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native americans

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2200 B.C.- Tower of Babel(Genesis 11:1-9)

2200 B.C. to 1600 A.D.

1607-Early settelment at Jamestown

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1. Oral literature: epic narratives,creation myths,stories,poems,songs

2. Use stories to teach moral lessons and convey practical information about the natrual world

3. deep respect for nature and animals

4. cyclical worldview

5. figurative language/parallelsim.

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1. Many Native American tribes used "winter counts" pictographic reocrds painted on hides to keep track of years and significant events.

2. Native American oral traditions were not just entertainment -they were considered sacred, and storytellers were often respected community leaders responsible for passing on cultrual identity,laws and spiritual beliefs.

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Puritanism and Early Settlement  of First "American" colonies
1600-1800

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1507: Early Settlement of the first American colonies - Jamestown

1692: Salem Witch Trials

1741: Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

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1. Wrote mostly diaries and histories, which expressed the connections between God and their everyday lives.
2. South to "purify" the Church of England by reforming to the simpler forms of worship and church organization described in the New Testament.
3. Saw religion as a personal, inner experience.
4. Believed in original sin and "elect" who would be saved.
5. Used a plain style of writing

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William Bradford
-"Of Plymouth Plantation"

Anne Bradstreet (poetry)

John Edwards
-"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Edward Taylor
-"Huswifery"

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Puritan communities enforced strict religous and moral rules, like working,playing or travelling on sundays was forbidden. breaking these rules can result in public punishments.

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puritans values community input, and the tradition of town meetings.

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Rationalism

"The Age of Reason"

"The Enlightenment"

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1607 Early Settlement—Jamestown

1775-1783 Revolutionary War

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1. Mostly comprised of philosophers, scientists, writing speeches and pamphlets

2. Human beings can arrive at truth (God's rules) by using deductive reasoning, rather than relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or intuition

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Benjamin Franklin
—Autobiography

Patrick Henry
—"Speech to the Virginia Convention"

Thomas Paine
—"The Crisis"

Phyllis Wheatley
—poetry

The Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The Declaration of Independence

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the war offically began with the battles of lexington and concord in April 1775

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foreign allies like france,spain, and the netherlands provided crucial support to the American colonists

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The Enlightment highlighted that reason rather than tradition,religious authority,or unquestioning faith is the primary path to undertsanding. Philosophers contended that humans can employ their reasoning to comprehend truth and nature.

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This era established the intellectual foundation for significant political transformations,encompassing the concept of natural rights,constitutional governance,and the division between church and state

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Transcendentalism

"The American Renaissance"

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1840-1860
Transcendentalism

1845

Thoreau begins living at Walden pond

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1. Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul.

2. People can use their intuition to behold God's spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls.

3. Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and link conformity to tradition.

4. Important social and political movements include the Abolitionist, Utopian, and Women's Suffrage Movements

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Ralph Waldo Emerson
—Nature
—"Self-Reliance"

Henry David Thoreau
—Walden
—Life in the Woods

Louisa May Alcott
—Little Women

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The authors of the American renassiance played a crucial role in forming a unique American literary voice,shifting from European influences and emphasizing the American landscpae,democracy, and the notion of individualism. 

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Transcendentalism emerged in New England roughly between 1830 and 1855, asserting that individuals could attain truth through intuition and their relationship with nature instead of through logic or institutions.

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In 1841 Ralph Waldo Emerson published Essays, First series, which included "Self Reliance".This piece emerged as a key work of Transcendentalisim,urging individuals to rely on their own feelings and convictions rather than conforming to societal norms.

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period name and date:period characteristics 

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period name and date:period characteristics 

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Kamala Harris - breaking barriers in US politics.

In 2020, Kamala Harris achieved a hisotric milestone as the first woman, first black woman, and first Asian American elected as Vice President of the United States. Her achivment demonstrated that women and individuals of color can attain the highest positions in governement. Harris took a stand for equality and representation, motivating youth everywhere to have faith that no aspiration is too big to achieve.

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second interesting fact of taking a stand

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second interesting fact of taking a stand

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Sventlana Tikhanovskaya - Advocating for democracy in Belarus.

Svetlana challenged Europes "last dictator" Alexander Lukashenko, following her husbands imprisonment for opposing him. Despite being forced to leave her homeland,she persisted in advocating for free elections and human rights for Belarus from another country. Her courage demonstrates how an individuals voice can ignite a movement for liberation.

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Romanticism

Industrialization

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1800-1860

The war of 1812

1812-1815

California Gold Rush

(1848-1855)

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1. Valued feeling, intuition, idealism, and inductive reasoning.

2. Placed faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination.

3. Shunned the artificiality of civilization and sought unspoiled nature as a path to spirituality.

4. Championed individual freedom and the worth of the individual

5. Saw poetry as the highest expression of the imagination

6. Dark Romantics: used dark and supernatural themes/settings (Gothic style)

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Washington Irving
—"Rip van Winkle"

Emily Dickinson
—poetry

Walt Whitman
—Leaves of Grass

Edgar Allan Poe
—"The Raven"

Nathaniel Hawthorne
—The Scarlet Letter

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Romanticism rejected many Enlightment ideals-such as strict rationally, balance, and order, in favor of emotion,imagination, and the subjective experience.

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Romanticism | Definition, Characteristics, Artists, History, Art, Poetry, Literature, & Music

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Romanticism is the attitude that characterized works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in the West from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. It emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the emotional, and the…

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The Industrial Revolution brought technological changes like new iron and steel,new energy sources like coal,steam and a bit later electricity. Also two new machines the spinning jenny and power loom.

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Industrial Revolution | Definition, History, Dates, Summary, & Facts

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Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. The process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world, driving changes in energy use, socioecon…

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Puritans Sunday chruch services could last for up to six hours.

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Puritans goal was to "purify" the Church of England by removing elements they saw as leftover from Roman Catholicism

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Thousands of people lost their jobs or had their reputations damadged, even if they had no real connection to communism. This shows how it not only affected th Hollywood and Congress but also the everyday life across the country.

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The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had been created in 1938 within the House of Representatives to investigate suspected communist infiltrators. Their focus was on locating communists within the government, sub-committees of the government, and Hollywood. In October 1947 HUAC convened a hearing in Washington, D.C., to investigate subversive (traitorous) activities in the entertainment industry. 41 screenwriters, directors and producers were legally summoned to attend.
By the 1930s Communism had become attractive to many people as the Great Depression devastated the United States. Many Americans were disappointed with the country's capitalist economy. The Communist Party of America devoted much of its energy during the Depression to fighting for the unemployed, farmers losing their land, African American rights, as well as attempting to found labor unions. Its membership reached its peak of 85,000 in 1942, just as America entered World War II. There were also many others who sympathized with the aims of the party though they never became members. A number of those in the entertainment industry were part of this movement, especially those involved in projects founded under the Works Progress Administration to provide employment to actors, producers, and writers during the Depression.

After World War II, with the onset of the Cold War and the rise of anti-Soviet feelings, the American Communist Party increasingly came under attack. The Second Red Scare, a fear-driven phenomenon from the mid-1940s to 1957 took off. It was brought on by the growing power of communist countries. Many in the U.S. feared that the Soviet Union and its allies were planning to forcefully spread communism around the world, overthrowing both democratic and capitalist institutions as it went. By 1945, HUAC had become a standing (permanent) committee as the federal government began to aggressively root out perceived subversive activities.

Most witnesses at that October 1947 HUAC trial were willing to respond to the committee's central question: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Those who confessed to membership were offered the opportunity to name party members, thereby regaining their good standing with the committee and, as well as the American film industry.

