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TRANSCRIPT
4.7 -
TRANSCENDENTALISM
AMERICAN HISTORY I
UNIT 4 – ERA OF GROWTH AND DISUNION
DAY 8 – TRANSCENDENTALISM
Religious revival
Creation of new churches
Many split over theology (beliefs) including slavery
More focus on individual responsibility for salvation
People could improve themselves and society
It wasn’t predetermined
Charles G. Finney
Revivalist preacher of the Great Awakening
Second Great
Awakening
faith in the individual
look to nature
living a simple life
also associated with utopianism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Northern writer
Transcendentalist who focused on a simple life and the truth found in nature
Self Reliance
Nature
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalist author
He wrote Walden
Put the idea of self reliance to practice by living alone for two years in a cabin on Walden pond in Mass.
Civil Disobedience
Do not obey unjust laws
Written by Thoreau
Henry David
Thoreau
THOREAU READING/
DISCUSSION GROUPS
With the people sitting immediately around you, I
want you to read the Thoreau aloud together
You may NOT move your seats
BEFORE YOU ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS ON
PAPER, discuss how the passage originally made you
feel!
Then answer the questions together
Murals expressing natural beauty of America
Knickerbocker School
Those authors who promoted Americanized literature and culture
Based in New York
Hudson Valley Schools of Art (NY)
New Nationalism
James Fenimore Cooper
Rugged frontier nature of the US
Last of the Mohicans
Washington Irving
Rip Van Winkle
Sleepy Hollow
Nathanial Hawthorne
Scarlet Letter
Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven
Building style for many federal buildings and other buildings of importance in the US
Monuments in the US, etc.
Neoclassical Architecture
Horace Mann
Education reformer from Massachusetts
Wanted better teaching methods and training
Noah Webster
Standardized American English
Plough, Colour, Labour
Plow, Color, Labor
Educational
Reformers
WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY
Webster began writing his dictionary at the age of 43. It took him more than 27 years to write it.
Webster introduced distinctively American words such as "skunk" and "hickory" and "chowder."
But not all Webster spellings from that first dictionary stuck! For example, "tung" (tongue) and "wimmen" (women) aren't used today -- even if they are more true to their pronunciation.
Some words are still regional such as toboggan.
Alex de Tocqueville
Frenchman who analyzed democracy and social issues
Wrote “Democracy in America”
Dorothea Dix
Saw the conditions in mental hospitals
“Chained, naked, beaten with rods, lashed into obedience”
Made reforms to care for the mentally ill
Also prison reforms
Some people were not happy with their own status
and tried to create utopian communities or
perfect societies
EXAMPLES OF UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES:
• Brook Farm
• Oneida
• New Harmony
Utopian Communities
TRANSCENDENTALISM IN POPULAR CULTURE
This new era of thought can still be seen in
popular culture today
We will listen to songs and interpret them
together by using the major concepts of
Transcendentalist thought
As you listen and follow along with the lyrics,
we will categorize quotations
TRANSCENDENTALIST IDEALS
LET’S DEFINE THEM TOGETHER…
Nonconformity
Self-reliance
Free Thought
Confidence
Importance of Nature
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND YOU!
When are done, you will pick one song, show,
movie, reading, etc. that you like that has at least
one of these themes
You will use the back of the Examples of Transcendental Thought
graphic organizer to record your answers
We will break off into small groups, and you will each share with
other people what you found, and how it relates to Transcendental
thought
QUESTIONS:
How did the Second Great Awakening change people’s religious views?
Describe the concept of transcendentalism.
How can transcendentalist ideas still be used today?
Describe the concept of civil disobedience. Give an example.
VOCABULARY
Transcendentalism
Henry David Thoreau
Hudson Valley Schools of Art
Dorothea Dix