USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.

Detailed explanation-2: -Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Detailed explanation-3: -Ralph Waldo Emerson was its putative leader. Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller were among the principals of the movement. The Transcendentalists believed there is a divine spirit in nature and in every living soul. Through individualism and self-reliance human beings could reunite with God.

Detailed explanation-4: -Emerson declared that the Transcendentalist “believes in miracles, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to the new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration and ecstasy.” In July 1838, Emerson was invited to address the graduating class at the Harvard Divinity School.

Detailed explanation-5: -Transcendentalism emerged from “English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher, the skepticism of David Hume", and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and German idealism.