However, ten witnesses - all current or former Communist Party members - banded together in protest, refusing to cooperate on First Amendment grounds (freedom of speech, right of assembly, freedom of association). The ten were screenwriters, actors, directors, and musicians. On November 24, 1947, after a highly publicized trial, HUAC found the group - who became known as the Hollywood Ten - in contempt (defiance) of Congress. Convicted in federal court the following year, they were given sentences of six months to one year in prison and fined $1,000.

To add to their misery, members of the Hollywood Ten were also fired by a group of studio executives. With the exception of Edward Dmytryk, who agreed to cooperate with HUAC while imprisoned, the Ten were severely blacklisted (banished, snubbed) by the film industry for years to come. A few of them were able to write scripts under assumed names. Some travelled to Europe where they found work.

The blacklist lasted until 1960, when Dalton Trumbo, a member of the Hollywood Ten, was credited as the screenwriter of the film Exodus (1960), and publicly acknowledged by actor Kirk Douglas for writing the screenplay for Spartacus (also 1960).

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The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had been created in 1938 within the House of Representatives to investigate suspected communist infiltrators. Their focus was on locating communists within the government, sub-committees of the government, and Hollywood. In October 1947 HUAC convened a hearing in Washington, D.C., to investigate subversive (traitorous) activities in the entertainment industry.

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During that time, even librarians and books came under suspicion, some "subversive" works accused by anti-communitsts included classic American Novels. This again shows the fear of communism affected not just politics but the everyday life. https://www.thehistorycat.com/us-16-2/red-scare-america

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#1 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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#1 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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He was a leader of the Transcendentalist movement. A philosophical and literary movement that emphazised individual intution, nature and spiritual experience over traditional religious doctorine and rationalism. Many of it he expressed in his first major work "Nature"

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Early life and works

Emerson was the son of the Reverend William Emerson, a Unitarian clergyman and friend of the arts. The son inherited the profession of divinity, which had attracted all his ancestors in direct line from Puritan days. The family of his mother, Ruth Haskins, was strongly Anglican, and among influences on Emerson were such Anglican writers and thinkers as Ralph Cudworth, Robert Leighton, Jeremy Taylor, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

On May 12, 1811, Emerson's father died, leaving the son largely to the intellectual care of Mary Moody Emerson, his aunt, who took her duties seriously. In 1812 Emerson entered the Boston Public Latin School, where his juvenile verses were encouraged and his literary gifts recognized. In 1817 he entered Harvard College (later Harvard University), where he began his journals, which may be the most remarkable record of the "march of Mind" to appear in the United States. He graduated in 1821 and taught school while preparing for part-time study in the Harvard Divinity School.

Though Emerson was licensed to preach in the Unitarian community in 1826, illness slowed the progress of his career, and he was not ordained to the Unitarian ministry at the Second Church, Boston, until 1829. There he began to win fame as a preacher, and his position seemed secure. In 1829 he also married Ellen Louisa Tucker. When she died of tuberculosis in 1831, his grief drove him to question his beliefs and his profession. But in the previous few years Emerson had already begun to question Christian doctrines. His older brother William, who had gone to Germany, had acquainted him with the new biblical criticism and the doubts that had been cast on the historicity of miracles. Emerson's own sermons, from the first, had been unusually free of traditional doctrine and were instead a personal exploration of the uses of spirit, showing an idealistic tendency and announcing his personal doctrine of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Indeed, his sermons had divested Christianity of all external or historical supports and made its basis one's private intuition of the universal moral law and its test a life of virtuous accomplishment. Unitarianism had little appeal to him by now, and in 1832 he resigned from the ministry.

Mature life and works

When Emerson left the church, he was in search of a more certain conviction of God than that granted by the historical evidences of miracles. He wanted his own revelation-i.e., a direct and immediate experience of God. When he left his pulpit he journeyed to Europe. In Paris he saw Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu's collection of natural specimens arranged in a developmental order that confirmed his belief in man's spiritual relation to nature. In England he paid memorable visits to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle. At home once more in 1833, he began to write Nature and established himself as a popular and influential lecturer. By 1834 he had found a permanent dwelling place in Concord, Massachusetts, and in the following year he married Lydia Jackson and settled into the kind of quiet domestic life that was essential to his work.

The 1830s saw Emerson become an independent literary man. During this decade his own personal doubts and difficulties were increasingly shared by other intellectuals. Before the decade was over his personal manifestos- Nature, "The American Scholar," and the divinity school Address-had rallied together a group that came to be called the Transcendentalists, of which he was popularly acknowledged the spokesman. Emerson helped initiate Transcendentalism by publishing anonymously in Boston in 1836 a little book of 95 pages entitled Nature. Having found the answers to his spiritual doubts, he formulated his essential philosophy, and almost everything he ever wrote afterward was an extension, amplification, or amendment of the ideas he first affirmed in Nature.

Emerson's religious doubts had lain deeper than his objection to the Unitarians' retention of belief in the historicity of miracles. He was also deeply unsettled by Newtonian physics' mechanistic conception of the universe and by the Lockean psychology of sensation that he had learned at Harvard. Emerson felt that there was no place for free will in the chains of mechanical cause and effect that rationalist philosophers conceived the world as being made up of. This world could be known only through the senses rather than through thought and intuition; it determined men physically and psychologically; and yet it made them victims of circumstance, beings whose superfluous mental powers were incapable of truly ascertaining reality.

Emerson reclaimed an idealistic philosophy from this dead end of 18th-century rationalism by once again asserting the human ability to transcend the materialistic world of sense experience and facts and become conscious of the all-pervading spirit of the universe and the potentialities of human freedom. God could best be found by looking inward into one's own self, one's own soul, and from such an enlightened self-awareness would in turn come freedom of action and the ability to change one's world according to the dictates of one's ideals and conscience. Human spiritual renewal thus proceeds from the individual's intimate personal experience of his own portion of the divine "oversoul," which is present in and permeates the entire creation and all living things, and which is accessible if only a person takes the trouble to look for it. Emerson enunciates how "reason," which to him denotes the intuitive awareness of eternal truth, can be relied upon in ways quite different from one's reliance on "understanding"-i.e., the ordinary gathering of sense-data and the logical comprehension of the material world. Emerson's doctrine of self-sufficiency and self-reliance naturally springs from his view that the individual need only look into his own heart for the spiritual guidance that has hitherto been the province of the established churches. The individual must then have the courage to be himself and to trust the inner force within him as he lives his life according to his intuitively derived precepts.

Obviously these ideas are far from original, and it is clear that Emerson was influenced in his formulation of them by his previous readings of Neoplatonist philosophy, the works of Coleridge and other European Romantics, the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, Hindu philosophy, and other sources. What set Emerson apart from others who were expressing similar Transcendentalist notions were his abilities as a polished literary stylist able to express his thought with vividness and breadth of vision. His philosophical exposition has a peculiar power and an organic unity whose cumulative effect was highly suggestive and stimulating to his contemporary readers' imaginations.

In a lecture entitled "The American Scholar" (August 31, 1837), Emerson described the resources and duties of the new liberated intellectual that he himself had become. This address was in effect a challenge to the Harvard intelligentsia, warning against pedantry, imitation of others, traditionalism, and scholarship unrelated to life. Emerson's "Address at Divinity College," Harvard University, in 1838 was another challenge, this time directed against a lifeless Christian tradition, especially Unitarianism as he had known it. He dismissed religious institutions and the divinity of Jesus as failures in man's attempt to encounter deity directly through the moral principle or through an intuited sentiment of virtue. This address alienated many, left him with few opportunities to preach, and resulted in his being ostracized by Harvard for many years. Young disciples, however, joined the informal Transcendental Club (founded in 1836) and encouraged him in his activities.

