1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: Volbebam here. Today, a lot of Americans feel strongly about 3 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:17,720 Speaker 1: issues such as racial justice, women's rights, and protecting the environment, 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: and many believe in the power of nonviolent civil disobedience 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: to achieve progress towards a better fairer world. And while 6 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: not all of us realize it, in many ways, we 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: take after a group of mid nineteenth century New England 8 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: intellectuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Throw and 9 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:42,360 Speaker 1: Margaret Fuller, among others, who espoused philosophy known as transcendentalism. 10 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,960 Speaker 1: The Transcendentalist movement, which emerged in the mid eighteen thirties, 11 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:51,879 Speaker 1: had a straightforward idea at its core. Adherents argued that 12 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: every person possesses the light of capital d divine truth, 13 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: then should look within themselves defined it, rather than simply 14 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: conform to whatever the powers that be want them to think. 15 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: But from that notion of spiritual self reliance, a lot 16 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: of other ideas blossomed, from reverence for nature to the 17 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: view that everyone is entitled freedom and equality. That led 18 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: Transcendentalists to become an important part of other activist movements 19 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: in America at the time that sought to abolish slavery 20 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: and achieve women's suffrage. For example, it was inspired in 21 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: part by thinkers on the other side of the Atlantic. 22 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: The actual name of the movement, Transcendental, came from German 23 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: philosopher Emmanuel Kant's seventeen eighty eight manuscript Critique of Practical Reason. 24 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: Emerson was a great admirer of English Romantic writers William 25 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, both of whom he met 26 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: when he traveled to Europe, and Frederick Henry Hedge, a 27 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: Unitarian minister who studied in Germany, brought German philosophy back 28 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: to America with him, along with a number of other 29 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: interested writers, politicians, and thinkers at large. They began meeting 30 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in eighteen thirty six. Before the article 31 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: this episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke via 32 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: email with Laura Dasso Walls, the William P. And Hazel B. White, 33 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: professor of English at the University of Notre Dame and 34 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: author of the acclaimed twenty seventeen biography Henry David Threaux 35 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: A life, as she said, all through the war years, 36 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the War of eighteen twelve, 37 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: Americans found it virtually impossible to go to Europe or 38 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: even to access European books. But after the peace Treaty 39 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,680 Speaker 1: of eighteen fifteen, suddenly traveled to Europe was wide open again. 40 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 1: A whole generation of ambitious young American men sailed to 41 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: Europe to continue their education at European universities, above all 42 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: in Germany. The books and ideas and teachings they brought 43 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: with them Kant Girder, the Humboldt Brothers, Samuel Taylor, Coleridge, Wordsworth, 44 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,600 Speaker 1: Byron and Shelley, and Don and on in used American 45 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: colleges and universities with an exciting new wave of European 46 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: literature and philosophy. It was a wave which swiftly spread 47 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 1: into the popular imagination, inspiring a widespread confidence that a 48 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: new age was born, an age in which the individual 49 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: could intuit truth for him or herself by an inward 50 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: search for meaning. Yet, a year after the group first met, 51 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: Emerson urged in his speech and later essay The American Scholar, 52 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: for Americans to stop looking to Europe for inspiration and imitation, 53 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: and to be themselves. Walls said, Transcendentalism became the first 54 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: distinctly American philosophy because it fused several different currents, all 55 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: of which converged only here in the US. So even 56 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: though the underlying philosophy first emerged in Europe, it was 57 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: in America that it took hold as a philosophy one 58 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: could actually commit to and live by. A One of 59 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: Transcendentalism's key influences was the religious faith of New England's Puritans, 60 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: who believed that every person stands before God and must 61 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: read the Bible for themselves, a Wall said, this gave 62 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: us the bedrock notion of individualism. Another important ingredient was 63 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: the American Revolution, which promoted a quality as an American ideal, 64 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: even if the new country didn't actually afford that status 65 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: to a lot of its people, including women, most people 66 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:30,720 Speaker 1: of color, and the formerly enslaved a. Walls said. The Transcendentalists, 67 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: whose parents had grown up fighting the Revolution, believed it 68 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: was their turn to continue the revolution, that is, to 69 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: continue the political revolution by igniting it as an intellectual revolution. 70 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: Their small group became known as the Transcendental Club. They 71 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,280 Speaker 1: eventually published a magazine, The Dial, which was edited by 72 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,360 Speaker 1: Margaret Fuller. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was the business manager of 73 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: the magazine, and in eighteen sixty established the first English 74 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: language kindergar in the US. Later, some of the Transcendentalists 75 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,720 Speaker 1: even created a short lived utopian community near Boston based 76 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: on their ideas, a brook farm whose residents shared the 77 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: agricultural work and operated a school. While the Transcendentalists were 78 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: a rebellious fringe, a lot of their ideas eventually became 79 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: an accepted part of the American mainstream. O. Walls explained, 80 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:30,160 Speaker 1: as Emerson said, in self trust, all the virtues are comprehended. 