Packer presents Transcendentalism as a living movement, evolving out of such origins as New England Unitarianism and finding early inspiration in European Romanticism. Transcendentalism changed religious beliefs, philosophical ideas, literary styles, and political allegiances. In addition, it was a social movement whose members collaborated on projects and formed close personal ties. Transcendentalism contains vigorous thought and expression throughout, says Packer; only a study of the entire movement can explain its continuing sway over American thought.

 

Through fresh readings of both the essential Transcendentalist texts and the best current scholarship, Packer conveys the movement's genuine expectations that its radical spirituality not only would lead to personal perfection but also would inspire solutions to such national problems as slavery and disfranchisement. Here is Transcendentalism in whole, with Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller restored to their place alongside such contemporaries as Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Jones Very, Theodore Parker, James Freeman Clarke, Orestes Brownson, and Frederick Henry Hedge.

About the Author
Barbara L. Packer is a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Emerson's Fall.

 

"This is simply the best contemporary account of Transcendentalism that we have. Packer writes free of jargon and is exact and comprehensive in handling the sweep of thought necessary to discuss the topic." -- Robert N. Hudspeth, editor of The Letters of Margaret Fuller, and current editor of The Thoreau Society Bulletin