10

Government literacy

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Early influences on Western governments

Mesopotamia

Scholars consider the Code of Hammurabi to be one of the earliest and the best-preserved examples of a ruler proclaiming publicly (on a carved black stone monument, eight feet high) an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. Hammurabi ruled Babylon from 1,795 to 1,750 BC and his Code of Laws may be viewed at the Louvre in Paris.1

Other early codes of law include the Code of Ur-Nammu, ruler of the Sumerian city of UR (c.2,060 BC), the Hittite Code of Laws the Code of the Nesilim (c.1,650-1,500 ...

Get Information Literacy in the Digital Age now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.