In 1840 he helped launch , first edited by Margaret Fuller and later by himself, thus providing an outlet for the new ideas Transcendentalists were trying to present to America. Though short-lived, the magazine provided a rallying point for the younger members of the school. From his continuing lecture series, he gathered his Essays into two volumes (1841, 1844), which made him internationally famous. In his first volume of Essays Emerson consolidated his thoughts on moral individualism and preached the ethics of self-reliance, the duty of self-cultivation, and the need for the expression of self. The second volume of Essays shows Emerson accommodating his earlier idealism to the limitations of real life; his later works show an increasing acquiescence to the state of things, less reliance on self, greater respect for society, and an awareness of the ambiguities and incompleteness of genius.

His Representative Men (1849) contained biographies of Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon, and Goethe. In English Traits he gave a character analysis of a people from which he himself stemmed. The Conduct of Life (1860), Emerson's most mature work, reveals a developed humanism together with a full awareness of human limitations. It may be considered as partly confession. Emerson's collected Poems (1846) were supplemented by others in May-Day (1867), and the two volumes established his reputation as a major American poet.

By the 1860s Emerson's reputation in America was secure, for time was wearing down the novelty of his rebellion as he slowly accommodated himself to society. He continued to give frequent lectures, but the writing he did after 1860 shows a waning of his intellectual powers. A new generation knew only the old Emerson and had absorbed his teaching without recalling the acrimony it had occasioned. Upon his death in 1882 Emerson was transformed into the Sage of Concord, shorn of his power as a liberator and enrolled among the worthies of the very tradition he had set out to destroy.

Emerson's voice and rhetoric sustained the faith of thousands in the American lecture circuits between 1834 and the American Civil War. He served as a cultural middleman through whom the aesthetic and philosophical currents of Europe passed to America, and he led his countrymen during the burst of literary glory known as the American renaissance (1835-65). As a principal spokesman for Transcendentalism, the American tributary of European Romanticism, Emerson gave direction to a religious, philosophical, and ethical movement that above all stressed belief in the spiritual potential of every person.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Ralph Waldo Emerson | Biography, Poems, Books, Nature, Self-Reliance, & Facts

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, American lecturer, poet, and essayist, the leading exponent of New England Transcendentalism, by which he gave direction to a religious, philosophical, and ethical movement that stressed belief in the spiritual potential of every person. Learn more about his life and beliefs in this article.

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#2 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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#2 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Emersobn was friends with Henry David Thoreau. Emerson would sometimes praise higher education just to tease Thoreau, creating a friendly tension between their ideas.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson is a figure that speaks of New Hampshire, poetry, and a deep understanding of the world and nature. A man of great thought, deep contemplation, and vivid humor, Emerson has lived and existed within the canon of great literature for generations. Though he is an iconic figure, there a few interesting facts that might surprise you about the great poet.
1. He Was Friends with Henry David Thoreau...and Often Provoked Him

Though they were fourteen years apart, these two great minds enjoyed intellectual sparring with one another. Emerson's sister-in-law introduced the two in 1837 when Thoreau was just 20 years old and Emerson was in his 30s. The two began conversing and taking walks in nature. Thoreau detested higher education, while Emerson embraced it, and would intentionally praise college in order to annoy Thoreau and create tension. Emerson admired Thoreau's insistence on retreating to nature rather than indulging in the world and in higher academic versions of education. In Emerson's journal it is written, "[Thoreau] chose wisely no doubt for himself to be the bachelor of thought & nature that he was- how near to the old monks in their ascetic religion! He had no talent for wealth, & knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or inelegance."

2. He Was an Ordained Unitarian Minister

Coming from a long line of clergy, Emerson continued the family tradition by studying the ministry and gaining license in 1826 and becoming ordained in 1829. When his beloved wife died of tuberculosis in 1831, he lost his faith and resigned from the clergy.

3. He Was a Known as "The Sage of Concord"

Though he lost his faith, he did not stop trying to find meaning, and he became a major name in the transcendentalist movement, even being known as "The Sage of Concord". His group, mainly composed of writers and artists, included Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and W. E. Channing.

Transcendentalists believed that the individual could literally move into a spiritual plain of enlightenment by faith and force of will. He and others like him believed that God lived within their own being and could be interacted with directly. His first book, Nature, and the journal The Dial, which he was heavily involved in starting and maintaining, were focused on this subject.

4. He exposed American Thinkers to the Writings and Philosophies of Asia and the Middle East

He was fascinated-with varying levels of investment and intensity-with Asian and Middle-Eastern philosophy and culture, even nicknaming his second wife"Mine Asia"-a pun on Asia Minor. Having watched the harbor as a boy in Boston, Emerson was first introduced to the Indonesian-Chinese trade that was a staple of the docks after the Revolutionary War.

His father edited the Monthly Anthology, which reported on South Asia to New England, including bringing a translation of the Sanskrit play "Sakuntala, or the Fatal Ring." He continued to invest and study Asia and the Middle East at Harvard which influenced his work, philosophies, and ideas about life. As he found and began to lecture on the ideas surrounding transcendentalism, he used the Indian, Persian, and Chinese texts to explore his new-found way of thinking and believing and shared these ideas in his lectures and in The Dial through "Ethnical Scriptures" showing the world that philosophies of truth were universal.

5. He Was a Boy Genius

Most of us spend our 14th year in junior high school, worrying about coming of age. Emerson, however, having flown through the Boston Latin School and having been recognized as a great mind and deeply encouraged by his educators, found himself the youngest member of his Harvard class at just 14. Instead of spending these formative years at awkward dances, he spent his studying great works. He graduated in 1821.

6. He Was Raised By Women

Reverend William Emerson, died when Emerson was just shy of eight years old, and he was then raised by his mother and a series of aunts. Though he had three brothers, their universe was populated and led by strong female minds and voices. He and his family were invested in educating women, which was not a societal priority at the time, and his brother William went on to found a school for girls in the family home. Though he followed his father into the clergy, Emerson was without him for most of his life. His father, Emerson was a teacher and director in that school for a time before going on to divinity school.
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-Ralph Waldo Emerson. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2016, Ralph Waldo Emerson's grave, Sleepy Hollow, Concord, Mass.
- The Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right here.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2016, here.
- [Photograph]. (n.d.). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

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Six Surprising Facts About Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Ralph Waldo Emerson is a figure that speaks of New Hampshire, poetry, and a deep understanding of the world and nature. A man of great thought, deep contemplation, and vivid humor, Emerson has lived and existed within the canon of great literature for generations.

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#3 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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#3 Interesting fact about Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Emerson lost his father when he was very young. His father, Reverend William Emerson, died when Ralph was just 7 years old, leaving him and his sibilings to be raised by their mother and aunts.

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Born in Boston in 1803, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a writer, lecturer, poet, and Transcendentalist thinker. Dubbed the "Sage of Concord," Emerson discussed his views on individualism and the divine in essays such as "Self-Reliance" and "Nature," and he emerged as one of the preeminent voices of his generation, both in his lifetime and in the annals of history.

1. HE LOST HIS FATHER AT AN EARLY AGE.

Emerson's father, Reverend William Emerson, was a prominent Boston resident who worked as a Unitarian minister. But he didn't focus solely on matters of God and religion. William Emerson also organized meetings of intellectuals, bringing together open-minded people from a variety of backgrounds to discuss philosophy, science, and books. Unfortunately, Emerson's father died of either stomach cancer or tuberculosis in 1811, when Emerson was just 7 years old. Emerson's mother, Ruth, and his aunts raised him and his five remaining siblings (a brother and sister had previously died young).

