Chinese food delivery job at Chong's Restaurant, Kevin has difficulty making time to be with Winnie; particularly as his high-handed boss, Mr. Chong (Michael Paul Chan), is always ordering him around. Every night had its pitfalls and perils, from scary houses and scary customers and yapping dogs, to practical jokes with competitor Fioni's Pizza's deliveryman (delivering to a dead person at a funeral home), and having his car impounded. Kevin also has regular customers, including Mrs. Tambora, a lonely old lady who always wants Kevin to stay and visit. But it's not all bad, particularly when a hippie stoner gives him a twenty-dollar tip, or when Kevin decides to retaliate on the pizza guy by pranking him into delivering to Mrs. Tambora. Throughout the night, Kevin often contacts Winnie by phone; but one night she breaks their date. Then Mr. Chong informs Kevin of one last delivery to 216 Maple, which turns out to be a local park; but to Kevin's surprise the food was ordered by Winnie, who shows up for a late dinner date in the park. Winnie figured it was the only way she could be with Kevin with his demanding job.
Absent: Dan Lauria as Jack Arnold; Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Guest starring: Ellen Albertini Dow as Fanny Tambora; Adam Stradlin as the unnamed pizza delivery guy; Zachary Mott as the unnamed stoned hippie.
Recurring guest: Michael Paul Chan as Mr. Chong.

102
9
"The Test"
Ken Topolsky
Robin Riordan
December 9, 1992 (1992-12-09)
02S0059209

Kevin and his friends deal with the stress of preparing for the SATs, and contemplating their futures. Unfortunately, Paul is not helpful, particularly when he starts to panic and begins to focus on how the test will predetermine the rest of his life, and Kevin's procrastination while watching Let's Make a Deal does not help either. In the episode's subplot, after Jack receives a performance evaluation at NORCOM he feels was mediocre, he contemplates resigning his position with the company. Jack mentions how Charlie, a former co-worker, is planning to buy a furniture company; but fails to keep Norma in the loop about wanting to join Charlie in the venture and forming a partnership. After running into Charlie at an ice cream parlor, Norma finds out Jack's intentions; and with her support, Jack meets with the owners of the factory and finally seals the deal. Empowered by Jack's example of taking a risk, Kevin takes his SATs, knowing that he won't let his life be dictated only by the results.
Absent: Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold.
Guest Starring: Monty Hall as Mr. Glavin, Kevin's English comprehension teacher; John Pleshette as Charlie Barrett.

103
10
"Let Nothing You Dismay"
Ken Topolsky
Craig Hoffman
December 16, 1992 (1992-12-16)
02S0059210

December 1972 marks a time of transitions in the Arnold household. Norma graduates from Fremont Community College and Kevin has his own problems trying to get a raise from his boss Mr. Chong so he can buy Winnie a $100 cashmere sweater for Christmas. Meanwhile, the newly-unemployed Jack focuses on a new future when he and his old NORCOM buddy Charlie try to secure a bank loan to finance their furniture factory business. However, despite being the holiday season, Charlie gets cold feet and backs out of the deal at the last minute, deciding to return to the safety of steady employment at NORCOM. This prompts Jack to give up on the quest as well; but with Norma's encouragement and help, Jack manages to secure the loan and enjoy the festive season after all. In the end, Kevin buys Winnie her sweater, but all he receives in return is the new Bread album, Baby I'm-a Want You.
Recurring guests: Paula Marshall as Bonnie Douglas; John Pleshette as Charlie Barrett.

104
11
"New Years"
Tom Moore
Jon Harmon Feldman
January 6, 1993 (1993-01-06)
02S0059211

Kevin's notices Wayne evolving from the simple self-centered older brother he grew up with into a diligent and focused family man. Wayne and his single-mother divorced girlfriend Bonnie are now becoming serious about their relationship, and Jack and Norma slowly warm to the idea. Wayne plans a family get-together at a supper club on New Year's Eve and invites the rest of the family, along with Winnie, at his expense. Kevin balks at this invitation, as it would conflict with his plans to go to a New Year's party at a ski condo in the mountains; but at the command of his parents, he reluctantly accepts Wayne's invitation. On the big night, the Arnolds and Winnie are there, but Wayne never shows up. Kevin then learns from Bonnie that she and Wayne broke up since she still has feelings for her ex-husband James, the father of her son, David. Kevin and Winnie set out searching for Wayne and eventually find him drinking beer at the laundromat. But at midnight; Kevin, Winnie, and Wayne watch the ball drop on TV in Times Square, marking a new beginning for everyone.
Guest Starring: Lou Cutell as the unnamed stand-up comedian; Richard Diamond as magician Zanic the Magnificent.
Recurring guest: Paula Marshall in her final appearance as Bonnie Douglas.

105
12
"Alice in Autoland"
Arthur Albert
Robin Riordan
January 13, 1993 (1993-01-13)
02S0059212

When Kevin starts having car trouble, he learns that Chuck's on-again-off-again girlfriend Alice is the daughter of "Pistol Pete" Pedermier, a used car salesman known as the "Used Car Cowboy," and she asks her dad to try to give Kevin a good deal on a trade. However, when Alice dumps Chuck (for the 29th time), Kevin has second thoughts about accepting her offer. But when this irritates Alice, Kevin reconsiders and accompanies her to Pedermier's Autoland to test drive a flashy red 1960 Austin Healey Sprite. Alice joins Kevin on the test drive and reveals to Kevin that she had a crush on him since they first met and hugs him at a traffic light just as Chuck pulls up alongside and notices them in the middle of their embrace. Kevin shouts out to Chuck that it wasn't what it seemed and that Alice didn't mean anything to him; however, Chuck drives off in a state of shock. The next day at school, Kevin tries to explain what really happened; but after Alice feeds Chuck a reversed story of what happened (that Kevin forced himself on her instead of Alice throwing herself at him), Chuck punches Kevin in the face, leveling him to the floor. The school's worst couple is back together again; and to add insult to injury, Kevin never did get that convertible.
Guest-starring: Victor Raider-Wexler as "Pistol" Pete Pedermier, Alice's father.
Recurring guest: Lindsay Sloane as Alice Pedermier.
Absent: Dan Lauria as Jack Arnold; Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold.

106
13
"Ladies and Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones"
Peter Baldwin
Kim Friese
January 20, 1993 (1993-01-20)
02S0059213

In the winter of 1973, a rumor spreads through McKinley High that The Rolling Stones will be appearing at Joe's Place, a dive bar about an hour away out on Highway 9. Even though Kevin doesn't believe the rumor; Winnie, Paul, Jeff, and Chuck talk him into venturing out there to see for themselves. After getting a speeding ticket on Vine Street, Kevin tried to conceal it from his parents, but Norma finds the ticket in his laundry. Since Jack and Norma made plans to go square dancing with their friends on the same night; Jack forbids Kevin to go, gesturing to him not move his car "one inch off its oil spot." So Kevin, using impeccable teenage logic, takes Jack's car instead, with the intention of "buying some milk." When they finally get to Joe's, the parking lot is empty. After being pulled over by police again, Winnie saves the day by making up an excuse, and they follow the trail to Wally's Inn, where they find a large crowd gathered outside; but the crowd is shooed away by Wally the owner. Then in frustration, Kevin inadvertently backs into a parked car, and the night ends in despair. He makes it back home before his parents arrive, and is saved again when Zeke accidentally hits the car. Kevin is relieved and surprised when Norma confesses she dented the car as well. It turns out to be a great evening, despite the fact that the Stones did indeed appear at Joe's after all (as indicated by their tour bus parked in front of Joe's and British-accent voices conducting a sound check in the final scene).
Guest Starring: O'Neal Compton as Zeke; Tom McCleister as Wally.

