AP Success - AP US History: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Transcendentalism
Emerson was a leading figure in the transcendentalist movement, which emerged in the early 19th century and emphasized the power of the individual's intuition and experience, as well as the interconnectedness of all living beings and nature.
Source 1
“What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final, and say, the senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves, they cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances, and the animal wants of man; the idealist on the power of Thought and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual culture.”
“The Transcendentalist,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1842.
Question 1
Briefly identify one perspective about transcendentalism described in the excerpt.
Question 2
Briefly explain one historical trend in early 19th-century America that influenced the ideas expressed in the excerpt.
Question 3
Briefly explain one way that transcendentalism helped develop a uniquely American national culture.
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