2. HE WAS HARVARD'S CLASS POET.

After studying at the Boston Latin School (which is now the oldest school in the U.S.), Emerson began college at 14, a common occurrence at the time. At Harvard College, he learned Latin, Greek, geometry, physics, history, and philosophy. In 1821, after four years of studying there, Emerson agreed to write and deliver a poem for Harvard's Class Day (then called Valedictorian Day), a pre-graduation event. Was he the best poet in the class? Not exactly. The faculty asked a few other students to be Class Poet, but they turned down the post, so Emerson got the gig.

3. HE RAN A SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

After graduating from Harvard, Emerson went home to teach young women. His older brother, William, ran a school for girls in their mother's Boston home, and Emerson helped him teach students. Later, when William left to study in Germany, Emerson ran the school himself. He reportedly disliked teaching, though, so he moved on to plan B: grad school.

4. THEN HE SWITCHED GEARS AND BECAME A MINISTER.

In 1825, Emerson enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. He decided to become a minister, following in his father's (and grandfather's) footsteps. Despite struggling with vision problems and failing to graduate from his program, Emerson became licensed to preach in 1826. He then worked at a Unitarian church in Boston.

5. HE WAS FRIENDS WITH NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S NEPHEW.

In late 1826, Emerson wasn't feeling well. He suffered from tuberculosis, joint pain, and vision problems, so he followed medical advice and went south for a warmer climate near the ocean. After spending time in Charleston, South Carolina, Emerson headed to St. Augustine, Florida, where he preached and wrote poetry. He also met and befriended Prince Achille Murat, the nephew of the former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who had renounced his European titles (though his father had already been overthrown) and immigrated to the United States. Murat was also a writer, and the two young men reportedly discussed religion, politics, and philosophy.

6. HIS YOUNG WIFE DIED OF TUBERCULOSIS.

When Emerson was 26, he married 18-year-old Ellen Louisa Tucker. The newlyweds lived happily in Boston, but Tucker was suffering from tuberculosis. Emerson's mother helped take care of her son's ailing wife, but in 1831, less than two years after getting married, Ellen passed away. Emerson dealt with his grief by writing in his journals ("Will the eye that was closed on Tuesday ever beam again in the fullness of love on me? Shall I ever be able to connect the face of outward nature, the mists of the morn, the star of eve, the flowers and all poetry with the heart and life of an enchanting friend? No. There is one birth and baptism and one first love and the affections cannot keep their youth any more than men."), traveling, and visiting her grave. The next year, after an extended period of soul-searching, he decided to leave the ministry to become a secular thinker.

7. HE GAVE MORE THAN 1500 LECTURES, WHICH MADE HIM RICH.

A 1846 portrait of Emerson, from friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's personal collection. | midnightdreary, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

In 1833, Emerson turned his love of writing into a career as a frequent lecturer. He traveled around New England reading his essays and speaking to audiences about his views on nature, the role of religion, and his travels. In 1838, Emerson gave one of his most famous talks, a commencement speech to graduating students of the Harvard Divinity School. His " Divinity School Address" was radical and controversial at the time, since he expressed his Transcendentalist views of individual power over religious doctrine. He also argued that Jesus Christ was not God, a heretical idea at the time. In cities such as Boston, he paid his own money to rent a hall and advertise his speaking event. Emerson packaged some of his lectures into a series, speaking on a certain theme for several events. Ticket sales were high, and the "Sage of Concord" was able to support his family and buy land thanks to his lectures.

8. HE CRITICIZED JANE AUSTEN'S WRITING.

Although many readers love Jane Austen's novels, Emerson was not a fan. In his notebooks (published posthumously), he criticized her characters' single-minded focus on marriage in Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. He also called Austen's writing vulgar in tone and sterile in creativity. "I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate," he wrote. "Never was life so pinched and so narrow ... Suicide is more respectable."

9. HE NAMED HIS DAUGHTER AFTER HIS FIRST WIFE.

In 1835, Emerson married Lydia Jackson (nickname: Lidian), an abolitionist and animal rights activist. The couple had four children-Waldo, Ellen, Edith, and Edward-and they named their first daughter Ellen Tucker to honor Emerson's first wife. Besides naming his daughter after her, Emerson also kept his first wife's rocking chair to remind himself of his love for her.

10. HE GREATLY INFLUENCED HENRY DAVID THOREAU.

No biography of writer and thinker Henry David Thoreau would be complete without mentioning Emerson's impact on the "Civil Disobedience" essayist. Emerson gave Thoreau housing and money, encouraged him to keep a journal, and let him have land to build a cabin on Walden Pond. The two friends often discussed Transcendentalism, and Thoreau thought of Emerson's wife Lidian as a sister. Although they had some intellectual disagreements, Emerson gave the eulogy at Thoreau's 1862 funeral.

11. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT HAD A CRUSH ON HIM.

Emerson was friends and neighbors with Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of the Little Women author. Louisa May Alcott grew up surrounded by Emerson, Thoreau, and other Transcendentalist thinkers, and their works greatly influenced her. Emerson lent her books from his library and taught her about the joys of nature. She apparently wrote about her crushes on the much-older Emerson and Thoreau in one of her earliest works, a novel called Moods, and she was known to leave wildflowers near the front door of Emerson's house.

12. MEETING ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT THE PRESIDENT.

Emerson wrote and lectured about the evils of slavery, and he frequently criticized President Lincoln for not doing enough to end it. In 1862, Emerson gave an anti-slavery lecture in Washington, D.C., and was invited to the White House to meet Lincoln. After the meeting, Emerson praised Lincoln's charisma and storytelling ability ("When he has made his remark, he looks up at you with a great satisfaction, and shows all his white teeth, and laughs"), saying that the president "impressed me more favorably than I had hoped." Emerson also called Lincoln a sincere, well-meaning man with a boyish cheerfulness and clarity in speech.

13. HE PRAISED WALT WHITMAN WHEN FEW OTHERS WOULD, BUT FELT BURNED WHEN WHITMAN PUBLISHED HIS PRIVATE LETTERS.

Emerson's letter to Walt Whitman, dated 21 July, 1855: "I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of 'Leaves of Grass.' I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." | U.S. Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

After reading one of Emerson's poems, Walt Whitman felt inspired. In 1855, he self-published Leaves of Grass and sent a copy to Emerson. The controversial collection of poems by the unknown poet got horrible reviews-it was routinely called obscene and profane, and one critic called it "a mass of stupid filth." Sales were dismal. But Emerson read the book and wrote a laudatory letter to Whitman, calling the work a "wonderful gift" and "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."

Thanks to Emerson's encouragement, Whitman published a second edition of Leaves of Grass. However, Whitman printed Emerson's words on the book's spine and in a newspaper article. Emerson was reportedly surprised and annoyed that his private letter was made public without his permission, and he remained silent on his thoughts regarding Whitman from then on.

14. HE SUFFERED FROM MEMORY PROBLEMS LATE IN LIFE.

In the early 1870s, Emerson began forgetting things. Given his symptoms, most historians think Emerson suffered from Alzheimer's, aphasia, or dementia. Although he had difficulty recalling certain words, he continued to lecture until a few years before his death. Despite forgetting his own name and the names of his friends, Emerson reportedly kept a positive attitude towards his declining mental faculties (much as his first wife did while she was dying of tuberculosis).

15. HE HELPED DESIGN THE CEMETERY HE'S BURIED IN.

When Emerson died of pneumonia in 1882, he was buried on "Author's Ridge" in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (not the same Sleepy Hollow as in the famed Washington Irving story)-a cemetery that was designed with Emerson's Transcendentalist, nature-loving aesthetics in mind. In 1855, as a member of the Concord Cemetery Committee, Emerson gave the dedication at the opening of the cemetery, calling it a "garden of the living" that would be a peaceful place for both visitors and permanent residents. " Author's Ridge" became a burial ground for many of the most famous American authors who called Concord home-Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and, of course, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Emerson emerged as one of the preeminent voices of his generation, both in his lifetime and in the annals of history.