107
14
"Unpacking"
Greg Beeman
Sy Rosen & Bob Brush
February 3, 1993 (1993-02-03)
02S0059214

After chemistry class; Kevin, Winnie, and Winnie's new friend Ann Sheer, a new student, meet for lunch in the cafeteria; and knowing Jeff is lonely, Kevin and Winnie fix him up with Ann. However, Jeff, whose parents have just divorced, is skeptical about committing to a potential relationship with Ann because of his attachment to Julie, the long-time girlfriend he left behind--although Jeff and Ann begin to have feelings for each other. The four of them then go out for a friendly evening of miniature golf; but Jeff leaves early when Winnie suggests they all go to "the Point," the local romantic hangout for teens. Attempting to discuss the matter, Kevin is initially annoyed by Jeff's sarcasm and joking; but soon realizes the situation when Jeff sternly tells him the truth. On the following Saturday, when Jack has Kevin go to the hardware store to pick up brackets for a gutter that fell off the house, he encounters Jeff in the driveway, who asks Kevin for a ride back to his former home, 110 miles away. While driving around Jeff's old hometown; Jeff didn't really want to go back home, but was frustrated about having to leave his life behind. While there, Jeff meets Julie at the local diner and says goodbye to her one last time. Kevin, returning six hours late, didn't pick up the gutter brackets, infuriating Jack. But more importantly than that; Jeff decides to unpack his room, reconsiders a potential relationship with Ann, and starts his life anew.
Guest Starring: Alisa Scheindlin as Ann Sheer; Bruce Ed Morrow as the unnamed chemistry teacher; Marine Andrews as Mrs. Billings, Jeff's mother.

108
15
"Hulk Arnold"
Ken Topolsky
Kim Friese
February 10, 1993 (1993-02-10)
02S0059215

After pinning all his classmates in gym class, Kevin is invited to try out for the wrestling team by Coach Silva, the team's tough, no-nonsense coach. Even though Wayne and Jack think he's not committed enough to be on the team, Kevin persists when Chuck, Jeff, and Winnie pressure him into competing. At his first practice, Coach Silva tests Kevin against Spider, the smallest and lightest teammate; and Kevin soon realizes his gym class performance is relatively weak. After Kevin constantly complains and makes excuses, Coach Silva himself challenges Kevin; but when he doesn't surrender easily, he actually makes the team. Thinking Kevin will only sit on the bench, Coach Silva makes a change; and Kevin is matched in the 140 pound weight class against the Spartans' Doug Gurney, whose wrestling prowess is well-known. During the match, Kevin surprisingly scores two points; and when Doug whispers in his ear, "Give up, and make it easy on yourself," Kevin doesn't do so and his shoulder never touches the mat once, getting by on his natural ability from gym class. Even though he loses 15-2 in front of his friends and father, Kevin quips to Coach Silva, "Told you I was good," thereby earning Coach Silva's respect.
Guest Starring: James Tolkan as Coach Silva; Matt Blansett as Doug Gurney.
Absent: Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.

109
16
"Nose"
David Greenwalt
Sy Rosen
February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24)
02S0059216

Frustrated with his lack of social skills with girls; Ricky confides in the guys, wondering what's wrong with him and why he can't get dates. Enter Hayley Green, a new student whom Ricky is instantly smitten with. After some encouragement from Kevin and the guys, Ricky finally asks Hayley to the spring dance. However, Hayley has an oversized nose; and Kevin, Jeff, and Chuck can't help but make fun of it. In English class, teacher Mr. Arkinson asks Hayley to read her paper about something that really bothers her about herself. Thinking to face her problem head-on, she jokes how her weakness is shopping because no matter how hard she tries, nothing really matches her nose but she accepted it because that's who she is. Her presentation backfires when the class laughs at her instead, leaving Ricky embarrassed. So Ricky backs out by lying about having to take his cousin to the hospital for an operation on her webbed feet. At the dance, Hayley still shows up, and Kevin encourages Ricky to tell her the truth. Ricky then asks Hayley to dance, but she came with a date--class president and captain of the football team Brett Davis, who was moved by her speech in class. Apparently, Hayley simply knew herself and accepted who she was, unlike everyone else in school.
Guest Starring: Renee Humphrey as Hayley Green; David Brisbin as English teacher Mr. Arkinson; Eric Dane as Brett.
Absent: Dan Lauria as Jack Arnold; Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Note: The scene where Ricky lies about his cousin's webbed feet to break his dance date with Hayley was undoubtedly a reworking of the scene in "Full Moon Rising" from Season 5 where Kevin lies to Cindy about his grandmother's liver to break their date so he can go cruising with the guys.

110
17
"Eclipse"
Stephen Cragg
Craig Hoffman
March 17, 1993 (1993-03-17)
02S0059217

Kevin and his classmates take a field trip to the Nierman Planetarium to witness the total solar eclipse of March 21, 1973. On the way, Kevin and Winnie bicker during a Truth or Dare game when he calls her "too perfect." Chuck's results aren't so great with Alice either; and during a pit stop, Chuck accidentally gets locked in a rest area bathroom, and is left behind. Because of the Truth or Dare farce, Winnie is so frustrated over being a "nice girl" that she throws a spitball at science teacher Mr. Plenitzer, who doesn't believe she did it when she openly confesses; so she resorts to (supposedly) taking a hat from the gift shop. Meanwhile, at the planetarium, Kevin reluctantly agrees to help Louis Lanahan flush a cherry bomb down the toilet of the men's room during the eclipse viewing. Also, Mary Jo Genaro, the class "bad girl," bets her friends Sheila and Cindy twenty-five dollars that she can give class nerd Harlan Abramson a hickey; and they wind up having feelings for each other as a result. On the way back from the field trip, Winnie confesses to Kevin that she actually paid for the souvenir hat, proving that she's still Kevin's perfect girl after all.
Guest Starring: A. J. Langer as Mary Jo; Devon Odessa as Sheila; Timothy Stack as the science teacher.
Recurring guest: Lindsay Sloane in her final appearance as Alice Pedermier.
Absent Dan Lauria as Jack Arnold; Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.

111
18
"Poker"
David Greenwalt
Story by : Max Mutchnick & David Kohan
Teleplay by : Jon Harmon Feldman
March 24, 1993 (1993-03-24)
02S0059218

When Kevin and the guys get together for a Friday night of poker, each of them discuss their current problems: Chuck is worried that Alice may be pregnant, Randy is concerned that he will not pass eleventh grade, and Jeff is accused of cheating at cards while annoying a health-conscious Paul with his cigar smoke. However, the real problem is Paul's straight-laced behavior, and the guys claim they have no room for Paul in the car or cabin for their spring break ski trip. While out on a store run, Kevin and Paul argue and Paul actually says to Kevin what Kevin wanted to say to him--that he's "changed." But just when tensions reach a peak, the guys' problems vanish when Randy--always a loser--finally wins a hand. Then Alice calls to inform Chuck she's not pregnant; and Kevin and Paul understand, after 17 years of friendship, that they're growing apart. While cleaning up, Kevin discovers Jeff's winning streak was still intact after all--though he questions himself how he had five kings.
Guest starring: Barney Martin as the elderly Kevin; Billy Beck as the elderly Paul; Walt Beaver as the elderly Jeff; Bob Larkin as the elderly Chuck; Burt Saunders as the elderly Randy.
Absent Dan Lauria as Jack Arnold; Alley Mills as Norma Arnold; Jason Hervey as Wayne Arnold; Danica McKellar as Winnie Cooper.

