2.  One way to see American history is as a history of people moving away from centralized authority (e.g., the American Revolution, Westward Expansion, etc.).

3.  A complement to that idea is the history of the development of individual rights (e.g., “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness” up through the civil rights movement and marriage equality movement).

4.  Americans tend to value new frontiers for the free exercise of their beliefs and enterprise (e.g., the Puritans, the Louisiana Purchase, the moon landing, etc.).

5.  Americans also tend to value direct experience, unmediated or unrestricted by “authority” (e.g., Jay Gatsby, Emerson, Thoreau, the Tea Party movement).

6.  As generations pass, those who sought freedom themselves sometimes, ironically, become the “establishment” (i.e., the new authority).

7.  Emerson and Thoreau essentially believe that, if people can be trusted (and can trust themselves), they can “rule” themselves. (Emerson: “self-reliance” over the conforming pressures of society; Thoreau: “that government is best which governs not at all”)

8.  Believe in the power of intuition over reason  (Other beliefs on handout)

9.  LOVE the woods!  Yay woods!  Yay nature!  Yay people being good if left to their own nature!

10. The Dark Romantics

11.  FEAR the woods!  Scary woods!  Scary, vile nature!  People left to their own nature are vile, selfish, evil!

17.  Both parents died before he was 3  Raised by foster parents, went to the University of Virginia  Dropped out b/c of gambling debts  Eventually moved in with his aunt and her daughter Virginia in Baltimore  Brought his aunt and cousin Virginia to Richmond

18.  Married 13-year-old Virginia; Poe was 25  Virginia dies of TB about 10 years later  Poe’s depression & alcoholism worsen  Returns to Baltimore where he dies at age 40  Rabies?  Master of horror, detective fiction, and short stories in general

20.  From Salem, Mass.  Father, a ship’s captain, died overseas when Hawthorne was 4  Went to Bowdoin College, where he met and befriended future prez Franklin Pierce  Decided to become a writer  Spent 11 years working at that  Burned an early novel

21.  Discovered a family ancestor was a judge during the Salem Witch Trials (1692)  Part of his guilt expressed in the story “Young Goodman Brown”  Perhaps best known for his novel The Scarlet Letter, which deals with adultery during Puritan times  Died on vacation w/Pierce