The American Romantic Period: Starting Environmentalism
This time period was the beginning of environmentalism in the United States. For the first time, people started to look at nature as something beautiful that needed to be taken care of (though not by altering it in any way) instead of civilized and industrialized.
American Romantics saw that the wilderness was struggling to survive with the increase of industrialism and the settling of more and more land by Americans. They believed that nature could be beautiful without being civilized, settled, or changed through human influence. | This video is an overview of the American Romantic Period Video 1
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Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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One niche of the Romantic Era was transcendentalism. Transcendentalism combined spirituality and religion with an interest in nature. Key writers and reformers were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Amos Bronson Alcott. They started this new line of thinking in New England between 1830 and 1850. Emerson's Nature directly challenged the materialism of the age and was adopted as the centerpiece of transcendentalism.
Based on Emerson's writing, the Transcendental Club was created to explore Transcendentalism. Thoreau was an active member of this club and went on to publish his own ideas based on the role of nature in Americans' lives. His most famous book, Walden, published in 1854, was his account of "transcendentalism's ideal existence of simplicity, independence, and proximity with nature" (Black and Lybecker vol. 1, 76).
Based on Emerson's writing, the Transcendental Club was created to explore Transcendentalism. Thoreau was an active member of this club and went on to publish his own ideas based on the role of nature in Americans' lives. His most famous book, Walden, published in 1854, was his account of "transcendentalism's ideal existence of simplicity, independence, and proximity with nature" (Black and Lybecker vol. 1, 76).