112
19
"The Little Women"
Ken Topolsky
David M. Wolf
March 31, 1993 (1993-03-31)
02S0059219

As the Women's Liberation Movement gets stronger across the country in the spring of 1973, Norma doesn't want her college degree to go to waste. So she takes a full-time job as a comptroller at Micro Electronics, a new computer software company, earning $225 per week, much to the surprise of Jack and the boys. Meanwhile, Kevin is proud of his SAT's, scoring a 1240 (650 verbal and 590 math). However, he becomes increasingly insecure when he learns that Winnie scored a 1482 (725 verbal and 757 math). She can now consider going to any of the top Ivy League universities while Kevin's friends have to settle for Ed's Junior College. With their fragile male egos beaten, Jack and Kevin both decide to take their respective women to King Pin Lanes for a friendly battle-of-the-sexes game of bowling. Even though the Jack and Kevin win, Norma and Winnie are good sports about it, helping Kevin realize that a more liberated world may not be so bad after all.
Absent: Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.

113
20
"Reunion"
Arthur Albert
Story by : Mark B. Perry
Teleplay by : Robin Riordan
April 28, 1993 (1993-04-28)
02S0059220

The Arnolds fly to Norma's hometown for her 25th high school class reunion. Norma's parents, Karl and Jane Gustavson (making their first and only appearance in the series) express their continued disapproval of Jack. They attempt to set Norma up with her old high school sweetheart, Roger, a medical doctor she almost married. While staying at the Gustavsons', Norma is wooed by Roger; Jack is hurt in the sack race at the reunion picnic; Kevin is menaced by their Rottweiler; and Wayne--anticipating a huge inheritance of his grandparents seemingly valuable antique possessions--takes inventory of the house, after Mr. Gustavson informs the boys they will get everything their grandparents own upon their deaths. Meanwhile, Kevin wonders why his father doesn't seem to mind that Norma puts up with her parents' meddling. Jack tells Kevin that his mother wanted more out of life than the small town she grew up in had to offer, so she quickly left everyone behind. This makes Kevin finally understand his mother's desire to break old routines.
Guest starring: Edward Edwards as Dr. Roger Baldwin; Macon McCalman as Karl Gustavson; Jean Speegle Howard as Jane Gustavson.
Absent Danica McKellar as Winnie Cooper; Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer.
Side note: Coincidentially, Macon McCalman, who portrayed Norma's father, also played the overprotective father of Janet Wood in an episode of Three's Company.

114
21
"Summer"
Michael Dinner
Sy Rosen
May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)
02S0059221

Winnie takes a summer job as a lifeguard at a hotel resort, while Kevin considers a cross-country trip with his friends, an idea that Jack soon quashes knowing that Chuck and Jeff is cross-country without Chuck's Own Parents and Jeff's Mother's permission, Frustrated, Kevin then quits his job at Jack's factory and drives to the resort to see Winnie. Kevin then takes a job as a waiter to be near Winnie, but is then disappointed when he and Winnie are so busy they have no time for each other. Kevin gambles his gas money playing poker with the resort's house band and manages to win big; but later, when he finds Winnie to tell her of his good fortune, he becomes shocked to see Winnie kissing a co-worker. Part one of the two-part series finale.

115
22
"Independence Day"
Michael Dinner
Bob Brush
May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)
02S0059222

Kevin, furious with Winnie over her infidelity, plays another poker game, this time losing all his money and his car. He then punches the guy Winnie kissed, quits his job and hitchhikes home because he is now without a car. Winnie is fired from her job because of Kevin's tirade; and she, too, hitches a ride back home, and Kevin happens to be picked up by the same couple. Winnie tells Kevin her side of what happened; but their argument becomes so heated that they are both dropped off at the side of the road. Soon after a thunderstorm occurs and they find refuge in an old barn where they decide they don't want to lose their childhood relationship. The next day they make it back home just in time for the Independence Day parade, and the present-day adult Kevin reveals the fates of himself, his family, and his friends from that day onward. Part two (conclusion) of the two-part series finale.


document_title: Sengoku period

question_text: who were the three great unifiers of japan

root

text: Sengoku period

text: Summary[edit]

text: During this period, although the Emperor of Japan was officially the ruler of his nation and every lord swore loyalty to him, he was largely a marginalised, ceremonial, and religious figure who delegated power to the shōgun, a noble who was roughly equivalent to a generalissimo. In the years preceding this era the Shogunate gradually lost influence and control over the daimyōs (local lords). Although the Ashikaga shogunate had retained the structure of the Kamakura shogunate and instituted a warrior government based on the same social economic rights and obligations established by the Hōjō with the Jōei Code in 1232,[clarification needed] it failed to win the loyalty of many daimyōs, especially those whose domains were far from the capital, Kyoto. Many of these Lords began to fight uncontrollably with each other for control over land and influence over the shogunate. As trade with Ming China grew, the economy developed, and the use of money became widespread as markets and commercial cities appeared. This, combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, led to the desire for greater local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy. As early as the beginning of the 15th century, the suffering caused by earthquakes and famines often served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt and taxes.

tag: p

text: The Ōnin War (1467–1477), a conflict rooted in economic distress and brought on by a dispute over shogunal succession, is generally regarded as the onset of the Sengoku period. The "eastern" army of the Hosokawa family and its allies clashed with the "western" army of the Yamana. Fighting in and around Kyoto lasted for nearly 11 years, leaving the city almost completely destroyed. The conflict in Kyoto then spread to outlying provinces.[2][4]

text: The period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gradually unified Japan. After Tokugawa Ieyasu's final victory at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled down into several centuries of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate.

text: Timeline[edit]

text: The Ōnin War in 1467 is usually considered the starting point of the Sengoku period. There are several events which could be considered the end of it: Nobunaga's entry to Kyoto (1568)[5] or abolition of the Muromachi shogunate (1573),[6] the Siege of Odawara (1590), the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603), or the Siege of Osaka (1615).[citation needed]

text:
Time

Event

1467

Beginning of Ōnin War

1477

End of Ōnin War

1488

The Kaga Rebellion

1493

Hosokawa Masamoto succeeds in the Coup of Meio

Hōjō Sōun seizes Izu Province

1507

Beginning of Ryo Hosokawa War (the succession dispute in the Hosokawa family)

1520

Hosokawa Takakuni defeats Hosokawa Sumimoto

1531

Hosokawa Harumoto defeats Hosokawa Takakuni

1535

Battle of Idano The forces of the Matsudaira defeat the rebel Masatoyo

1543

The Portuguese land on Tanegashima, becoming the first Europeans to arrive in Japan, and introduce the arquebus into Japanese warfare

1549

Miyoshi Nagayoshi betrays Hosokawa Harumoto

1551

Tainei-ji incident: Sue Harukata betrays Ōuchi Yoshitaka, taking control of western Honshu

1554

The tripartite pact among Takeda, Hōjō and Imagawa is signed

1555

Battle of Itsukushima: Mōri Motonari defeats Sue Harukata and goes on to supplant the Ōuchi as the foremost daimyo of western Honshu

1560

Battle of Okehazama: The outnumbered Oda Nobunaga defeats and kills Imagawa Yoshimoto in a surprise attack

1568

Oda Nobunaga marches toward Kyoto

1570

Beginning of Ishiyama Hongan-ji War

1573

The end of Ashikaga shogunate

1575

Battle of Nagashino: Oda Nobunaga decisively defeats the Takeda cavalry with innovative arquebus tactics

1580

End of Ishiyama Hongan-ji War

1582

Akechi Mitsuhide assassinates Oda Nobunaga (Honnō-ji Incident); Hashiba Hideyoshi defeats Akechi at the Battle of Yamazaki

1585

Hashiba Hideyoshi is granted title of Kampaku, establishing his predominant authority; he is granted the surname Toyotomi a year after.