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#1 interesting fact about Emily Dickinson

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#1 interesting fact about Emily Dickinson

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She wrote nearly 1,800 poems, but only 10 were published while she was alive. She kept a lot of her work private and shared it only with close people.https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson (born December 10, 1830, Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.-died May 15, 1886, Amherst) was an American lyric poet who lived in seclusion and commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision. With Walt Whitman, Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the two leading 19th-century American poets.

Only 10 of Emily Dickinson's nearly 1,800 poems are known to have been published in her lifetime. Devoted to private pursuits, she sent hundreds of poems to friends and correspondents while apparently keeping the greater number to herself. She habitually worked in verse forms suggestive of hymns and ballads, with lines of three or four stresses. Her unusual off-rhymes have been seen as both experimental and influenced by the 18th-century hymnist Isaac Watts. She freely ignored the usual rules of versification and even of grammar, and in the intellectual content of her work she likewise proved exceptionally bold and original. Her verse is distinguished by its epigrammatic compression, haunting personal voice, enigmatic brilliance, and lack of high polish.

Early years

The second of three children, Dickinson grew up in moderate privilege and with strong local and religious attachments. For her first nine years she resided in a mansion built by her paternal grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, who had helped found Amherst College but then went bankrupt shortly before her birth. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a forceful and prosperous Whig lawyer who served as treasurer of the college and was elected to one term in Congress. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, from the leading family in nearby Monson, was an introverted wife and hardworking housekeeper; her letters seem equally inexpressive and quirky. Both parents were loving but austere, and Emily became closely attached to her brother, Austin, and sister, Lavinia. Never marrying, the two sisters remained at home, and when their brother married, he and his wife established their own household next door. The highly distinct and even eccentric personalities developed by the three siblings seem to have mandated strict limits to their intimacy. "If we had come up for the first time from two wells," Emily once said of Lavinia, "her astonishment would not be greater at some things I say." Only after the poet's death did Lavinia and Austin realize how dedicated she was to her art.

As a girl, Emily was seen as frail by her parents and others and was often kept home from school. She attended the coeducational Amherst Academy, where she was recognized by teachers and students alike for her prodigious abilities in composition. She also excelled in other subjects emphasized by the school, most notably Latin and the sciences. A class in botany inspired her to assemble an herbarium containing a large number of pressed plants identified by their Latin names. She was fond of her teachers, but when she left home to attend Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) in nearby South Hadley, she found the school's institutional tone uncongenial. Mount Holyoke's strict rules and invasive religious practices, along with her own homesickness and growing rebelliousness, help explain why she did not return for a second year.

At home as well as at school and church, the religious faith that ruled the poet's early years was evangelical Calvinism, a faith centred on the belief that humans are born totally depraved and can be saved only if they undergo a life-altering conversion in which they accept the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Questioning this tradition soon after leaving Mount Holyoke, Dickinson was to be the only member of her family who did not experience conversion or join Amherst's First Congregational Church. Yet she seems to have retained a belief in the soul's immortality or at least to have transmuted it into a Romantic quest for the transcendent and absolute. One reason her mature religious views elude specification is that she took no interest in creedal or doctrinal definition. In this she was influenced by both the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the mid-century tendencies of liberal Protestant orthodoxy. These influences pushed her toward a more symbolic understanding of religious truth and helped shape her vocation as poet.

Development as a poet

Although Dickinson had begun composing verse by her late teens, few of her early poems are extant. Among them are two of the burlesque "Valentines"-the exuberantly inventive expressions of affection and esteem she sent to friends of her youth. Two other poems dating from the first half of the 1850s draw a contrast between the world as it is and a more peaceful alternative, variously eternity or a serene imaginative order. All her known juvenilia were sent to friends and engage in a striking play of visionary fancies, a direction in which she was encouraged by the popular, sentimental book of essays Reveries of a Bachelor: Or a Book of the Heart by Ik. Marvel (the pseudonym of Donald Grant Mitchell). Dickinson's acts of fancy and reverie, however, were more intricately social than those of Marvel's bachelor, uniting the pleasures of solitary mental play, performance for an audience, and intimate communion with another. It may be because her writing began with a strong social impetus that her later solitude did not lead to a meaningless hermeticism.

Until Dickinson was in her mid-20s, her writing mostly took the form of letters, and a surprising number of those that she wrote from age 11 onward have been preserved. Sent to her brother, Austin, or to friends of her own sex, especially Abiah Root, Jane Humphrey, and Susan Gilbert (who would marry Austin), these generous communications overflow with humour, anecdote, invention, and sombre reflection. In general, Dickinson seems to have given and demanded more from her correspondents than she received. On occasion she interpreted her correspondents' laxity in replying as evidence of neglect or even betrayal. Indeed, the loss of friends, whether through death or cooling interest, became a basic pattern for Dickinson. Much of her writing, both poetic and epistolary, seems premised on a feeling of abandonment and a matching effort to deny, overcome, or reflect on a sense of solitude.

Dickinson's closest friendships usually had a literary flavour. She was introduced to the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson by one of her father's law students, Benjamin F. Newton, and to that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Susan Gilbert and Henry Vaughan Emmons, a gifted college student. Two of Barrett Browning's works, "A Vision of Poets," describing the pantheon of poets, and Aurora Leigh, on the development of a female poet, seem to have played a formative role for Dickinson, validating the idea of female greatness and stimulating her ambition. Though she also corresponded with Josiah G. Holland, a popular writer of the time, he counted for less with her than his appealing wife, Elizabeth, a lifelong friend and the recipient of many affectionate letters.

In 1855 Dickinson traveled to Washington, D.C., with her sister and father, who was then ending his term as U.S. representative. On the return trip the sisters made an extended stay in Philadelphia, where it is thought the poet heard the preaching of Charles Wadsworth, a fascinating Presbyterian minister whose pulpit oratory suggested (as a colleague put it) "years of conflict and agony." Seventy years later, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the poet's niece, claimed that Emily had fallen in love with Wadsworth, who was married, and then grandly renounced him. The story is too highly coloured for its details to be credited; certainly, there is no evidence the minister returned the poet's love. Yet it is true that a correspondence arose between the two and that Wadsworth visited her in Amherst about 1860 and again in 1880. After his death in 1882, Dickinson remembered him as "my Philadelphia," "my dearest earthly friend," and "my Shepherd from 'Little Girl'hood."

Always fastidious, Dickinson began to restrict her social activity in her early 20s, staying home from communal functions and cultivating intense epistolary relationships with a reduced number of correspondents. In 1855, leaving the large and much-loved house (since razed) in which she had lived for 15 years, the 25-year-old woman and her family moved back to the dwelling associated with her first decade: the Dickinson mansion on Main Street in Amherst. Her home for the rest of her life, this large brick house, still standing, has become a favourite destination for her admirers. She found the return profoundly disturbing, and when her mother became incapacitated by a mysterious illness that lasted from 1855 to 1859, both daughters were compelled to give more of themselves to domestic pursuits. Various events outside the home-a bitter Norcross family lawsuit, the financial collapse of the local railroad that had been promoted by the poet's father, and a powerful religious revival that renewed the pressure to "convert"-made the years 1857 and 1858 deeply troubling for Dickinson and promoted her further withdrawal.

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Emily Dickinson | Biography, Poems, Death, & Facts

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Emily Dickinson, American lyric poet who lived in seclusion and commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision. With Walt Whitman, Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the two leading 19th-century American poets. Learn more about her life and works in this article.

