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Date: 40,000 - 20,000 BC

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- Oral literature: epic narratives, creation myths, stories, poems, songs

- Use stories to teach moral lessons and convey practical information about the natural world.

- Deep respect for nature and animals

- Cyclical world view

- Figurative language/parallelism

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Genesis 11: 1-9

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Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 11:1-9 - New International Version

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The Tower of Babel - Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said,…

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-  When Christopher Columbus landed in America in AD 1492, he thought he had landed in the East Indies and mistakenly called the Native Americans Indians. The name has since stuck and is the reason why Native Americans are also sometimes referred to as Indians.

- Before Europeans came in the 1400s to the land that would eventually be called the United States today, it was inhabited and filled with many historic Native American tribes such as the Apache, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Navajo, and Sioux.

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Kids learn about Native American Indian timeline. Major events in the history of the First Nation and tribes.

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Date: 1600 - 1800, the time in which the first "American" colonies were established.

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1. Wrote mostly diaries and histories, which expressed the connections between God and their everyday lives.

2. Sought 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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1651 - William Bradford: "Of Plymouth Plantation"

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

- Anne Bradstreet (poetry)

- Edward Taylor: "Huswifery"

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1. The Puritans were English Christians who disagreed with the practices of the Church of England. They were different from separatists (people who also disagreed with the church and decided to leave and start their own church elsewhere) in how they stayed with the church and tried to change its practices.

2. The Catholic archbishop decided to wipe out Puritanism in England, so it came to a point where being a Puritan was illegal. The reason why the Puritans moved to America was to practice their religion free from persecution.

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Kids learn about the history of the Puritans in colonial America including their beliefs, the Great Migration, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

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Period 3: Rationalism (also referred to as The Age of Reason/Enlightenment)

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Period 3: Rationalism (also referred to as The Age of Reason/Enlightenment)

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Date: 1750 - 1800

This was the time the Revolutionary War happened, and also when the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence were created.

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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)

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1. The thirteen colonies in America had been at war with Britain for around a year when the Second Continental Congress decided that it was time to officially declare their independence from the British empire. The appointed Declaration of Independence committee (Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman) wrote and edited the document from June 11, 1776, until July 4, 1776, the day on which the Declaration was published.

2. The Constitution is the framework for the government of the United States. This is the highest form of law in the country. The Constitution creates the branches of government and states their power to govern. The constitution also protects the citizens of the United States and gives them their basic rights.

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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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History of America

American history is a fascinating subject, and there is so much to learn. The bill of rights is exciting to read and will inform you about the first ten amendments of the constitution. The American Revolution started in 1775 and lasted until 1783. Learn about the first president George Washington who became president in 1789. Many leaders and statesmen have helped shape the country from Benjamin Franklin to William Fulbright. Have fun learning about a great nation.

Civil Rights

Born a slave on a plantation in 1856, Booker T. Washington had little in the way of hope to be more.
Read More

Cesar Chavez made a major contribution to the way in which farm labor and migrant workers were
Read More

Ida B. Wells was the daughter of American slaves and was born in Mississippi in 1862 in the middle
Read More

Read All Articles Of Civil Rights

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History of America American history is a fascinating subject, and there is so much to learn. The bill of rights is exciting to read and will inform you about the first ten amendments of the constitution. The American Revolution started in 1775 and lasted until 1783.

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Period 4: Transcendentalism (also referred to as The American Renaissance)

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Period 4: Transcendentalism (also referred to as The American Renaissance)

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Date: 1840 - 1860

This was the time the Abolitionist, Utopian, and Women's Suffrage Movement occurred.

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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 blink conformity to tradition.

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Transcendentalism: Famous Authors and Works 

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Transcendentalism: Famous Authors and Works 

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- Ralf Waldo Emerson: Nature, "Self-Reliance"

- Henry David Thoreau: Walden, Life in the Woods

- Louisa May Alcott: Little Women

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1. Transcendentalism was a religious, philosophical, and literary movement that began to express itself in New England in the 1830s and continued through the 1850s. The word transcendentalism refers to a spirituality that transcends the realms of rationality and the material world. The Transcendentalists movement was also a social justice and civil rights movement, as their core principles defended the ideas of equality in the natural world (e.g. abolition, women's suffrage)

2. Transcendentalists believed that humans are fundamentally good but are corrupted by society, therefore, they believed that they should for independence and self-reliance. Transcendentalists tended to think of God and nature as synonymous, and that ultimately you would be a part of God if you worshipped and listened to nature enough.

