An Introduction to Transcendentalism Back to the Basics An Introduction to Transcendentalism

Things to ponder: How are you affected by nature? Do you find comfort in it? Do you reflect the moods of nature? What is the role of nature in your life? What is meant by an individual’s “spiritual side”? How do you define it? Is there a connection between the individual’s spirit and nature? If so, what is that connection? What does it mean to know something intuitively? (For example, has a parent or a sibling ever known something was wrong with you without having talked with or seen you?) What do we mean when we say “I just know it”? How do you demonstrate that you are an individual? Do you think independently of others or do you follow the crowd?

Transcendentalism First truly distinctive American literature Transcendentalists were a group of poets and philosophers – club formed in 1835 Followers wanted to “go beyond” the limitations of the senses and discover higher truths and insights by using their intuition

Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) - Harvard graduate, had a brief stint as a Unitarian minister (like his father), wrote Nature and Self Reliance Henry David Thoreau (1818 – 1862) – Graduated Harvard at age 20, a dedicated nonconformist: tried to live by his own values instead of society’s, wrote Walden

1800-1850 President Thomas Jefferson – 1801 Louisiana Purchase - 1803 Lewis & Clark headed west – 1804 Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo – 1815 Beethoven completed the Ninth Symphony – 1823 Webster’s first dictionary – 1828 Population of America grew from five million in 1800 to over 23 million in 1850 California Gold Rush started 1848

The Transcendentalists

Life on Walden Pond

Thoreau’s Legacy

Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity

A Time of Change

The Civil Rights Movement

The Woodstock Generation