1590

Siege of Odawara: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats the Hōjō clan, unifying Japan under his rule

1592

First invasion of Korea

1597

Second invasion of Korea

1598

Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies

1600

Battle of Sekigahara: The Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the Western Army of Toyotomi loyalists

1603

The establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate

1615

Siege of Osaka: The last of the Toyotomi opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate is stamped out

tag: table

text: Gekokujō[edit]

text: The upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, and throughout Japan regional lords, called daimyōs, rose to fill the vacuum. In the course of this power shift, well-established clans such as the Takeda and the Imagawa, who had ruled under the authority of both the Kamakura and Muromachi bakufu, were able to expand their spheres of influence. There were many, however, whose positions eroded and were eventually usurped by more capable underlings. This phenomenon of social meritocracy, in which capable subordinates rejected the status quo and forcefully overthrew an emancipated aristocracy, became known as gekokujō (下克上), which means "low conquers high".[2]

text: One of the earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun, who rose from relatively humble origins and eventually seized power in Izu Province in 1493. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Late Hōjō clan remained a major power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Other notable examples include the supplanting of the Hosokawa clan by the Miyoshi, the Toki by the Saitō, and the Shiba clan by the Oda clan, which was in turn replaced by its underling, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a son of a peasant with no family name.

text: Well-organized religious groups also gained political power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance and rebellion against the rule of the daimyōs. The monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect formed numerous Ikkō-ikki, the most successful of which, in Kaga Province, remained independent for nearly 100 years.

text: Unification[edit]

text: After nearly a century of political instability and warfare, Japan was on the verge of unification by Oda Nobunaga, who had emerged from obscurity in the province of Owari (present-day Aichi Prefecture) to dominate central Japan, when in 1582 Oda was assassinated by one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. This in turn provided Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had risen through the ranks from ashigaru (footsoldier) to become one of Oda's most trusted generals, with the opportunity to establish himself as Oda's successor. Toyotomi eventually consolidated his control over the remaining daimyōs and, although he was ineligible for the title of Sei-i Taishōgun because of his common birth, ruled as Kampaku (Imperial Regent). During his short reign as Kampaku, Toyotomi attempted two invasions of Korea. The first spanning from 1592 to 1596 was initially successful but suffered setbacks to end in stalemate; the second begun in 1597 was less successful (as the Koreans and their Ming Chinese allies were prepared for the Japanese the second time around) and ended with Toyotomi's call for retreat from Korea on his deathbed in 1598.

text: When Toyotomi died in 1598 without leaving a capable successor, the country was once again thrust into political turmoil, and this time Tokugawa Ieyasu took advantage of the opportunity.[3]

text: Toyotomi had on his deathbed appointed a group of the most powerful lords in Japan—Tokugawa, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, and Mōri Terumoto—to govern as the Council of Five Regents until his infant son, Hideyori, came of age. An uneasy peace lasted until the death of Maeda in 1599. Thereafter a number of high-ranking figures, notably Ishida Mitsunari, accused Tokugawa of disloyalty to the Toyotomi regime.

text: This precipitated a crisis that led to the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, during which Tokugawa and his allies, who controlled the east of the country, defeated the anti-Tokugawa forces, which had control of the west. Generally regarded as the last major conflict of the Sengoku period, Tokugawa's victory at Sekigahara effectively marked the end of the Toyotomi regime, the last remnants of which were finally destroyed in the Siege of Osaka in 1615.

text: Notable people[edit]

text: Three unifiers of Japan[edit]

text:
Oda Nobunaga
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Tokugawa Ieyasu

tag: ul

text: The contrasting personalities of the three leaders who contributed the most to Japan's final unification—Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa—are encapsulated in a series of three well known senryū:

text:
Nakanu nara, koroshite shimae, hototogisu (If the cuckoo does not sing, kill it.)
Nakanu nara, nakasete miyō, hototogisu (If the cuckoo does not sing, coax it.)
Nakanu nara, naku made matō, hototogisu (If the cuckoo does not sing, wait for it.)

text: Oda, known for his ruthlessness, is the subject of the first; Toyotomi, known for his resourcefulness, is the subject of the second; and Tokugawa, known for his perseverance, is the subject of the third verse.


document_title: Direct democracy

question_text: who said the best government is a direct democracy where all citizens make laws

text: Direct democracy

text: Overview[edit]

text: In a representative democracy, people vote for representatives who then enact policy initiatives.[1] In direct democracy, people decide on policies without any intermediary. Depending on the particular system in use, direct democracy might entail passing executive decisions, the use of sortition, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials, and conducting trials. Two leading forms of direct democracy are participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.

text: Semi-direct democracies in which representatives administer day-to-day governance, but the citizens remain the sovereign, allow for three forms of popular action: referendum (plebiscite), initiative, and recall. The first two forms—referendums and initiatives—are examples of direct legislation.[2]

text: Compulsory referendum subjects the legislation drafted by political elites to a binding popular vote. This is the most common form of direct legislation. Popular referendum empowers citizens to make a petition that calls existing legislation to a vote by the citizens. Institutions specify the timeframe for a valid petition and the number of signatures required, and may require signatures from diverse communities to protect minority interests.[2] This form of direct democracy effectively grants the voting public a veto on laws adopted by the elected legislature, as is done in Switzerland.[3][4][5][6]

text: Power of initiative allows members of the general public to propose specific statutory measures or constitutional reforms to the government and, as with referendums, the vote may be binding or simply advisory. Initiatives may be direct or indirect: With the direct initiative, a successful proposition is placed directly on the ballot to be subject to vote (as exemplified by California's system).[2] With an indirect initiative, a successful proposition is first presented to the legislature for their consideration; however, if no acceptable action is taken after a designated period of time, the proposition moves to direct popular vote. Such a form of indirect initiative is utilized by Switzerland for constitutional amendments.[2]

text: Power of recall gives the public the power to remove elected officials from office before the end of their term.[7]

text: History[edit]

text: The earliest known direct democracy is said to be the Athenian democracy in the 5th century BC, although it was not an inclusive democracy: women, foreigners, and slaves were excluded from it. The main bodies in the Athenian democracy were the assembly, composed of male citizens; the boulê, composed of 500 citizens; and the law courts, composed of a massive number of jurors chosen by lot, with no judges. There were only about 30,000 male citizens, but several thousand of them were politically active in each year, and many of them quite regularly for years on end. The Athenian democracy was direct not only in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also in the sense that the people through the assembly, boulê, and law courts controlled the entire political process, and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business.[8] Modern democracies, being representative, not direct, do not resemble the Athenian system.

