Transcendentalism

New England's Romantic philosophy of self-reliance: the divine in nature and the individual conscience above institution.

Specifications & Metrics

era

c. 1830 – 1860

region

New England, United States

key figures

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott

exemplar

Nature (1836); Walden (1854)

introduced

1836

Core Principles & Analysis

• Emerson's 1836 essay Nature is its founding document.
• Its club and journal, The Dial, centered on Concord, Massachusetts.
• Thoreau's Walden carried its principles to the woods and to civil disobedience.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Transcendentalism