Reading Library

SDA Commons Wiki · South High School

This is where you find texts for your studio. Every entry has the full passage, plain-language context, vocabulary, and connections to your standards — everything you need to start reading and building an argument.

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Start Here

What week are you in?

• Week 1 — Launch: Browse the table below by era or text type. Pick one passage from each of your studio's four texts. You don't need to read everything — just enough to write a first reaction.
• Week 2 — Dig: Come back to the 1–2 texts that grabbed you. Use the full entry — read the key passage, check the vocabulary, note the standard connections.
• Week 3–5 — Build, Shape, Finish: Use the "Studio Ideas" section of each entry to sharpen your argument. Check the crosswalk entries if your studio spans both ELA and SS.
• Stuck? If you don't know which texts fit your studio, go to your Studio Packet page first — it lists the four recommended texts and why they matter.

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Browse by What You Need

I'm in a World History studio

Era	What You're Studying	Go here
Era 1	Ancient civilizations — law, religion, government, philosophy	Era 1 texts
Era 2	Middle Ages — feudalism, the Church, early trade, colonization	Era 2 texts
Era 3	Revolutions — political, industrial, anti-colonial	Era 3 texts
Era 4	20th century — world wars, civil rights, globalization	Era 4 texts

I'm in a US History studio

Unit	What You're Studying	Go here
Units 1–4	Industrial age, immigration, labor, Progressive Era	Era 3 texts (The Jungle, Douglass)
Units 5–9	20th century — New Deal, WWII, Cold War, Civil Rights	Era 4 texts

I'm in an ELA studio

Go to ELA Literary Texts below — novels, memoirs, plays, and essays organized by the skills they teach best.

I want a text that counts for both ELA and SS

That's a Crosswalk text. See the ELA Literary Texts section and the ELA ↔ Social Studies pages.

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How to Read an Entry

Every text in this library has the same structure — once you know it, you can navigate any entry in about 30 seconds:

Section	What it tells you
What This Text Is About	Two sentences. Plain language. Read this first.
Read It	The actual passage — a key excerpt embedded directly on the page
ELA Standards This Connects To	Which reading/writing standards this text helps you demonstrate
Social Studies Standards	Which SS standard + era this connects to
Key Vocabulary	Words you need to know before you read
Studio Ideas	Ready-made Essential Questions built around this text
Why This Is Relevant Today?	How this old text connects to something happening right now

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All Library Entries

Social Studies Primary Sources

Era 1 — Ancient Civilizations (c. 3000 BCE – 500 CE)

These texts ask: Who gets power, and why? How do societies decide what is just?

Text	Author	What it's about
Egyptian Book of the Dead	Ancient Egyptian scribes	What ancient Egyptians believed about death, judgment, and the soul
Hammurabi's Code	Hammurabi	One of the world's first written legal codes — 282 laws carved in stone
The Dhammapada	Attributed to the Buddha	Core Buddhist teachings on the mind, suffering, and how to live
The Twelve Tables of Rome	Roman Decemviri	Rome's first public law code — written so citizens could know their rights
Polybius — On the Roman Republic	Polybius	A Greek historian explains why Rome's mixed government made it so powerful
The Analects	Confucius	Short teachings on leadership, virtue, and how to run a just society
Pericles' Funeral Oration	Thucydides	Athens' most famous speech defending democracy — and what it cost
The Melian Dialogue	Thucydides	Athens tells a small island: surrender or be destroyed. The island refuses.

Read these two together: Pericles' Funeral Oration and the Melian Dialogue are by the same author, set 15 years apart. One celebrates Athenian democracy. The other shows what that democracy did when nobody was watching.

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Era 2 — Middle Ages and Early Modern (500–1750 CE)

These texts ask: Who has authority — king, church, or law? What happens when that breaks down?

Text	Author	What it's about
Feudal Obligations	Various	The actual contracts that held medieval society together — land for loyalty
Pope Gregory VII / Emperor Henry IV	Pope Gregory VII; Henry IV	A showdown between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor over who has ultimate power
Magna Carta	English barons / King John	The document that said even kings have to follow rules — 1215
Rihla (Travels)	Ibn Battuta	A 14th-century Muslim traveler's account of the world as it actually was
The 95 Theses	Martin Luther	The document that started the Protestant Reformation — posted to a church door
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies	Bartolomé de las Casas	A Spanish priest witnesses the genocide of Indigenous people and refuses to stay silent

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Era 3 — Age of Revolutions and Industry (1750–1914)

These texts ask: What makes a revolution legitimate? Who gets left out?