text: Also relevant to the history of direct democracy is the history of Ancient Rome, specifically the Roman Republic, beginning around 509 BC.[9] Rome displayed many aspects of democracy, both direct and indirect, from the era of Roman monarchy all the way to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Indeed, the Senate, formed in the first days of the city, lasted through the Kingdom, Republic, and Empire, and even continued after the decline of Western Rome; and its structure and regulations continue to influence legislative bodies worldwide. As to direct democracy, the ancient Roman Republic had a system of citizen lawmaking, or citizen formulation and passage of law, and a citizen veto of legislature-made law. Many historians mark the end of the Republic with the passage of a law named the Lex Titia, 27 November 43 BC, which eliminated many oversight provisions.[9]

text: Modern-era citizen lawmaking began in the towns of Switzerland in the 13th century. In 1847, the Swiss added the "statute referendum" to their national constitution. They soon discovered that merely having the power to veto Parliament's laws was not enough. In 1891, they added the "constitutional amendment initiative". Swiss politics since 1891 have given the world a valuable experience base with the national-level constitutional amendment initiative.[10] In the past 120 years, more than 240 initiatives have been put to referendums. The populace has been conservative, approving only about 10% of these initiatives; in addition, they have often opted for a version of the initiative rewritten by government. (See Direct democracy in Switzerland below.)[3][4][5][6]

text: Some of the issues surrounding the related notion of a direct democracy using the Internet and other communications technologies are dealt with in e-democracy and below under the term electronic direct democracy. More concisely, the concept of open source governance applies principles of the free software movement to the governance of people, allowing the entire populace to participate in government directly, as much or as little as they please.[11]

text: Examples[edit]

text: Ancient Athens[edit]

text: Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 500 BC. Athens was one of the very first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, and even though most followed an Athenian model, none were as powerful, stable, or well-documented as that of Athens. In the direct democracy of Athens, the citizens did not nominate representatives to vote on legislation and executive bills on their behalf (as in the United States) but instead voted as individuals. The public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire of the comic poets in the theatres.[12]

text: Solon (594 BC), Cleisthenes (508–507 BCE), and Ephialtes (462 BC) all contributed to the development of Athenian democracy. Historians differ on which of them was responsible for which institution, and which of them most represented a truly democratic movement. It is most usual to date Athenian democracy from Cleisthenes, since Solon's constitution fell and was replaced by the tyranny of Peisistratus, whereas Ephialtes revised Cleisthenes' constitution relatively peacefully. Hipparchus, the brother of the tyrant Hippias, was killed by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were subsequently honored by the Athenians for their alleged restoration of Athenian freedom.

text: The greatest and longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles; after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolution towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides; the most detailed accounts are of this 4th-century modification rather than of the Periclean system. It was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were later revived, but the extent to which they were a real democracy is debatable.[13]

text: Switzerland[edit]

text: The pure form of direct democracy exists only in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus.[14] The Swiss Confederation is a semi-direct democracy (representative democracy with strong instruments of direct democracy).[14] The nature of direct democracy in Switzerland is fundamentally complemented by its federal governmental structures (in German also called the Subsidiaritätsprinzip).[3][4][5][6]

text: Most western countries have representative systems.[14] Switzerland is a rare example of a country with instruments of direct democracy (at the levels of the municipalities, cantons, and federal state). Citizens have more power than in a representative democracy. On any political level citizens can propose changes to the constitution (popular initiative), or ask for an optional referendum to be held on any law voted by the federal, cantonal parliament and/or municipal legislative body.[15]

text: The list for mandatory or optional referendums on each political level are generally much longer in Switzerland than in any other country; for example any amendment to the constitution must automatically be voted on by the Swiss electorate and cantons, on cantonal/communal levels often any financial decision of a certain substantial amount decreed by legislative and/or executive bodies as well.[15]

text: Swiss citizens vote regularly on any kind of issue on every political level, such as financial approvals of a school house or the building of a new street, or the change of the policy regarding sexual work, or on constitutional changes, or on the foreign policy of Switzerland, four times a year.[16] Between January 1995 and June 2005, Swiss citizens voted 31 times, on 103 federal questions besides many more cantonal and municipal questions.[17] During the same period, French citizens participated in only two referendums.[14]

text: In Switzerland, simple majorities are sufficient at the municipal and cantonal level, but at the federal level double majorities are required on constitutional issues.[10]

text: A double majority requires approval by a majority of individuals voting, and also by a majority of cantons. Thus, in Switzerland a citizen-proposed amendment to the federal constitution (i.e. popular initiative) cannot be passed at the federal level if a majority of the people approve but a majority of the cantons disapprove.[10] For referendums or propositions in general terms (like the principle of a general revision of the Constitution), a majority of those voting is sufficient (Swiss Constitution, 2005).

text: In 1890, when the provisions for Swiss national citizen lawmaking were being debated by civil society and government, the Swiss adopted the idea of double majorities from the United States Congress, in which House votes were to represent the people and Senate votes were to represent the states.[10] According to its supporters, this "legitimacy-rich" approach to national citizen lawmaking has been very successful. Kris Kobach claims that Switzerland has had tandem successes both socially and economically which are matched by only a few other nations. Kobach states at the end of his book, "Too often, observers deem Switzerland an oddity among political systems. It is more appropriate to regard it as a pioneer." Finally, the Swiss political system, including its direct democratic devices in a multi-level governance context, becomes increasingly interesting for scholars of European Union integration.[18]

text: Paris Commune[edit]

text: In 1871 after the establishment of the Paris Commune, the Parisians established a decentralized direct system of government with appointed organizers to make sense of the largely spontaneous uprising. While it still refused women the right to vote, they were heavily involved in the consensus before votes took place. Everything from the military to when meetings took place was democratized, and such decentralization and aforementioned democratization led many members of the First Internationale to regard the Paris Commune as a stateless society.

text: Due to the short lifespan of the Commune, only one citywide election was held and the structures necessary to facilitate future organized elections on large scales was largely nonexistent. However, the influence of direct democratization in the Paris Commune is not to be understated.

text: United States[edit]

text: In the New England region of the United States, towns in areas such as Vermont decide local affairs through the direct democratic process of the town meeting.[19] This is the oldest form of direct democracy in the United States, and predates the founding of the country by at least a century.

text: Direct democracy was not what the framers of the United States Constitution envisioned for the nation. They saw a danger in tyranny of the majority. As a result, they advocated a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional republic over a direct democracy. For example, James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, advocates a constitutional republic over direct democracy precisely to protect the individual from the will of the majority. He says,

text: Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.

text: [A] pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.[20]

text: John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, said: "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." Alexander Hamilton said, "That a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure, deformity."[21]

text: Despite the framers' intentions in the beginning of the republic, ballot measures and their corresponding referendums have been widely used at the state and sub-state level. There is much state and federal case law, from the early 1900s to the 1990s, that protects the people's right to each of these direct democracy governance components (Magleby, 1984, and Zimmerman, 1999). The first United States Supreme Court ruling in favor of the citizen lawmaking was in Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company v. Oregon, 223 U.S. 118 in 1912 (Zimmerman, December 1999). President Theodore Roosevelt, in his "Charter of Democracy" speech to the 1912 Ohio constitutional convention, stated: "I believe in the Initiative and Referendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative."[22]

text: In various states, referendums through which the people rule include:

