Every revolution was first a thought : the Civil War and Transcendentalism in transatlantic context / Aren Lerner Craig.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Lerner Craig, Aren, 1991- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Transcendentalism (New England)--History--19th century.

Transcendentalism (New England).

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 303 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst ; Boston : University of Massachusetts Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Scholars of the American Civil War have long wondered about the seemingly earnest and sincere sentimental commitment that most Northern soldiers had to their nation and the North's cause. Unlike many others in other wars, Union soldiers appeared to embrace the war with an unusual conviction and sacrificed their lives with a rare nobility. Their grieving relatives were also buoyed up by their steadfast beliefs in the righteousness of the cause. What was so different about this war, and this period of American history, and what encouraged such an outlook? In Every Revolution was First a Thought, Aren Lerner Craig argues that in the Civil War era the American Transcendentalist movement provided a coherent worldview that fostered powerful idealism around issues of character, gender, race, and nationhood, even in the worst of times. Through an exploration of diaries, newspaper editorials, popular songs, and more, Craig demonstrates how Transcendentalist thought moved from elite intellectual circles to the public, providing people a firm belief in the power of individual agency to shape the world and a view of spirituality in which each person was divine, and thus beyond death and destruction. Transcendentalist tenets proved strong enough to withstand the devastation of war and inspired high levels of faith and optimism in soldiers and civilians alike throughout the conflict. Craig traces the origins of Transcendentalism across the Atlantic, to ideas from Scottish Realism and German Idealism, and connects these philosophies to writings and speeches of major figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. This intellectual history offers a new interpretation of Transcendental thought and its role in the Civil War" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Scottish philosophy of character

German philosophy of character

American Transcendentalist philosophies of character

Philosophies of gender and femininity

Masculinity and Bildung in the Civil War

The European inheritance on race and character

Race and character in America

The political character of the nation

The nation's geographic character.

Notes:

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen, 2023) under the title: "Every revolution was first a thought" : the political philosophy of American transcendentalism in transatlantic context, 1820-1865.

Includes appendix.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Lerner Craig, Aren, 1991- Every revolution was first a thought

ISBN:

9781625348890

1625348894

9781625348906

1625348908

OCLC:

1500404294