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Those Americans who have heard of American Transcendentalism associate it with the writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and his friend Henry David Thoreau. Asked to name things about the group they remember, most mention Emerson's ringing declaration of cultural independence in his "American Scholar" address at Harvard's commencement in 1837 and his famous lecture "Self-Reliance," in which he declared that "to be great is to be misunderstood"; Thoreau's two-year experiment in self-sufficiency at Walden Pond and his advice to "Simplify! Simplify!"; and the minister Theodore Parker's close association with the radical abolitionist John Brown. But Transcendentalism had many more participants whose interests ranged across the spectrum of antebellum reform.[1]

To understand it fully, however, one must consider its origins. Transcendentalism's roots were in American Christianity. In the 1830s young men training for the liberal Christian (Unitarian) ministry chafed at their spiritual teachers' belief in Christ's miracles, claiming instead that his moral teachings alone were sufficient to make him an inspired prophet.[2] Similarly, they rejected the widely accepted notion that man's knowledge came primarily through the senses. To the contrary, they believed in internal, spiritual principles as the basis for man's comprehension of the world. These formed the basis of the "conscience" or "intuition" that made it possible for each person to connect with the spiritual world. When man thus moved above or beyond-"transcended"-the cares and concerns of the mundane, lower sphere, he was in touch with and lived through this spiritual principle, what Ralph Waldo Emerson termed the "Oversoul."[3]

At its core, Transcendentalism celebrated the divine equality of each soul. There was no arbitrary division between saved and damned, for anyone could have a transcendent experience and thereafter live his life connected to the spiritual world. Transcendentalism thus seemed the ideal philosophy for a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and have the same inalienable rights. In this, the movement began to overlap with antebellum efforts toward social reform, for if all men and women were spiritually equal from birth, they all deserved to be treated with social and political equality as well.

Because of this basic belief, many Transcendentalists became involved in efforts to reverse conditions that prevented individuals from realizing their full potential. For example, Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's father, began the Temple School, an educational experiment for elementary-age children that stressed their innate divinity and encouraged its early discovery and cultivation. He had to close the school after parents objected to how Alcott taught the Gospels. Alcott's assistant there, Elizabeth Peabody, went on to pioneer the kindergarten movement in the United States. Orestes Brownson, son of Vermont farmers and one of the few Transcendentalists not college-educated, remained loyal to his roots and dedicated his life to improving the conditions of the working class; his statements on the likelihood of class warfare between laborer and owner anticipated those of Karl Marx.

Other Transcendentalists moved directly toward what we would recognize today as socialism. Brownson's close friend George Ripley resigned from his Unitarian pulpit near the Boston waterfront and started the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education. Through this utopian experiment in communal living he tried to break down the barriers between intellectuals and laborers, and divided the community's profits according to socialist principles. At Brook Farm members rotated through different forms of work, the most educated having their turn at farming, husbandry, and crafts, and common laborers given the opportunity to engage in art, music, drama, and other activities to which they had been little exposed.[4] Alcott, seeking a new project after the failure of the Temple School, began the quixotic Fruitlands experiment in Harvard, Massachusetts, where he and a handful of other idealists sought to live as vegetarians, giving up even shoe leather and beasts of burden in their respect for all life. The "community" did not last through its first autumn.[5]

In another arena, Margaret Fuller, influenced by Emerson's doctrine of self-reliance, became the foremost advocate of women's rights in her day. Her pioneering Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), in which she argued, on Transcendentalist principles, the economic and psychological equality of the sexes, influenced many Transcendentalists and others. Not afraid to put her principles into operation, she later traveled to Europe to report on the political and social revolutions of 1848 for Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune; she and her husband, an Italian count, died in a shipwreck sailing from Europe to the United States in 1850.

For some, such reform activities were the natural outgrowth of Transcendentalist thought, and they made social reform virtually the entire focus of their Transcendentalism. Until the 1840s Emerson was not the de facto leader of the group. Rather, the most visible members of the loosely associated group were Ripley and Brownson, both of whom stressed social engagement in their Unitarian ministries in Boston.

The impoverished, the mentally and physically challenged, the imprisoned and those otherwise institutionalized, and the enslaved: Transcendentalists recognized these members of society as their equals in spirituality, and America's promise would not be fulfilled until the benefits of its citizenship were available to all. Ripley's Brook Farm was the most dramatic attempt to resolve the inequities in the mundane world. He abandoned his ministry among middle-class Bostonians in large measure because his congregation was content in their comfort and felt no compulsion to extend understanding and charity in the way their minister wished. Similarly, Brownson, appalled at what he saw as the rapidly deteriorating social condition of the working class, first started his own reformist periodical, the Boston Quarterly Review, and then embraced Roman Catholicism, whose ethic of brotherhood he believed better served the impoverished and oppressed.