text:
Referrals by the legislature to the people of "proposed constitutional amendments" (constitutionally used in 49 states, excepting only Delaware – Initiative & Referendum Institute, 2004).
Referrals by the legislature to the people of "proposed statute laws" (constitutionally used in all 50 states – Initiative & Referendum Institute, 2004).
Constitutional amendment initiative is a constitutionally-defined petition process of "proposed constitutional law", which, if successful, results in its provisions being written directly into the state's constitution. Since constitutional law cannot be altered by state legislatures, this direct democracy component gives the people an automatic superiority and sovereignty, over representative government (Magelby, 1984). It is utilized at the state level in nineteen states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Dakota (Cronin, 1989). Among these states, there are three main types of the constitutional amendment initiative, with different degrees of involvement of the state legislature distinguishing between the types (Zimmerman, December 1999).
Statute law initiative is a constitutionally-defined, citizen-initiated petition process of "proposed statute law", which, if successful, results in law being written directly into the state's statutes. The statute initiative is used at the state level in twenty-one states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (Cronin, 1989). Note that, in Utah, there is no constitutional provision for citizen lawmaking. All of Utah's I&R law is in the state statutes (Zimmerman, December 1999). In most states, there is no special protection for citizen-made statutes; the legislature can begin to amend them immediately.
Statute law referendum is a constitutionally-defined, citizen-initiated petition process of the "proposed veto of all or part of a legislature-made law", which, if successful, repeals the standing law. It is used at the state level in twenty-four states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (Cronin, 1989).
The recall election is a citizen-initiated process which, if successful, removes an elected official from office and replaces him or her. The first recall device in the United States was adopted in Los Angeles in 1903. Typically, the process involves the collection of citizen petitions for the recall of an elected official; if a sufficient number of valid signatures and collected and verified, a recall election is triggered. In U.S. history, there have been three gubernatorial recall elections in U.S. history (two of which resulted in the recall of the governor) and 38 recall elections for state legislators (55% of which succeeded). As of 2017, it is utilized at the state level in nineteen states and the District of Columbia; a larger number of states allow the recall for local officials and school board members. In most states, a recall petition campaign may begin for any reason; eight states require specific grounds for recall.[23]

text: Zapatistas[edit]

text: Territories held by the Zapatistas in Mexico also employ elements of direct democracy. At a local level, people attend a general assembly of around 300 families where anyone over the age of 12 can participate in decision-making, these assemblies strive to reach a consensus but are willing to fall back to a majority vote. Each community has 3 main administrative structures: (1) the commissariat, in charge of day-to day administration; (2) the council for land control, which deals with forestry and disputes with neighboring communities; and (3) the agencia, a community police agency. The communities form a federation with other communities to create an autonomous municipalities, which form further federations with other municipalities to create a region. The Zapatistas are composed of five regions, in total having a population of around 300,000 people.

text: Rojava[edit]

text: In Syrian Kurdistan, in the cantons of Rojava, a new model of polity is exercised by the Kurdish freedom movement, that of Democratic confederalism. This model has been developed by Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, on the basis of the Kurdish revolutionary experience and traditions, and of the theory of Communalism developed by Murray Bookchin[24]. At the opposite of the Nation-State model of sovereignty, Democratic confederalism rests on the principle of radical self-government, where political decisions are taken in popular assemblies at the level of the commune, which will send delegates to the confederate level of the district and the canton[25]. This bottom-up political structure coexists with the democratic self-administration, as organized in the Charter of the Social Contract adopted by the cantons of Rojava in 2014. These two structures constitute a situation characterized as one of dual power by David Graeber, though a peculiar one as they are both formed by the same movement[26].

text: Compared to other experiences categorized as ones of direct democracy such as OWS, the Rojava experiment presents only several elements of direct democracy, namely the organization of the self-governing communes in popular assemblies where everybody can participate, the confederation of these communes through imperative and recallable mandates, the rotation of charges (often biannually) and the absence of a centralized power[27]. In theory, Öcalan describes the principle of Democratic Confederalism as follows: "In contrast to a centralist and bureaucratic understanding of administration and exercise of power confederalism poses a type of political self-administration where all groups of the society and all cultural identities can express themselves in local meetings, general conventions and councils."[28]. In practice, Rojava is organized on a system of "Four Level Councils": the Commune, the Neighborhood, the District, and the People's Council of West Kurdistan. Each level nominates delegates for the next level with imperative mandates as well as recallable mandates[27].

text: As democratic autonomy rests on the equal political engagement of members of the community, the Kurdish women's movement aims at changing the historical exclusion of women from the public sphere as well as at educating women, creating space where they can participate and produce their own decisions[29]. This commitment to women's liberation is instantiated in the principle of dual leadership and 40 percent quota and in the many political spaces created for women's education as well as their political and economic emancipation[30]. Women are therefore fully included in the project of direct democracy. In order to contribute to their political emancipation, Kurdish women created a new science, Jineologî or "women's science", in order to give to women access to knowledge, the very foundation of power in society[31]. Moreover, political emancipation is not seen as sufficient to ensure women's liberation if it does not rest on the possibility of women for self-defense. Therefore, Kurdish women created the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) which forms, along with the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish armed forces.

text: The Rojava cantons are governed through a combination of district and civil councils. District councils consist of 300 members as well as two elected co-presidents- one man and one woman. District councils decide and carry out administrative and economic duties such as garbage collection, land distribution and cooperative enterprises.[32] `

text: Occupy Wall Street[edit]

text: Rallied under the slogan “We are the 99%” to protest against the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the 1%[33] (Stiglitz, “Of the 1%, By the 1%, and For the 1%”), Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was also a political project of experimenting how a group could organized itself under the paradigm of direct democracy. The commitment of OWS to direct democracy stems from an understanding of social change as prefigurative politics, which consists in putting the means of social change in coherence with its ends and in the enactment of its political vision through mechanisms of direct democracy[34]. Indeed, OWS followed mechanisms of direct democracy to organize the encampment, to prepare the direct actions and to form collective claims. Largely inspired by anarchist principles of absence of coercion, horizontality and non-hierarchy, these mechanisms were already developed and used during the alter-globalization movement, and OWS is in this tradition of neo-anarchism[34].

text: The main mechanism of direct democracy used during OWS was the General Assembly (GA), which constituted a place of political discussion for people traditionally excluded from the political sphere[35]. The GA allowed anyone to participate in OWS, whether newcomers or original participants, to speak to the entire group, and to be part of the decision-making process. Two “facilitators” (always gender-mixed) animated the meeting by keeping track of the “speaking stack”, composed of anyone who wish to speak (they also used “progressive stacks” to allow people from marginalized groups to have more voice)[36]. As they could gather hundreds of people, general assemblies were often facilitated by hand signals denoting messages that needed to be voiced but did not deserve to interrupt a speaker (consent, objection, lack of understanding, technical/logistical point, clarification, proposition to move forward, language issues, etc.), consultative straw polls (called “temperature checks” to have an idea of what the group thinks at a moment in time, without going through a consensus process) and “human microphone” (the speaker on front of the GA would hear her words repeated by the entire crowd until they reach the people who are the farthest away from the center).

text: The technique of decision-making within the OWS GA was consensus. Contrary to the majority rule, deciding by consensus entails that no decisions can be made if there is no general consent, preventing the minority to be submitted to the majority's will[37]. Consensus decision-making starts with a proposal for which the facilitators ask for demands of clarification, then for concerns (which can lead to friendly amendments of the proposal), potentially punctuated by consultative straw polls at any of the three steps. Once the proposition is finalized, the facilitators operate the final check for consensus, allowing people either to consent, to stand aside (not taking part to the execution of the decision but not preventing others from doing do), or to block, that is to veto, the proposition; and to justify their chosen position[38].

text: Democratic reform trilemma[edit]

text: Democratic theorists have identified a trilemma due to the presence of three desirable characteristics of an ideal system of direct democracy, which are challenging to deliver all at once. These three characteristics are participation – widespread participation in the decision making process by the people affected; deliberation – a rational discussion where all major points of view are weighted according to evidence; and equality – all members of the population on whose behalf decisions are taken have an equal chance of having their views taken into account. Empirical evidence from dozens of studies suggests deliberation leads to better decision making.[39][40][41] The most popularly disputed form of direct popular participation is the referendum on constitutional matters.[42]

text: For the system to respect the principle of political equality, either everyone needs to be involved or there needs to be a representative random sample of people chosen to take part in the discussion. In the definition used by scholars such as James Fishkin, deliberative democracy is a form of direct democracy which satisfies the requirement for deliberation and equality but does not make provision to involve everyone who wants to be included in the discussion. Participatory democracy, by Fishkin's definition, allows inclusive participation and deliberation, but at a cost of sacrificing equality, because if widespread participation is allowed, sufficient resources rarely will be available to compensate people who sacrifice their time to participate in the deliberation. Therefore, participants tend to be those with a strong interest in the issue to be decided and often will not therefore be representative of the overall population.[43] Fishkin instead argues that random sampling should be used to select a small, but still representative, number of people from the general public.[7][39]

text: Fishkin concedes it is possible to imagine a system that transcends the trilemma, but it would require very radical reforms if such a system were to be integrated into mainstream politics.

