Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #859769 in Books
• Published on: 1950-12-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 540 pages

Customer Reviews

Very Disappointing
I have enjoyed reading Emerson and Thoreau, and so I wanted to gain a deeper insight into their milieu. I had hoped that this book would provide a general overview of transcendentalism while also providing a substantial sampling of the writing of the men and women who shaped (and were shaped by) it. But I have been very disappointed. First, the author fails to provide any general summary of transcendentalism. Worse, he writes as though the reader were already familiar with this topic...which the book purports to introduce and explain! A strange and lethal flaw. Second, the book is a mere anthology of snippets...a few pages from one author, a paragraph or two from another. It is the epitome of superficiality, somewhat like "sampling the cuisine of Europe" by perusing a summary of 25 menus from your arm chair. Not very tasty! None of the selections is long enough to give the reader any real insight into the writers' points of view. On balance, this book is the intellectual equivalent of "Around The World in 15 Microseconds"...and its superficiality is aggravated by the author's failure to provide any meaningful context for the "sights" past which we zoom. There must be something better than this!

Essential to Understand of American Transcendental Thought
Perry Miller's Transcendentalists: An Anthology is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the American Transcendentalist movement, its roots, and its growth.

Essays by Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their influential contemporaries are included. Among them are William Ellery Channing, Orestes A. Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peadbody, Amos Bronson Alcott, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Theodore Parker, Jones Very, Ellen Sturgis Hooper, Caroline Sturgis Tappan, and Sophia Dana Ripley.

This book is a classic.

Supplemental Reading required
The author stated that the works of Emerson and Thoreau were omitted due to limitations of space. However since Emerson is a central character who is referred to frequently, the reader needs some support. I recommend reading the Emerson biography, Robert Richardson's "The Mind on Fire" either before or in conjunction with Miller's book. This book, like Miller's, does a great job of telling the Transcendentalist story . Together, a clear picture emerges. Having Wikipedia nearby is also very helpful as there are extensive references to authors and philisophical terminology. With Wikipedia you will probably have no trouble and will stay engaged regardless of your background.