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Dean Grodzins: Transcendentalists In The 19th Century

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The United States, it is often thought, was born in rebellion. This is the story reinforced by the Declaration of Independence, and it’s the story promoted by the first elected officials of this country. America has been a nation of protestors -- be it protest against Britain, “savages,” heathens, police, abortion, racism, or taxes -- since its inception. According to the early 19th century Transcendentalists, however, the greatest battle before Americans is the battle for one’s very soul. Dean Grodzins is a Harvard-educated historian, and a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Historical Society specializing in mid-19th century American history. According to Grodzins’ work in the Dictionary of American History, the first American Transcendentalists
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McCandless has often been compared to Henry David Thoreau and without doubt McCandless was influenced by the transcendentalist movement but to compare these two people would be an insult to Thoreau and his philosophy. It is true that he displayed civil disobedience hitchhiking when it is not allowed, hoping freights, and hunting in Stampede Trail without a license; Chris’s father also points out that “He refused instruction of any kind” (Krakauer, Wild 111). He interprets “civil disobedience” as a rejection of any kind of imposed law expressing extremely individualistic ideals freeing yourself from society and power, but Thoreau considers his responsibility to break the law if it overrun the rights of other human beings and is against his judgement of morals rather than following the will of the government and the majority blindly.

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Pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, in his book, Rights of Man, signifies the American political revolution to independence from England. Paine characterizes Americans for their concord and how their unity is unexpected. He doesn’t expect this unity because of the diversity that exists in the nation, and he argues the unity of Americans by describing the beneficial factors of living in the nation. Paine’s description of American principles can be used today, as many of these principles still exist, allowing Americans to unify.

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Despite Thomas Paine’s numerous contributions to the world, he is often overshadowed by John Locke, the so-called father of democracy. However, by modifying the public’s understanding of Locke, Paine altered the character and destiny of both American and World History. Thomas Paine’s ideas and efforts inspired and focused the American Revolution; he provided the colonists with the ideals and courage needed for the founding of a new nation. In his efforts to unite and direct the colonists, Paine created what may have been one of his greatest phrases: The United States of America. He provided Americans and Europeans with the rational thought, inspiration, and confidence to reject outmoded social and political structures of the past and the courage to implement ideals of freedom, equality, and human rights to provide a better future for mankind.

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“We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because it is unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature” -Henry David Thoreau, Walden. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, a biographical account of Chris McCandless’s life, after graduating from college, 22-year-old McCandless decides to cut all ties from his family and hitchhike across America and live as simply as possible.

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Throughout the history of the United States of America, the strife for power and control has been evident. In early America, the people developed a certain mentality as the promise of freedom, self-governance, and opportunities to achieve was prominent. When this freedom was threatened, struggles for power exploded which was clearly displayed in Bacon’s Rebellion, Shay’s Rebellion, and the Whiskey Rebellion. The tyranny of the elite, who clung to this promise as well, is open for scrutiny in these rebellions that fundamentally changed America.

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