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#2 Interesting fact about Emily Dickinson

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#2 Interesting fact about Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson had a very unique style. Often she ignored traditional grammar and punctuation rules, using dasges and unusual formatting because it helped express her ideas better. https://mhoagland.medium.com/emily-dickinson-cbb6355ad070

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#3 Interesting fact about Emily Dickinson 

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#3 Interesting fact about Emily Dickinson 

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Emily Dickinson was known for her gardening and frequently included flowers, seasons, and nature in her poems because she observed them up close. https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/emily-dickinson/biography/special-topics/emily-dickinson-and-gardening/

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#1 Interesting fact about E.E. Cummings 

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#1 Interesting fact about E.E. Cummings 

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He didn't actually insist on lowercasing his name. Publishers did that on their own- Cummings himself often used capital letters when signing

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

E.E. Cummings, in full Edward Estlin Cummings, (born October 14, 1894, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.-died September 3, 1962, North Conway, New Hampshire), American poet and painter who first attracted attention, in an age of literary experimentation, for his unconventional punctuation and phrasing. Cummings's name is often styled "e.e. cummings" in the mistaken belief that the poet legally changed his name to lowercase letters only. Cummings used capital letters only irregularly in his verse and did not object when publishers began lowercasing his name, but he himself capitalized his name in his signature and in the title pages of original editions of his books.

Cummings received a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1915 and was awarded an M.A. in 1916. During World War I he served with an ambulance corps in France, where he was interned for a time in a detention camp because of his friendship with an American who had written letters home that the French censors thought critical of the war effort. This experience deepened Cummings's distrust of officialdom and was symbolically recounted in his first book, The Enormous Room (1922).

In the 1920s and '30s he divided his time between Paris, where he studied art, and New York City. His first book of verse was Tulips and Chimneys (1923); it was followed by XLI Poems and & (1925), and in that year he received the Dial Award for distinguished service to American letters.

In 1927 his play him was produced by the Provincetown Players in New York City. During those years he exhibited his paintings and drawings, but they failed to attract as much critical interest as his writings. Eimi (1933) recorded, in 432 pages of experimental prose, a 36-day visit to the Soviet Union, which confirmed his individualist repugnance for collectivism. He published his discussions as the Charles Eliot Norton lecturer on poetry at Harvard University (1952-53) under the title i: six nonlectures (1953).

In all he wrote 12 volumes of verse, assembled in his two-volume Complete Poems (1968). Cummings's linguistic experiments ranged from newly invented compound words to inverted syntax. He varied text alignments, spaced lines irregularly, and used nontraditional capitalization to emphasize particular words and phrases. In many instances his distinct typography mimicked the energy or tone of his subject matter. Cummings's moods were alternately satirical and tough or tender and whimsical. He frequently used colloquial language and material from burlesque and the circus. His erotic poetry and love lyrics had a childlike candour and freshness and were often vividly infused with images of nature.

Amy Tikkanen.

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E.E. Cummings, in full Edward Estlin Cummings, (born October 14, 1894, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.-died September 3, 1962, North Conway, New Hampshire), American poet and painter who first attracted attention, in an age of literary experimentation, for his unconventional punctuation and phrasing. Cummings's name is often styled "e.e.

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He was jailed in France during WWl. This inspired him to write his famous book The Enormous Room. https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2020/11/23/incarceration-of-e-e-cummings-part-1/

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The Incarceration of E.E. Cummings and William Slater Brown in France during World War I as Reflected in Department of State Records: Part I – E.E. Cummings

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Today’s post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Textual Reference at the National Archives at College Park. E.E. Cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings) is widely regarded as one of Americ…

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#3 Interesting fact about E.E. Cummings 

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#3 Interesting fact about E.E. Cummings 

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E.E. Cummings painted hundreds of artworks in his lifetime. He was also a skilled painter and even exhibirted art in galleries.

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Edward Estlin (E.E.) Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended the Cambridge Latin High School, where he studied Latin and Greek. Cummings earned both his BA and MA from Harvard, and his earliest poems were published in Eight Harvard Poets (1917). As one of the most innovative…

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Realism

1850-1900

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Civil War

1861-1865

Reconstruction Era

1865-1877

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1. Feelings of disillusionment.
2. Common subjects: slums of rapidly growing cities, factories replacing farmlands, poor factory workers, corrupt politicians.
3. Represented the manner and environment of everyday life and ordinary people as realistically as possible (Regionalism).
4. Sought to explain behavior (psychologically/socially).

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Mark Twain
-Huckleberry Finn

Jack London
-Call of the Wild
-"To Build a Fire"

Stephen Crane
-"The Open Boat"

Ambrose Bierce
-"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Kate Chopin
-"Story of an Hour"
-The Awakening

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1 Interesting fact: Realism grew out of historical events 

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1 Interesting fact: Realism grew out of historical events 

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After the Civil War, writers reacted against Romanticism's idealized stories and instead focused on life as it really was. Realism has become the dominant style in American literature in the late 19th century.

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Realism | Definition, Theories, Examples, Problems, & Facts

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Realism, a set of related theories of international relations that emphasizes the role of the state, national interest, and power in world politics. Founded by E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau, realism came to dominate the academic study of international relations in the second half of the 20th century.

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Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and he chose the pen name "Mark Twain" from a riverboat term that meant water two fathoms deep - a safe depth for steamboats on the Mississippi River, reflecting his time as a riverboat pilot.

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Table of Contents

What is Mark Twain's real name?

Where did Mark Twain grow up?

When did Mark Twain start writing?

What are some of Mark Twain's most famous works?

Read a brief summary of this topic

Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, (born November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S.-died April 21, 1910, Redding, Connecticut), American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883), and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist, he transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America's best and most beloved writers.

Youth

Samuel Clemens, the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens, was born two months prematurely and was in relatively poor health for the first 10 years of his life. His mother tried various allopathic and hydropathic remedies on him during those early years, and his recollections of those instances (along with other memories of his growing up) would eventually find their way into Tom Sawyer and other writings. Because he was sickly, Clemens was often coddled, particularly by his mother, and he developed early the tendency to test her indulgence through mischief, offering only his good nature as bond for the domestic crimes he was apt to commit. When Jane Clemens was in her 80s, Clemens asked her about his poor health in those early years: "I suppose that during that whole time you were uneasy about me?" "Yes, the whole time," she answered. "Afraid I wouldn't live?" "No," she said, "afraid you would."

Insofar as Clemens could be said to have inherited his sense of humour, it would have come from his mother, not his father. John Clemens, by all reports, was a serious man who seldom demonstrated affection. No doubt his temperament was affected by his worries over his financial situation, made all the more distressing by a series of business failures. It was the diminishing fortunes of the Clemens family that led them in 1839 to move 30 miles (50 km) east from Florida, Missouri, to the Mississippi River port town of Hannibal, where there were greater opportunities. John Clemens opened a store and eventually became a justice of the peace, which entitled him to be called "Judge" but not to a great deal more. In the meantime, the debts accumulated. Still, John Clemens believed the Tennessee land he had purchased in the late 1820s (some 70,000 acres [28,000 hectares]) might one day make them wealthy, and this prospect cultivated in the children a dreamy hope. Late in his life, Twain reflected on this promise that became a curse:

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us-dreamers and indolent....It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich-these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

Judging from his own speculative ventures in silver mining, business, and publishing, it was a curse that Sam Clemens never quite outgrew.

