History of the United States I / Unit 13 USH1 1809 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Transcendentalism
Captions available
The idea
Transcendentalism emerged in the Northeast from the eighteen twenties, holding that people could attain an understanding of the world surpassing rational, sensory experience.
In practice
A reaction against mass democracy's tyranny of the majority, advocating individualism against conformity.
Where people slip
European Romanticism, which emphasised emotion over reason, shaped the movement directly and gave it much of its vocabulary.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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