1. An Introduction to Transcendentalism
Back to the Basics
An Introduction to Transcendentalism

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. The Transcendentalists

7. Life on Walden Pond

8. Thoreau’s Legacy

9. Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity

10. A Time of Change

11. The Civil Rights Movement

12. The Woodstock Generation