4.9: Emerson and Developments in American Culture
Using the excerpt, answer (a), (b), and (c).
“America is beginning to assert herself to the senses and to the imagination of her children, and Europe is receding in the same degree. . . .
Prudent men have begun to see that every American should be educated with a view to the values of land. . . .
The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false . . . in our culture. . . .
Gentlemen, the development of our American internal resources, the extension to the utmost of the commercial system, and the appearance of new moral causes which are to modify the State, are giving an aspect of greatness to the Future, which the imagination fears to open.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer, “The Young American,” 1844
Question 1
Briefly explain ONE perspective expressed by Emerson on the reform movements in the mid-19th century.
Question 2
Briefly explain ONE specific way in which developments in the mid-19th century supported Emerson’s point of view.
Question 3
Briefly explain ONE specific way in which developments in the mid-19th century challenged Emerson’s point of view.
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