text: Electronic direct democracy[edit]

text: Relation to other movements[edit]

text: Anarchists have advocated forms of direct democracy as an alternative to the centralized state and capitalism; however, others (such as individualist anarchists) have criticized direct democracy and democracy in general for ignoring the rights of the minority, and instead have advocated a form of consensus decision-making. Libertarian Marxists, however, fully support direct democracy in the form of the proletarian republic and see majority rule and citizen participation as virtues. The Young Communist League USA in particular refers to representative democracy as "bourgeois democracy", implying that they see direct democracy as "true democracy".[44]

text: In schools[edit]

text: Democratic schools modeled on Summerhill School resolve conflicts and make school policy decisions through full school meetings in which the votes of students and staff are weighted equally.[45]

text: Contemporary movements[edit]


document_title: Dark Ages (historiography)

question_text: when did the dark ages begin and end

question_tokens: when did the dark ages begin and end

text: Dark Ages (historiography)

text: History[edit]

text: The term was originally intended to denote an intermediate period between Classical Antiquity and the Modern era. In the 19th century scholars began to recognize the accomplishments of the period, which challenged the image of a time exclusively of darkness and decay.[12] Nowadays the term is not used by scholars to refer to the entire medieval period;[10] when used, it is generally restricted to the Early Middle Ages.[1]

text: The rise of archaeology in the 20th century has shed light on the period, offering a more nuanced understanding of its achievements.[13] Other terms of periodization have come to the fore: Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, and the Great Migrations, depending on which aspects of culture are being emphasized. Today, on the rare occasions when the term is used by historians, it is intended to be neutral and express the idea that the period often seems 'dark' from the scarcity of historical record, and artistic and cultural output.[10][14]

text: Petrarch[edit]

text: The idea of a Dark Age originated with the Tuscan scholar Petrarch in the 1330s.[15][12] Writing of the past, he said: "Amidst the errors there shone forth men of genius; no less keen were their eyes, although they were surrounded by darkness and dense gloom".[16] Christian writers, including Petrarch himself,[15] had long used traditional metaphors of 'light versus darkness' to describe 'good versus evil'. Petrarch was the first to give the metaphor secular meaning by reversing its application. He now saw Classical Antiquity, so long considered a 'dark' age for its lack of Christianity, in the 'light' of its cultural achievements, while Petrarch's own time, allegedly lacking such cultural achievements, was seen as the age of darkness.[15]

text: From his perspective on the Italian peninsula, Petrarch saw the Roman and classical period as an expression of greatness.[15] He spent much of his time travelling through Europe, rediscovering and republishing classic Latin and Greek texts. He wanted to restore the Latin language to its former purity. Renaissance humanists saw the preceding 900 years as a time of stagnation, with history unfolding not along the religious outline of Saint Augustine's Six Ages of the World, but in cultural (or secular) terms through progressive development of classical ideals, literature, and art.

text: Petrarch wrote that history had two periods: the classic period of Greeks and Romans, followed by a time of darkness in which he saw himself living. In around 1343, in the conclusion of his epic Africa, he wrote: "My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms. But for you perhaps, if as I hope and wish you will live long after me, there will follow a better age. This sleep of forgetfulness will not last forever. When the darkness has been dispersed, our descendants can come again in the former pure radiance."[17] In the 15th century, historians Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo developed a three-tier outline of history. They used Petrarch's two ages, plus a modern, 'better age', which they believed the world had entered. Later the term 'Middle Ages' - Latin media tempestas (1469) or  medium aevum (1604) - was used to describe the period of supposed decline.[18]

text: Reformation[edit]

text: During the Reformations of the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants generally had a similar view to Renaissance Humanists such as Petrarch, but also added an Anti-Catholic perspective. They saw classical antiquity as a golden time, not only because of its Latin literature, but also because it witnessed the beginnings of Christianity. They promoted the idea that the 'Middle Age' was a time of darkness also because of corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, such as:  Popes ruling as kings, veneration of saints' relics, a celibate priesthood, and institutionalized moral hypocrisy.[19]

text: Baronius[edit]

text: In response to the Protestants, Catholics developed a counter-image to depict the High Middle Ages in particular as a period of social and religious harmony, and not 'dark' at all.[20] The most important Catholic reply to the Magdeburg Centuries was the Annales Ecclesiastici by Cardinal Caesar Baronius. Baronius was a trained historian who produced a work that the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1911 described as "far surpassing anything before"[21] and that Acton regarded as "the greatest history of the Church ever written".[22] The Annales covered the first twelve centuries of Christianity to 1198, and was published in twelve volumes between 1588 and 1607. It was in Volume X that Baronius coined the term "dark age" for the period between the end of the Carolingian Empire in 888[23] and the first stirrings of Gregorian Reform under Pope Clement II in 1046:

text:
Volumes of Patrologia Latina per century[24]

Century
Migne Volume Nos
Volumes

7th
80–88
9

8th
89–96
8

9th
97–130
34

10th
131–138
8

11th
139–151
13

12th
152–191
40

13th
192–217
26

text: "The new age (saeculum) which was beginning, for its harshness and barrenness of good could well be called iron, for its baseness and abounding evil leaden, and moreover for its lack of writers (inopia scriptorum) dark (obscurum)".[25]

text: Significantly, Baronius termed the age 'dark' because of the paucity of written records. The "lack of writers" he referred to may be illustrated by comparing the number of volumes in Migne's Patrologia Latina containing the work of Latin writers from the 10th century (the heart of the age he called 'dark') with the number containing the work of writers from the preceding and succeeding centuries. A minority of these writers were historians.

text: There is a sharp drop from 34 volumes in the 9th century to just 8 in the 10th. The 11th century, with 13, evidences a certain recovery, and the 12th century, with 40, surpasses the 9th, something the 13th, with just 26, fails to do. There was indeed a 'dark age', in Baronius's sense of a "lack of writers", between the Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th century and the beginnings, some time in the 11th, of what has been called the Renaissance of the 12th century. Furthermore, there was an earlier period of "lack of writers" during the 7th and 8th centuries.  So, in Western Europe, two 'dark ages' can be identified, separated by the brilliant but brief Carolingian Renaissance.

text: Baronius's 'dark age' seems to have struck historians, for it was in the 17th century that the term started to proliferate in various European languages, with his original Latin term saeculum obscurum being reserved for the period he had applied it to. But while some, following Baronius, used 'dark age' neutrally to refer to a dearth of written records, others used it pejoratively, lapsing into that lack of objectivity that has discredited the term for many modern historians.

text: The first British historian to use the term was most likely Gilbert Burnet, in the form 'darker ages' which appears several times in his work during the later 17th century. The earliest reference seems to be in the "Epistle Dedicatory" to Volume I of The History of the Reformation of the Church of England of 1679, where he writes: "The design of the reformation was to restore Christianity to what it was at first, and to purge it of those corruptions, with which it was overrun in the later and darker ages."[27] He uses it again in the 1682 Volume II, where he dismisses the story of "St George's fighting with the dragon" as "a legend formed in the darker ages to support the humour of chivalry".[28] Burnet was a bishop chronicling how England became Protestant, and his use of the term is invariably pejorative.