Text	Author	What it's about
Common Sense	Thomas Paine	The pamphlet that convinced a generation of colonists that independence was obvious
Declaration of the Rights of Man	National Assembly of France	France's version of universal rights — written during one of history's bloodiest revolutions
Declaration of the Rights of Woman	Olympe de Gouges	Written in response to the Declaration above — because it didn't include women
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman	Mary Wollstonecraft	The argument that women's subjugation is taught, not natural — 1792
Haitian Declaration of Independence	Dessalines / Boisrond-Tonnerre	The only successful slave revolt in history announces itself to the world
The Communist Manifesto	Marx & Engels	The argument that history is a story of class conflict — and that workers will win
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass	Frederick Douglass	A formerly enslaved man describes what slavery actually was — and dismantles every argument for it
"The White Man's Burden" + H.T. Johnson response	Kipling / Johnson	A pro-empire poem and a direct rebuttal — read them together
The Jungle	Upton Sinclair	A novel about immigrant meatpacking workers that accidentally exposed the entire food industry
"Dulce et Decorum Est"	Wilfred Owen	A WWI soldier's poem about what it actually looks like when someone dies from a gas attack

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Era 4 — Global War and Globalization (1914–Present)

These texts ask: What do we owe each other? Who decides what freedom means?

Text	Author	What it's about
FDR — Four Freedoms Speech	Franklin D. Roosevelt	FDR defines what America is fighting for in WWII — including freedom from fear and want
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights	United Nations	The world's attempt, after WWII, to say: these rights belong to every human
Letter from Birmingham Jail	Martin Luther King Jr.	MLK responds to white clergymen who told him to slow down — one of the great arguments in American history
Rivonia Trial Speech	Nelson Mandela	Mandela speaks at his own trial for fighting apartheid — knowing he might be sentenced to death
UN Speech — "One Child, One Teacher"	Malala Yousafzai	A teenager shot for going to school addresses the United Nations

Rights chain: If you're tracing the argument for universal human rights across history, read these in order: Hammurabi's Code → Magna Carta → Common Sense → Declaration of Rights of Man → Haitian Declaration → FDR Four Freedoms → UN UDHR → Malala. Each one builds on — or challenges — the one before it.

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ELA Literary Texts

These texts are organized by what they teach best. Most also connect to a historical era — see the History Connection column.

Text	Author	Best for	History Connection
The Odyssey	Homer	Epic narrative, character arc, heroism and its cost	WH Era 1 — Greek civilization
Oedipus Rex	Sophocles	Fate vs. free will, dramatic irony, tragedy	WH Era 1 — Greek drama and politics
Romeo & Juliet	Shakespeare	Dramatic structure, language, tragic flaw	WH Era 2 — Renaissance
Julius Caesar	Shakespeare	Political rhetoric, manipulation, persuasion	WH Era 1 (Rome)
Hamlet	Shakespeare	Moral ambiguity, revenge, action vs. inaction	WH Era 2 — Early modern Europe
Moby Dick	Melville	Obsession, symbolism, the American frontier	WH Era 3 — 19th century America
Narrative of Frederick Douglass	Douglass	Argument, ethos, evidence — and what slavery was	USH — Civil War era
The Jungle	Sinclair	Naturalism, investigative writing, social reform	USH — Progressive Era
The Great Gatsby	Fitzgerald	Symbolism, the American Dream, class and illusion	USH — 1920s
Their Eyes Were Watching God	Hurston	Voice, dialect, identity, women and autonomy	USH — Harlem Renaissance
Things Fall Apart	Achebe	Colonialism from the inside, cultural identity	WH Era 3–4 — Africa under empire
Lord of the Flies	Golding	Civilization vs. savagery, allegory, WWII context	WH Era 4
Night	Wiesel	Memoir, witness, the Holocaust from inside it	WH Era 4 — Holocaust
"Politics and the English Language"	Orwell	How language is used to manipulate — still true today	WH Era 4
1984	Orwell	Totalitarianism, surveillance, propaganda	WH Era 4 — Cold War
Fahrenheit 451	Bradbury	Censorship, conformity, what books are for	WH Era 4
A Raisin in the Sun	Hansberry	Dreams, race, family, mid-century America	USH — Civil Rights era
To Kill a Mockingbird	Lee	Justice, moral courage, race in the American South	USH — Civil Rights era
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings	Angelou	Memoir, trauma, resilience, Black American experience	USH — Civil Rights era
Warriors Don't Cry	Beals	Primary source memoir — Little Rock integration, 1957	USH — Civil Rights
Persepolis	Satrapi	Graphic memoir — growing up in the Iranian Revolution	WH Era 4
The Handmaid's Tale	Atwood	Dystopia, gender, power, political allegory	Contemporary
The Kite Runner	Hosseini	Guilt, redemption, Afghanistan — history through personal story	WH Era 4
Beloved	Morrison	Slavery's legacy, memory, trauma — told from the inside	USH — Reconstruction

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SDA Commons Wiki · South High School Questions about a text? Ask Reese, or check the Studio Packet page for your unit. See also: Standards · Skinnies · Studio Archive