Perhaps it was the romantic visionary in him that caused Clemens to recall his youth in Hannibal with such fondness. As he remembered it in "Old Times on the Mississippi" (1875), the village was a "white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer's morning," until the arrival of a riverboat suddenly made it a hive of activity. The gamblers, stevedores, and pilots, the boisterous raftsmen and elegant travelers, all bound for somewhere surely glamorous and exciting, would have impressed a young boy and stimulated his already active imagination. And the lives he might imagine for these living people could easily be embroidered by the romantic exploits he read in the works of James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, and others. Those same adventures could be reenacted with his companions as well, and Clemens and his friends did play at being pirates, Robin Hood, and other fabled adventurers. Among those companions was Tom Blankenship, an affable but impoverished boy whom Twain later identified as the model for the character Huckleberry Finn. There were local diversions as well-fishing, picnicking, and swimming. A boy might swim or canoe to and explore Glasscock's Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River, or he might visit the labyrinthine McDowell's Cave, about 2 miles (3 km) south of town. The first site evidently became Jackson's Island in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; the second became McDougal's Cave in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In the summers, Clemens visited his uncle John Quarles's farm, near Florida, Missouri, where he played with his cousins and listened to stories told by the slave Uncle Daniel, who served, in part, as a model for Jim in Huckleberry Finn.

It is not surprising that the pleasant events of youth, filtered through the softening lens of memory, might outweigh disturbing realities. However, in many ways the childhood of Samuel Clemens was a rough one. Death from disease during this time was common. His sister Margaret died of a fever when Clemens was not yet four years old; three years later his brother Benjamin died. When he was eight, a measles epidemic (potentially lethal in those days) was so frightening to him that he deliberately exposed himself to infection by climbing into bed with his friend Will Bowen in order to relieve the anxiety. A cholera epidemic a few years later killed at least 24 people, a substantial number for a small town. In 1847 Clemens's father died of pneumonia. John Clemens's death contributed further to the family's financial instability. Even before that year, however, continuing debts had forced them to auction off property, to sell their only slave, Jennie, to take in boarders, even to sell their furniture.

Apart from family worries, the social environment was hardly idyllic. Missouri was a slave state, and, though the young Clemens had been reassured that chattel slavery was an institution approved by God, he nevertheless carried with him memories of cruelty and sadness that he would reflect upon in his maturity. Then there was the violence of Hannibal itself. One evening in 1844 Clemens discovered a corpse in his father's office; it was the body of a California emigrant who had been stabbed in a quarrel and was placed there for the inquest. In January 1845 Clemens watched a man die in the street after he had been shot by a local merchant; this incident provided the basis for the Boggs shooting in Huckleberry Finn. Two years later he witnessed the drowning of one of his friends, and only a few days later, when he and some friends were fishing on Sny Island, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, they discovered the drowned and mutilated body of a fugitive slave. As it turned out, Tom Blankenship's older brother Bence had been secretly taking food to the runaway slave for some weeks before the slave was apparently discovered and killed. Bence's act of courage and kindness served in some measure as a model for Huck's decision to help the fugitive Jim in Huckleberry Finn.

After the death of his father, Sam Clemens worked at several odd jobs in town, and in 1848 he became a printer's apprentice for Joseph P. Ament's Missouri Courier. He lived sparingly in the Ament household but was allowed to continue his schooling and, from time to time, indulge in boyish amusements. Nevertheless, by the time Clemens was 13, his boyhood had effectively come to an end.

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Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, (born November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S.-died April 21, 1910, Redding, Connecticut), American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883), and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

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Ambrose Bierce wrote dark and sardonic short stories that were centered on death and horror.

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Ambrose Bierce had seperated with his wife, lost his two sons and broke many friendships over the course of his career.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Ambrose Bierce, American newspaperman, wit, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror. His life ended in an unsolved mystery. Reared in Kosciusko county, Indiana, Bierce became a printer’s devil (apprentice) on a Warsaw, Indiana, paper after about a year in

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Bierce experiences in the Civil War has strongly influenced his writing, providing material for his best known stories.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Ambrose Bierce, American newspaperman, wit, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror. His life ended in an unsolved mystery. Reared in Kosciusko county, Indiana, Bierce became a printer’s devil (apprentice) on a Warsaw, Indiana, paper after about a year in

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Walker's most popular work is the novel "The Color Purple". It won the Pulitzer prize and was then adapted into a flim.

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Alice is blind in one eye. When She was 8 years old she got shot accidentally with her brothers gun.

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The Colors Purple's Shug Avery was based on Ma Rainey. She was also a influential African American Blues artist. Alice Walker used her as an inspiration when creating one of the main characters in her novel.

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Modernism
1900-1950

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Period Special Dates (enter each by date)

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Period Special Dates (enter each by date)

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World War I
1914-1918

The Great Depression
1929-1939

World War II
1939-1945

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1. Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the "American Dream": the independent, self-reliant, individual will triumph.
2. Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form over the traditional.
3. Interest in the inner workings of the human mind (ex. Stream of consciousness).

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Lorraine Hansberry
-A Raisin in the Sun

F. Scott Fitzgerald
-The Great Gatsby

William Faulkner
-"A Rose for Emily"

Eudora Welty
-"A Worn Path"

Robert Frost
-poetry

T. S. Eliot
-The Waste Land
-"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

John Steinbeck
-Of Mice and Men
-The Grapes of Wrath

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The early 20th century saw growing globalization and international connections, especially in science and communitcation.

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A Century of Science: Globalization of Scientific Collaborations, Citations, and Innovations

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Progress in science has advanced the development of human society across history, with dramatic revolutions shaped by information theory, genetic cloning, and artificial intelligence, among the many scientific achievements produced in the 20th century. However, the way that science advances itself is much less well-understood. In this work, we study the evolution of scientific development over the past century by presenting an anatomy of 89 million digitalized papers published between 1900 and 2015. We find that science has benefited from the shift from individual work to collaborative effort, with over 90% of the world-leading innovations generated by collaborations in this century, nearly four times higher than they were in the 1900s. We discover that rather than the frequent myopic- and self-referencing that was common in the early 20th century, modern scientists instead tend to look for literature further back and farther around. Finally, we also observe the globalization of scientific development from 1900 to 2015, including 25-fold and 7-fold increases in international collaborations and citations, respectively, as well as a dramatic decline in the dominant accumulation of citations by the US, the UK, and Germany, from ~95% to ~50% over the same period. Our discoveries are meant to serve as a starter for exploring the visionary ways in which science has developed throughout the past century, generating insight into and an impact upon the current scientific innovations and funding policies.

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Around 1900, science was going through a major revolution. People realized reality might be more complex than it seemed.

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A Sense of Crisis: Physics in the fin-de-siecle Era

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Whereas physics in the period from about 1880 to 1910 experienced a steady growth, it was also a revolutionary period in which the foundations of the physical world picture were criticized and reconsidered. Generally speaking, from about 1890 mechanics and materialism came under increasing attack and sought replaced by new formulations based on either energy, the ether, or the electromagnetic field. Fin-de-siecle physics was in many ways a chapter of turmoil in the history of science. I review the main developments and alternatives to the established physics, in particular energetics, ether physics, the electromagnetic world view, and also the role played by radioactivity and other new rays discovered in the years around 1900. In the end the anticipated revolution based on the “matter is dead” catchword did not succeed. A revolution did take place in the period, but it was a different one that did not derive from the Zeitgeist of fin de siecle.

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The American dream 20s interesting fact #1

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The American dream 20s interesting fact #1

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In this decade, women officially got the right to vote. Many women joined the flapper movement. Some women became the most recognizable participants in the 20s.

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The American dream in the 20s Interesting fact #2

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The American dream in the 20s Interesting fact #2

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The classic american novel was published by Scott Fitzgerald. Which is the Great Gatsby. It was the most enduring and successful novels. The novel showed a glimpse of the highs and lows of the Roaring twenties.

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The American Dream 30-40s interesting fact #1

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The American Dream 30-40s interesting fact #1

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In the 1930s, the American Dream was no longer about getting rich. Meant just having food, a job, just surviving.

