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Defining transcendentalism in a certain way can be a complex and challenging endeavor. It is recognized as the philosophy associated with a collection of political and literary movements, serving as a path for personal and spiritual development, and challenging the rules of conformity and materialism in 19th-century American society. All of these definitions represent current explanations of the concept. The exact meaning of the word “Transcendentalism” is “knowing the world” (Mott 1). Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller were the important figures who shaped Transcendentalism in New England before the Civil War. Whether viewed as a philosophy or a movement, transcendentalism emphasizes the importance of individualism and self-sufficiency, sees nature as a reflection of the soul and the universe, advocates for civil disobedience, and stresses the importance of moral integrity.

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In 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson graduated from Harvard Divinity School. Emerson challenged prospective ministers to avoid rote preaching and realize the power of their calling by "converting life into truth." His appeal was seen by the scandalized Harvard establishment and other social conservatives as an act of "infidelity." Emerson's most famous essay cemented his reputation as the champion of individualism: in "Self-Reliance," he wrote, "Trust thyself", by which he meant to convince that man's possibilities to develop and improve himself are infinite. He also meant that the ideal kind of individual must be self-reliant.

Also, he stressed the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society. He advised people to depend on themselves for spiritual perfection.His book "Nature" published in 1836, made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America. For Emerson, nature and soul are interrelated. He defined nature as symbolic of the spirit or God and was a guide to life, a way to know ourselves. He encouraged people to go back to nature and sink themselves back into its influence and become spiritually whole again.

He engaged in antislavery writing in 1840s. He also fought for social justice, human rights and feminism.

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Transcendentalism centered in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, and the small town of Concord. For more than four decades, Emerson's home in Concord was a magnet for friends, collaborators, and admirers.

Communitarian experiments

Communitarianism, which is seemingly at the opposite end of the reform spectrum from individualism, also engaged some prominent Transcendentalists in two social experiments. Fruitlands was established in rural Harvard, Massachusetts, in June 1843. A longer-lived and relatively successful communitarian venture was Brook Farm, established in 1841 by a former Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist, George Ripley, and his wife, Sophia, in West Roxbury, a few miles southwest of Boston. The objective was to relieve members of the destructive effects of a competitive society, readjusting the balance between "intellectual and manual labor" so that all people would enjoy "a simpler and wholesome life." They hoped to demonstrate that manual and intellectual labor could coexist harmoniously. But it attracted mostly writers, teachers, and ministers, some of whom disliked farm labor. Brook Farm was dissolved in 1847.

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Another transcendentalist, Emerson’s younger protege, Henry David Thoreau, built a cabin for himself at Walden Pond, on land that Emerson had recently acquired. He aimed to discover his self-reliance and independence by growing food and building a shelter. Also, with this lifestyle, he avoided materialism and social norms for two years. This was a kind of experiment that emphasized Emerson’s idea of “Believe in thyself”.

In his journal Walden, Thoreau describes his days in the Walden Pond and emphasizes independence.

Also, in Walden, Thoreau glorifies Mother Nature and expresses his sense of environmental consciousness. Thoreau offered a witness to his experience in nature that has had a shaping impact on American culture. Especially in the Industrial Age, as the market revolution’s impacts grew, Thoreau became a vital voice with his environmental advocacy.

In 1846, he refused to pay taxes to protest the Mexican War, which he highly opposed because of the expansion of slavery. As a result of this action, he was jailed in Massachusetts. As a manifestation of this, he wrote "Civil Disobedience" . For Thoreau, this action by the government is an infringement on his individual rights, and as a citizen, he has the right to protest an imperfect government. Indeed, reflecting superior morality was the citizen's duty. With this essay, Thoreau inspired reformers like “Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.”

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Fuller was educated at home. She became part of New England's transcendentalist circle and, from 1840 to 1842, edited The Dial, a magazine that reflected the group's views. In 1844, Fuller became literary editor of the New York Tribune, the first woman to achieve so important a position in American journalism. In Woman in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1845, Fuller sought to apply to women the transcendentalist idea that freedom meant a quest for personal development. "Every path" to self-fulfillment, she insisted, should be "open to woman as freely as to man."

She was also an enthusiastic public speaker, encouraging women to “public self-expression”. Fuller argued that women have the right to reach their full potential, just like men.

She urged women to complete their self-development and pioneered women’s rights. Margaret Fuller's "The Wrongs of American Women, The Duty of American Women" exemplifies her passion for feminism. In that essay, she examines the societal, legal, and cultural injustices encountered by women in 19th-century America. She criticizes the restricted roles and expectations placed on women, particularly in marriage, education, and the workforce.

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Thus, while Transcendentalism was labeled as a movement, unlike political parties or religious groups, it wasn’t a formal movement with designated leaders or established doctrines. Lacking an organized framework, it struggled to maintain momentum and didn’t last long. Additionally, with the start of the Civil War, the focus of the American people had shifted. However, although Transcendentalism didn’t survive, its core ideas influenced future movements such as environmentalism, the Civil Rights movement, and American Individualism.