Ripley's and Brownson's centrality began to fade when Emerson emerged as a major Transcendentalist spokesperson in the wake of the furor over his "Divinity School Address" (1838), when he insulted the Harvard theological faculty by claiming that their preaching was uninspired, and the publication of his first book of essays three years later. In these and other works he provided Transcendentalists another way to define and act on their beliefs, one that revolved around his glorification of the individual rather than active engagement in social reform. Emerson, for example, never joined Brook Farm, although his close friend and cousin Ripley implored him to do so, aware that Emerson's participation would bring the experiment even more attention. He wrote Ripley a blunt refusal, explaining that he still had far to travel on his own personal, spiritual journey before he could get so directly involved with other the reformation of others' lives. Allied with Emerson in this belief that self-reform trumped social engagement was his disciple Henry Thoreau and, for a while, Margaret Fuller. Both stressed the importance of individual responsibility and attention to one's own conscience rather than amelioration of others' conditions, potentially a distraction from self-improvement.

This split among Transcendentalists did not go unremarked. Peabody, for example, wondered if Emerson's stress on self-reliance and individual fulfillment might not lead to what she termed "ego-theism," his setting up himself, or comparably inspired individuals, as somehow gods themselves. She concluded that when one held such self-centered views as Emerson did, "faith commit[ed] suicide" when an individual failed to realize that "man proves but a melancholy God" in comparison to the divine being whom she still worshipped.[6] Similarly, after reading Emerson's Essays: First Series, one of Fuller's protégés, Caroline Healey (Dall) thought that what he had to say about self-reliance was "extravagant and unsafe."[7] Another of Emerson's friends, Henry James Sr., echoed this criticism. "The curse of our present times, which eliminates all their poetry," he observed of his contemporaries' resistance to socialism, is the "selfhood imposed on us by the evil world."[8]

Emerson himself recognized the conflict. Asked to speak at a memorial for the great reformer Theodore Parker, who had died on the threshold of the Civil War, he demurred, remarking how different they were in their approaches to the problems of the age. "Our differences of method and working," he wrote to the organizing committee of the memorial, were "such as really required and honored all [Parker's] Catholicism and magnanimity to forgive in me." In the privacy of his journal, he was even more candid. "I can well praise him [but only] at a spectator's distance, for our minds & methods were unlike-few people more unlike."[9]

Through the 1840s this division persisted among Transcendentalists and associated groups, but in the next decade it gradually ceased to be of great significance. After the signal year 1850, in which Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, all parties pulled away from internecine squabbling as the sectional crisis challenged all Americans to confront the immense problem of chattel slavery. Transcendentalists who had advanced social reforms that included efforts to increase rights for women, labor, and the indigent redirected their energies toward extinguishing the institution of slavery.

Theodore Parker was the leader in this fight, but he was a special case, for even as he vociferously condemned the Southern slaveholders and the politicians they elected (and any northerners complicit with them), he continued to preach about the great inequities of wealth in cities like Boston. He understood the connections between northern businessmen and southern slaveholders, and declared worship of Mammon-or wealth-the evil. In one sermon he told his audience that he was speaking in a city "whose most popular idol is mammon, the God of God; whose Trinity is a Trinity of Coin!" "The Eyes of the North are full of cotton," he continued. "They see nothing else, for a web is before them; their ears are full of cotton, and they hear nothing but the buzz of their mills; their mouth is full of cotton, and they can speak audibly but two words-Tariff, Tariff, Dividends, Dividends."[10] He genuinely worried that liberty might fail. If men continued to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, he said, he did not know when the struggle would end but did not care if the Union went to pieces.

Other Transcendentalists were similarly swept up in this fervor, believing slavery the great evil to be extinguished before all others. Many women who hitherto had devoted themselves to women's rights were swayed by such arguments and believed that their turn for equality would come after the African Americans'. Unfortunately, in this they were disappointed. Speaking of the Transcendentalists' commitment to abolition in the 1850s, the Unitarian clergyman Octavius Brooks Frothingham explained in 1876 why they and others were so quick to put aside other pressing issues. He recalled that in the 1850s the "agitation against slavery had taken hold of the whole country; it was in politics, in journalism, in literature, in the public hall and parlor."[11]

When the Civil War was over, what became of the movement? Some of its leaders did not even live to see the end of the war, most notably Parker, Thoreau, and Fuller. Others moved on to new causes. After the failure of Brook Farm in the late 1840s, Ripley moved to New York City, replacing Fuller as book reviewer at Greeley's Tribune. Brownson became an apologist and proselytizer for Roman Catholicism. Peabody embraced the kindergarten movement and, later, Native American rights. That left Emerson as the public face of Transcendentalism.

