1. Transcendentalists Alone with Nature

2. What is Transcendentalism? Tenets (Beliefs) – Truth is in nature – Everyone can get it – Social knowledge different than individual knowledge – Society can and will improve – Individual has effect on community – Non-conformity – Self-reliance Authors: – Emerson – Thoreau – Fuller

3. Historical Context 1830s-1860s – Mexican American War – Civil War Centered at Harvard University Inspired by German Philosopher Immanuel Kant Originally Transcendentalism used as a put-down. They like it so it stays as their title

4. Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 Upbringing: – Parents owned a little store – They worked as pencil makers Education – Harvard – Labeled as failure

5. Henry David Thoreau Activist and Intellectual – “We need to” – Wants change in individual – Tree hugger Significant works: – Resistance to Civil Government – Walden – Slavery in Massachusetts

6. Ralph Waldo Emerson Education – Mary Moody Emerson (aunt) in charge – Wanted to go to Harvard Anti-Slavery Self-Reliance – Man is disunited with self until one with nature – Nature is a symbol of your spirit Anti-Institutionalism – Change in individual will result in change of society

7. Margaret Fuller Education – Educated by father who was a lawyer at Cambridge – Would educate other women through “conversations” she published Journalism – She writes for “The Dial” a Transcendentalist newspaper – Writes about women’s rights “The Great Lawsuit: Men vs. Men and Women vs. Women” “Women in the Nineteenth Century” Death – Dies with her family in a shipwreck off of New York – Just returning from revolution in Italy