In America, the American Renaissance was the period in 1835-1880 in which United States literature came of age as an expression of a national spirit. Literature became one of the most historically significant effects that occurred throughout the time period of the American Renaissance. The American Renaissance is also characterized by renewed national self-confidence new ideas and technologies. Politically and economically, this era coincides with the Gilded Age and the New Imperialism. By the end of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment secularism made profound progress into American thoughts. “…the United States in the nineteenth century was an infant republic swaddled in the rational ideas of the Enlightenment.” (Tindall 492) The American Renaissance changed America with the outbreak of religion, romanticism, and reform.
Outbreak of Religion
“After the Revolution many Americans assumed that the United States had a mission to provide the world with a shining example of republican virtue, much as Puritan New England had once stood before erring humanity as an example of ideal Christian community.” (Tindall 492) The combination of widespread religious energy and passionate social idealism brought major reform and advances in human rights during the first half of the nineteenth century. Enlightenment rationalism stressed humankind’s essential goodness rather than its wickedness and stimulated a belief in social progress and the assurance of individual perfectibility. After the American Revolution is when the interest in Deism increased. In every major city “deistical societies” were formed, especially within the college student social group. “By the use of reason, Deists believe, people might grasp the natural laws governing the ...
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Tindall, George Brown, and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1997.
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, America has taken on yet another revolution. In this time period, the country saw a rapid expansion in territory and economics, as well as the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation’s first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; a rise in abolitionism and reduction in the power of slavery; and radical shifts in the roles and status of women.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America a Concise History. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010.
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 185,193. Print.
Brands, H. W.. American Stories: A History of the United States. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.205-212.
George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History, Ninth Edition, Volume One, (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), 504.
The “American Renaissance” was known as the time period which American writers had produced a significant mature level of writing within American and the development of literary nationalism. The “American Renaissance” was influential and shaped the structure of many movements in American’s new settlement by a collection of authors. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The Birth-Mark” had relation with the Age of Enlightenment that was involved in the renaissance. Ralph Waldo Emerson work’s “The Poet” and “The American Scholar” represented a national character in this time period. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Resistance to Civil Government” that showed examples of transcendentalism within this movement.
Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. New York: Vintage, 1989.
Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David Emory. America: A Narrative History. 8th Ed. Brief. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010).
What is Transcendentalism? Though this may sound like a new topic to you, its major tenets have been around for almost a century and many are still influencing modern life today. Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around the premises of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Along with Emerson, other important Transcendentalists including Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickenson, and Walt Whitman also took on the unconventional morals of this movement. Today, we are going to delve into a few of these major premises practiced by Transcendentalists. The first principal is that God can be found in both nature and human nature. The second principal is embracing individualism. Both of these aspects play key roles in creating the foundation for Transcendentalism that was both seen in the 19th century and modern society.
Transcendentalism was conceivably one of the most important movements in American history. It was an influential philosophy, brought to life by thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Though this movement’s prime was during the 1800s, its way of thinking can still be influential today. With powerful morals and spiritualistic views, people in today’s society could easily grasp onto transcendentalism and move toward a more free-minded lifestyle, just like Emerson and Thoreau wanted their society to
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 544. Print.
“The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy.”(Emerson 196). These two lines written by Ralph Waldo Emerson exemplify the whole movement of transcendentalist writers and what they believed in. Though to the writers, transcendentalism was a fight for a belief, unknown to them they could have been fighting for the betterment of human health. The transcendentalist writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson have directly affected the health of modern society through the idea of transcendental meditation. Through modern science, scientists have linked increases in health among individuals through the use of transcendental meditation.
...ed to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority” (American 1). The major players in the transcendentalist movement are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They shared ideas such as self-reliance, and ideas about how there is a divine being that controls every person. They influenced many other writers and they even had an effect on the American society, then and now. Transcendentalism was a philosophy and a way of life. It will continue to be this as long as we have access to the great minds of the transcendental movement.