text: Enlightenment[edit]

text: During the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, many critical thinkers saw religion as antithetical to reason. For them the Middle Ages, or "Age of Faith", was therefore the opposite of the Age of Reason.[29] Kant and Voltaire were vocal in attacking the Middle Ages as a period of social regress dominated by religion, while Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire expressed contempt for the "rubbish of the Dark Ages".[30] Yet just as Petrarch, seeing himself at the cusp of a "new age", was criticising the centuries before his own time, so too were Enlightenment writers.

text: Consequently, an evolution had occurred in at least three ways. Petrarch's original metaphor of light versus dark has expanded over time, implicitly at least. Even if later humanists no longer saw themselves living in a dark age, their times were still not light enough for 18th-century writers who saw themselves as living in the real Age of Enlightenment, while the period to be condemned stretched to include what we now call Early Modern times. Additionally, Petrarch's metaphor of darkness, which he used mainly to deplore what he saw as a lack of secular achievement, was sharpened to take on a more explicitly anti-religious and anti-clerical meaning.

text: Nevertheless, the term 'Middle Ages', used by Biondo and other early humanists after Petrarch, was in general use before the 18th century to denote the period before the Renaissance. The earliest recorded use of the English word "medieval" was in 1827. The concept of the Dark Ages was also in use, but by the 18th century it tended to be confined to the earlier part of this period. The earliest entry for a capitalized "Dark Ages" in the Oxford English Dictionary is a reference in Henry Thomas Buckle's History of Civilization in England in 1857.[1] Starting and ending dates varied: the Dark Ages were considered by some to start in 410, by others in 476 when there was no longer an emperor in Rome, and to end about 800, at the time of the Carolingian Renaissance under Charlemagne, or alternatively to extend through to the end of the 1st millennium.

text: Romanticism[edit]

text: In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Romantics reversed the negative assessment of Enlightenment critics with a vogue for medievalism.[31] The word "Gothic" had been a term of opprobrium akin to "Vandal" until a few self-confident mid-18th-century English "Goths" like Horace Walpole initiated the Gothic Revival in the arts. This stimulated interest in the Middle Ages, which for the following generation began to take on the idyllic image of an "Age of Faith". This, reacting to a world dominated by Enlightenment rationalism, expressed a romantic view of a Golden Age of chivalry.  The Middle Ages were seen with nostalgia as a period of social and environmental harmony and spiritual inspiration, in contrast to the excesses of the French Revolution and, most of all, to the environmental and social upheavals and utilitarianism of the developing Industrial Revolution.[32] The Romantics' view is still represented in modern-day fairs and festivals celebrating the period with 'merrie' costumes and events.

text: Just as Petrarch had twisted the meaning of light versus darkness, so the Romantics had twisted the judgment of the Enlightenment. However, the period they idealized was largely the High Middle Ages, extending into Early Modern times. In one respect, this negated the religious aspect of Petrarch's judgment, since these later centuries were those when the power and prestige of the Church were at their height. To many, the scope of the Dark Ages was becoming divorced from this period, denoting mainly the centuries immediately following the fall of Rome.

text: Modern academic use[edit]

text: The term was widely used by 19th-century historians. In 1860, in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt delineated the contrast between the medieval 'dark ages' and the more enlightened Renaissance, which had revived the cultural and intellectual achievements of antiquity.[33] However, the early 20th century saw a radical re-evaluation of the Middle Ages, which called into question the terminology of darkness,[10] or at least its more pejorative use. The historian Denys Hay spoke ironically of "the lively centuries which we call dark".[34] More forcefully, a book about the history of German literature published in 2007 describes "the dark ages" as "a popular if ignorant manner of speaking".[35]

text: Most modern historians do not use the term "dark ages", preferring terms such as Early Middle Ages.  But when used by some historians today, the term "Dark Ages" is meant to describe the economic, political, and cultural problems of the era.[36][37]  For others, the term Dark Ages is intended to be neutral, expressing the idea that the events of the period seem 'dark' to us because of the paucity of the historical record.[10] The term is used in this sense (often in the singular) to reference the Bronze Age collapse and the subsequent Greek Dark Ages,[1] the dark ages of Cambodia (c. 1450-1863), and also a hypothetical Digital Dark Age which would ensue if the electronic documents produced in the current period were to become unreadable at some point in the future.[38] Some Byzantinists have used the term "Byzantine Dark Ages" to refer to the period from the earliest Muslim conquests to about 800,[39] because there are no extant historical texts in Greek from this period, and thus the history of the Byzantine Empire and its territories that were conquered by the Muslims is poorly understood and must be reconstructed from other contemporaneous sources, such as religious texts.[40][41] The term "dark age" is not restricted to the discipline of history. Since the archaeological evidence for some periods is abundant and for others scanty, there are also archaeological dark ages.[42]

text: Since the Late Middle Ages significantly overlap with the Renaissance, the term 'Dark Ages' has become restricted to distinct times and places in medieval Europe. Thus the 5th and 6th centuries in Britain, at the height of the Saxon invasions, have been called "the darkest of the Dark Ages",[43] in view of the societal collapse of the period and the consequent lack of historical records. Further south and east, the same was true in the formerly Roman province of Dacia, where history after the Roman withdrawal went unrecorded for centuries as Slavs, Avars, Bulgars, and others struggled for supremacy in the Danube basin, and events there are still disputed. However, at this time the Arab Empire is often considered to have experienced its Golden Age rather than Dark Age; consequently, usage of the term must also specify a geography. While Petrarch's concept of a Dark Age corresponded to a mostly Christian period following pre-Christian Rome, today the term mainly applies to the cultures and periods in Europe that were least Christianized, and thus most sparsely covered by chronicles and other contemporary sources, at the time mostly written by Catholic clergy.[citation needed]

text: However, from the later 20th century onwards, other historians became critical even of this nonjudgmental use of the term, for two main reasons.[10] Firstly, it is questionable whether it is ever possible to use the term in a neutral way: scholars may intend this, but ordinary readers may not understand it so. Secondly, 20th-century scholarship had increased understanding of the history and culture of the period,[44] to such an extent that it is no longer really 'dark' to us.[10] To avoid the value judgment implied by the expression, many historians now avoid it altogether.[45][46]

text: Modern popular use[edit]

text: Science historian David C. Lindberg criticises the public use of 'dark ages' to describe the entire Middle Ages as "a time of ignorance, barbarism and superstition" for which "blame is most often laid at the feet of the Christian church, which is alleged to have placed religious authority over personal experience and rational activity".[47] Historian of science, Edward Grant, writes that "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed in the Age of Reason, they were made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities".[48] Furthermore, Lindberg says that, contrary to common belief, "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led".[49] Because of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire due to the Migration Period a lot of classical Greek texts were lost there, but part of these texts survived and they were studied widely in the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. Around the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the High Middle Ages stronger monarchies emerged; borders were restored after the invasions of Vikings and Magyars; technological developments and agricultural innovations were made which increased the food supply and population. And the rejuvenation of science and scholarship in the West was due in large part to the new availability of Latin translations of Aristotle.[50]

text: Another view of the period is reflected by more specific notions such as the 19th-century claim[51][52] that everyone in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat.[52][53] In fact, lecturers in medieval universities commonly advanced the idea that the Earth was a sphere.[54] Lindberg and Ronald Numbers write: "There was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference".[55]  Other misconceptions such as: "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", and "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy", are cited by Numbers as examples of myths that still pass as historical truth, although unsupported by current research.[56]