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History of the United States I / Unit 13   USH1 1814 short lesson, about 20 seconds

The Critics

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The idea

Critics questioned transcendentalism's rampant individualism, pointing to the destructive consequences of compulsive and unchecked human behaviour.

In practice

Melville's Moby Dick, in which Ahab's obsession destroys his ship and costs him a leg.

Where people slip

Edgar Allan Poe decried the so-called poetry of the so-called transcendentalists, which tells you the quarrel was personal as well as intellectual.

Your place on the trail

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