Transcendentalism By Jeanne Brock

It’s Famous! "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men." This quote was the very basis of Emerson’s view on Transcendentalism.

Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson was an American lecturer, philosopher, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He lived form 1803 to 1882, and married Lidian Jackson with whom he had 1 son.

Emerson was mostly known for his individualism and essays such as Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and Experience. He is considered to be one of the greatest lectureurs of his time, and was well respected by many people.

Other important transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, and Theodore Parker. Henry David Thoreau is most well known for his essay, “Civil Disobedience.”

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.“ This is how Ralph Waldo Emerson described people in society.

Transcendentalism was inspired by American romanticism and the dark European romanticism. Based on ideas of unity with nature and of individualism from society.

Henry David Thoreau was a student of Emerson’s and was more radical in his beliefs than Emerson was. Thoreau was arrested several times for refusal to pay taxes. He felt that taxes were one of the most deliberate forms of conformity.

Society Society at this time criticized Emerson and his colleagues, saying that it was irresponsible and crazy.

Society continued.. Many transcendentalist were viewed by society as atheists and trouble-makers. Some, like Henry David Thoreau, were arrested for their rebellion.

Art

The artists of this time period were just as individualistic as the writers of Transcendentalism. Their pieces involve nature and the beauty and power of natural elements.

Beliefs Established principally by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his book Nature (1836) Principles of Transcendentalism: all objects are miniature versions of the universe intuition and conscience "transcend" experience and reason man is one with nature God is everywhere, in nature and in man extension of Romanticism