81 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: This notion of self trust became the foundation for American 82 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: self reliance, another term coined by Emerson. Henry David Threaux, 83 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 1: a former schoolmaster turned poet and philosopher, bought into Transcendentalist 84 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: philosophical ideas and endeavored to live them. In eighteen forty five, 85 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: he built a cottage on Walden Pond on property owned 86 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: by Emerson, and spent several years living off the land, 87 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:03,159 Speaker 1: meditating and contemplating nature. In eighteen forty six, Thereau stopped 88 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: paying taxes in protest against slavery and the US War 89 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: against Mexico. He was arrested by the local constable for 90 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: tax delinquency and spent a night in jail before a 91 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: benefactor paid off his debt. The experience led the Roe 92 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,599 Speaker 1: to publish his influential essay Civil Disobedience, in which he 93 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,799 Speaker 1: argued that people should defy the government rather than support 94 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: policies they saw as unjust. Thereau advocated nonviolent action, but 95 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,000 Speaker 1: later penned a letter in support of the violent actions 96 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,280 Speaker 1: of John Brown, who murdered unarmed pro slavery settlers in Kansas. 97 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:42,719 Speaker 1: Owall said, Thereau gave us the classic examples a first 98 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: in his uniquely individualist form of social protest and civil disobedience, 99 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:50,280 Speaker 1: and then in pursuing his utopian search for truth by 100 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,640 Speaker 1: living in solitude at Walden Pond, a striking out alone 101 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 1: to enjoy an original relation to the universe. As Emerson said, 102 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: this original relation included the universe of human history, but 103 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:05,840 Speaker 1: world literature, the world's religions, modern science, philosophy, all the 104 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:07,920 Speaker 1: way back to the ancient Greeks play too. Above all, 105 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,240 Speaker 1: but also famously the universe of the outer world or nature, 106 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 1: which the Transcendentalists regarded as the embodiment of divine reason, 107 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: hence the key to universal meaning. According to Walls, the 108 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 1: Transcendentalists quote interpreted truth not as something that one could 109 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: find single and static, but as something one lived, dynamic 110 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: and always evolving and changing. That unending search for the 111 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,160 Speaker 1: truth also led the movement's members to become activists in 112 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: big causes of their day. The Transcendentalist belief that every 113 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: person carries God within themselves meant that politics, economics, organized religion, 114 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:54,640 Speaker 1: and schools, all with tendencies to sort people into hierarchical ranks, 115 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: needed to be reformed or even overhauled. A Wall said 116 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: the American educational system was their first target. Education should 117 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: be free to all of all ages, men and women alike, 118 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: and all ethnicities, races, and creeds. Many of the Transcendentalists 119 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:14,040 Speaker 1: were teachers, and several Bronze and Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, and 120 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: thereaux A founded innovative progressive schools which embraced literacy and 121 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 1: education for everyone, including women and African Americans. Transcendentalists also 122 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: took up the fight against slavery. Walls said it was 123 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: led notably by women who took up the cause starting 124 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: in the eighteen thirties by founding anti slavery societies at 125 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 1: the local level and organizing anti slavery activism at all levels, local, regional, 126 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:45,440 Speaker 1: and national. Some members acted as conductors on the Underground Railroad, 127 00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:48,400 Speaker 1: and a minister in the group, One Theodore Parker, not 128 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: only preached abolitionist sermons, but formed a vigilance committee to 129 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 1: protect free black people in Boston from Southerners there to 130 00:08:55,520 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: catch freedom seekers and Dentalists were also early advocates for 131 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: women's rights. Margaret Fuller's eighteen forty five book Woman in 132 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: the Nineteenth Century contained what was for the time a 133 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: daring proclamation quote what woman needs is not as a 134 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 1: woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, 135 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,840 Speaker 1: as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live 136 00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,400 Speaker 1: freely and unimpeded, to unfold such powers as were given 137 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:28,400 Speaker 1: her when we left our common home a. Fuller's influence 138 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: was felt three years later at the Seneca Falls Convention, 139 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,000 Speaker 1: the conference that's widely recognized as the beginning of the 140 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: women's rights movement. The Transcendentalist movement eventually began to fade, 141 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: but its ideas never really went away and manifested into 142 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: later reform movements in the nineteen sixties and seventies, for example, 143 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: there was a resurgence of enthusiasm for throw as antiwar 144 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 1: activists found his ideas about resisting the power structure were 145 00:09:54,840 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: highly relevant today. Climate activists argue that environmental PreTect action 146 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: and social justice for poor people and minority communities aren't 147 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:08,400 Speaker 1: separate issues, but are actually inseparably linked. Another transcendentalist idea, 148 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:14,240 Speaker 1: Wall said, interest in the Roe's ideas is stronger today 149 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: than ever before. Certainly, students in my own classes resonate 150 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: to his message more urgently than ever. They identify with 151 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:24,520 Speaker 1: the Roe's fear that we're living lies of quiet desperation, 152 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: and many respond with intense hope to the solutions he offers. 153 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: For one reason, his is an individualist form of hope. 154 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: You can take on his ethical project by yourself, on 155 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: your own, no matter who you are or where you live. 156 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: In other words, he offers a sense that even today, 157 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: we can exert at least some control over our lives, 158 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 1: learn to live by a higher ethical standard, and so 159 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 1: at the least make our own lives better. A place 160 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:54,679 Speaker 1: to start the ethical project of making all lives better. 161 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article what is Transcendentalism 162 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: and how did it change America? On HowStuffWorks dot Com 163 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: written by Patrick J. Kiger. Rain Stuff is production of 164 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:10,559 Speaker 1: by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and 165 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts myheart Radio, 166 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,120 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 167 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:18,199 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.