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During the 1930's, the ideal American Dream consisted of three criterions: two children, a marriage, and a three-bedroom house with the infamous white picket fence. The American Dream rose to its greatest fame during the 1930's as a result of the on-going Great Depression from 1929 to 1939. Thousands of Americans were going through tough times and looked up to the American Dream as a goal to achieve and strive for. The American Dream also lured millions of immigrants annually into the relatively new nation, further worsening the low employment rates and increasing poverty. At the beginning of the 1930's, one quarter of all wage-earning workers were unemployed, approximately 15 million Americans. During the 1930's, another one of the parts to the ideal American Dream was the ability to feed one's family. The Dust Bowl occurred throughout the 30's, forcing farmers in the midwest to move and contributing to the rising unemployment.

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During the 1930's, the ideal American Dream consisted of three criterions: two children, a marriage, and a three-bedroom house with the infamous white picket fence. The American Dream rose to its...

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The American Dream 30-40s interesting fact #2

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The American Dream 30-40s interesting fact #2

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Banks failed and people lost their money, many families became homeless. The dream became a nightmare

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"Hooverville," Central Ohio, 1938
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives

The Great Depression began in 1929 when, in a period of ten weeks, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange lost 50 percent of their value. As stocks continued to fall during the early 1930s, businesses failed, and unemployment rose dramatically. By 1932, one of every four workers was unemployed. Banks failed and life savings were lost, leaving many Americans destitute. With no job and no savings, thousands of Americans lost their homes. The poor congregated in cardboard shacks in so-called Hoovervilles on the edges of cities across the nation; hundreds of thousands of the unemployed roamed the country on foot and in boxcars in futile search of jobs. Although few starved, hunger and malnutrition affected many.

In a country with abundant resources, the largest force of skilled labor, and the most productive industry in the world, many found it hard to understand why the depression had occurred and why it could not be resolved. Moreover, it was difficult for many to understand why people should go hungry in a country possessing huge food surpluses. Blaming Wall Street speculators, bankers, and the Hoover administration, the rumblings of discontent grew mightily in the early 1930s. By 1932, hunger marches and small riots were common throughout the nation.

In June of 1932, nearly 20,000 World War I veterans from across the country marched on the United States Capitol to request early payment of cash bonuses for their military service that weren't due to be paid until 1945. The marchers, who the organizers called the "Bonus Expeditionary Force" but who became widely known as the Bonus Army, spent several days in Washington, D.C., pressing their case, but a Congressional bill to pay the bonus was defeated. On July 28, U.S. troops and tanks commanded by General Douglas MacArthur dispersed the marchers and destroyed their makeshift camps in the city.

However, not all citizens were caught up in the social eruptions. Many were too downtrodden or busy surviving day to day to get involved in public displays of discontent. Instead, they placed their hope and trust in the federal government, especially after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932.

To find more documents in Loc.gov related to this topic, use key words such as Great Depression, begging, unemployment, poverty, stock market crash, Bonus Army, and Hoovervilles.

Documents

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Americans React to the Great Depression | Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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The Great Depression began in 1929 when, in a period of ten weeks, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange lost 50 percent of their value.

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The American Dream 50s interesting fact #1

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The American Dream 50s interesting fact #1

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In the 1950s household centered on strict gender expectations, with men earning wages, and women managing homes.

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Life In The 50s: 20 Things That Defined Living In The 1950s - HistorySnob

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The 1950s marked a decade of transformation where daily life carried both comfort and tension. Families settled into new routines, cultural shifts began to take shape, symbols of optimism stood beside reminders of global uncertainty, and the period left a lasting mark on generations that followed. Looking back reveals the values, struggles, and simple joys that defined that era. So let’s explore 20 snapshots of the ’50s and how they came to define the define.

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The American Dream 50s interesting fact #2

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The American Dream 50s interesting fact #2

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Baby Boom. During the 50s, 4 million babies were born yearly in America.

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Life In The 50s: 20 Things That Defined Living In The 1950s - HistorySnob

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The 1950s marked a decade of transformation where daily life carried both comfort and tension. Families settled into new routines, cultural shifts began to take shape, symbols of optimism stood beside reminders of global uncertainty, and the period left a lasting mark on generations that followed. Looking back reveals the values, struggles, and simple joys that defined that era. So let’s explore 20 snapshots of the ’50s and how they came to define the define.

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Harlem Renaissance
"The Jazz Age"
"The Roaring 20s"

1920–1940

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"The New Negro Movement"
1919-1925

Prohibition
1920-1933

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1.Black cultural movement in Harlem, New York
2.Some poetry rhythms based on spirituals and jazz, lyrics on the blues, and diction from the street talk of the ghettos
3. Other poetry used conventional lyrical forms

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James Weldon Johnson

Claude McKay

Countee Cullen

Langston Hughes (poetry)

Zora Neale Hurston

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The Jazz age and roaring 20s interesting fact #1 

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The Jazz age and roaring 20s interesting fact #1 

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More Americans lived in cities than in rural areas.

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Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age - HISTORY

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The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

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The Jazz age and the roaring 20s interesting fact #2 

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The Jazz age and the roaring 20s interesting fact #2 

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People began buying more goods like cars, creating mass consumer culture during the Jazz Age.

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Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age - HISTORY

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The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

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The 1970s were frustrating because Americans had to lower their expecations, 1970s economy brought inflation, unemployment and a more pessimistic outlook.

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In 1960s things that used to be luxuries, like owning a home, or applicances became noraml for many families, not just rich.

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The 80s strongly tied wealth and material success. The culture emphasized capitalism, ambition and "excess" shown in media like the Wall Street.

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1980s American Culture: A Nostalgic Overview

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Entertainment OG Meals Modernish Meal U.S. Population The estimated U.S. population in 1980 was about 227 million people. Top 5 Biggest Cities 1. New York City, NY – 7…

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Consumerism played a huge role in defining success. Owning luxury goods, big homes and flashy items because symbols of making it. Everything you bought should be displayed.

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1980s American Culture: A Nostalgic Overview

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Entertainment OG Meals Modernish Meal U.S. Population The estimated U.S. population in 1980 was about 227 million people. Top 5 Biggest Cities 1. New York City, NY – 7…

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The American Dream during the 90's and early 2000's fact #1

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The American Dream during the 90's and early 2000's fact #1

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The 1990s American Dream became strongly tied to technology and Silicion Valley success. The rise of the internet created a new and faster American dream. Young tech enterprenuers could easily become billionaires.

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The American Dream in the 1990s-early 2000s fact #2

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The American Dream in the 1990s-early 2000s fact #2

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The 1990s had strong productivity growth, which helped increase wages and living standards. The growth was driven by full employment, high investment and stable economic conditions.

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The Dream of the 90’s, Part I: The Three Drivers of Productivity Growth

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“The Dream of the 90’s” examines the macroeconomic conditions that led to strong growth in the late-1990s and what policies can revive that productivity growth today.

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Contemporary "Postmodernism"
1950–present

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Korean War
1950-1953

Vietnam War
1954-1975

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1. Influenced by studies of media, language, and information technology.
2. Sense that little is unique; culture endlessly duplicates itself.
3. New literary forms and techniques: works composed of only dialogue, or combining fiction and nonfiction, experimenting with physical appearance of their work.

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Alice Walker

Wallace Stevens

e.e. cummings

Maya Angelou

Anne Sexton

James Baldwin

Richard Wright

Sandra Cisneros

Amy Tan

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Samuel Beckett is considered an important figure in postmodern literature. Samuel Beckett was a central writer whose works helped shaped the transition from modernism to postmodernism.

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Postmodernism and literature (Chapter 3) - The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism

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The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism - July 2004

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Readers are encouraged to question certainty. Post modern texts often avoid clear conclusions or moral lessons, leaving interpreation open-eneded.

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Postmodernism and literature (Chapter 3) - The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism

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The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism - July 2004