INTRODUCTION TO ROMANTICISM ’s Home in the Woods by artist Thomas Cole- Hudson River School of Landscape artists

HISTORICAL CONTEXT- The Age of Enlightenment gives way to the Age of Expansion The Revolutionary War is fought and won The Constitutional Republic is established The Bill of Rights is added to the Constitution – 1791 Thomas Jefferson completes the Louisiana Purchase 1803 – doubling the size of the U.S.

Missouri is added as a slave state The Missouri compromise negotiated by Henry Clay ( Lover’s Leap- Missouri )

Expansion and Manifest Destiny- Claiming the Southwest The Mexican War between the United States and Mexico- a peace treaty was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to the annexation of Texas, Mexico ceded California and New Mexico (including all the present-day states of the Southwest) to the United States.

Artists depict the glory of the country to a fascinated public Black Canyon- Colorado

The Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt- An idealistic view of the continent- features the insignificance of mankind in nature.

THE WESTWARD EXPANSION Surveying and mapping activities flourished in the United States as people began moving inland over the inadequately mapped continent. - The settlement of the frontier, the development of agriculture, and the exploitation of natural resources generated a demand for new ways to move people and goods from one place to another. Privately owned toll or turnpike roads were followed first by steamships on the navigable rivers and by the construction of canals and then in the 1830s by the introduction of railroads for steam-powered trains. 1 1

Railway map- U.S. War Department 1857

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

Romanticism= a rejection of expansionism and progress! A school of thought that values feelings and intuition over rationalist thinking and progressive movement across the country. Reflected in literature, music and art A reaction against the industrialization of society, filthy cities, horrible working conditions for the poor.

Characteristics of Romanticism Imagination over logic and reason Innocence over educated sophistication Individualism – the worth of the individual Nature as the path to spiritual and moral truth Wisdom of the past over progress of the present Poetry as the highest form of expression through the imagination Inspiration from myth, legend and folk culture

Romanticism leads to Transcendentalism Transcendentalists viewed nature as a doorway to a mystical world holding important truths. They believed even tragic natural events could be explained on a spiritual level. Death is simply a part of the circle of life. We are capable of evil because we are separated from a direct intuitive knowledge of God. However, if we trust ourselves– trust in the power to know God directly– then we will realize we are part of the Divine Soul, the source of all good.

The Transcendentalists: True Reality Is Spiritual Transcendentalism -one must transcend or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world. To achieve this goal, the individual had to seek spiritual, not material, greatness and the essential truths of life through intuition. It comes from the very oldest of thoughts—Idealism—found as far back as the Greek times.

A Transcendentalist’s View of the World MAJOR WRITERS Henry David Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson Walt Whitman Margaret Fuller Emily Dickinson Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.

The core concepts of Transcendentalists Simplified: Self-reliance Non-conformity Free Thought Confidence Importance of Nature

Romanticism and Transcendentalism in the modern world THE JOURNEY MOTIF IN LITERATURE The physical journey reflects the psychological journey to finding the true self.