There was some progress in the area of women's rights, with Caroline Healey Dall assuming Fuller's place as one of the intellectual leaders of the women's movement, and Brook Farm alumna Almira Barlow providing it new guidance. Ministers like John Weiss (Parker's disciple), David Wasson, and Samuel Johnson, however, defended Transcendentalism against the rise of the scientific method that placed most value on material facts rather than spiritual ideals. Few Transcendentalists, however, were involved in the growing disputes between labor and capital, the reformation of asylums and penitentiaries, or other matters on a reformist agenda.

By the 1870s, the uneasy balance between the self and society that had characterized the antebellum phase of the Transcendental movement tipped irrevocably in the direction of the self. The intellectual power of Transcendentalists was directed toward individual rights and, implicitly, market capitalism, not humanitarian reform. Emerson's admittedly demanding philosophy of self-reliance, an artifact of the early 1840s, was simplified and adopted as a chief principle. More and more, people identified Transcendentalism with the idea of individualism alone, rather than with the ethic of brotherhood that was supposed to accompany it, a process that only accelerated after Emerson's death in 1882. It was left to others to promulgate a religion, the Social Gospel, that reached out to the poor and forgotten.

The New York Unitarian clergyman and erstwhile Transcendentalist Samuel Osgood summed this up well. Reacting to a suggestion that in the 1870s Transcendentalism had lost its relevance, he argued that the group's very success in spreading its ideas had made their philosophy less visible. "The sect of Transcendentalists has disappeared," he wrote, "because their light has gone everywhere."[12] He meant that American culture had absorbed Emerson's most distinctive thought, the deification of the individual. With more hindsight, however, one might argue differently. Emerson's fame presaged, ironically, the death knell of the higher principle of universal brotherhood for which Transcendentalism, more than any other American philosophy, might have provided the foundation.

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brook farm institute of agriculture and education

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Those Americans who have heard of American Transcendentalism associate it with the writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and his friend Henry David Thoreau.

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Date: 1800 - 1860

Events:
- Industrialization
- War of 1812
- California Gold Rush

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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 seek 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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1. The genre of Romanticism originally started in Europe in the late 18th century to early 19th century and consisted of art, literature, and music. It eventually moved to America and influenced their politics, art, and more importantly their literature.

2. American Romanticism was the first literary movement that developed in the United States. American Romanticism emphasized emotion, individualism, and personality over rationalism and the constraints of religion.

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The Emergence of "American" Literature

The mid-nineteenth century often has been considered an "American Renaissance" due to the number and quality of literary works produced.

Learning Objectives

Identify the major works of literature produced during the mid-nineteenth century "American Renaissance"

Key Takeaways

Key Points

The decades before the Civil War saw a number of American literary masterpieces.

This period, now referred to as the "American Renaissance" of literature, often has been identified with American romanticism and transcendentalism.

Literary nationalists at this time were calling for a movement that would develop a unique American literary style to distinguish American literature from British literature.

Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman wrote their best and most famous works during this period.

In recent years, female authors such as Emily Dickinson and Harriet Beecher Stowe have been added to the list of great authors from the period.

Key Terms

nationalism: The idea of supporting one's country and culture.

transcendentalism: A movement of writers and philosophers in New England in the nineteenth century whose members were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on the belief in the essential supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.

American Romanticism: An artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the eighteenth century; in most areas it was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1840.

The American Renaissance

During the mid-nineteenth century, many American literary masterpieces were produced. Sometimes called the "American Renaissance" (a term coined by the scholar F.O. Matthiessen), this period encompasses (approximately) the 1820s to the dawn of the Civil War, and it has been closely identified with American romanticism and transcendentalism.

Often considered a movement centered in New England, the American Renaissance was inspired in part by a new focus on humanism as a way to move from Calvinism. Literary nationalists at this time were calling for a movement that would develop a unique American literary style to distinguish American literature from British literature. The American Renaissance is characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance humanism. The American preoccupation with national identity (or nationalism) in this period was expressed by modernism, technology, and academic classicism, a major facet of which was literature.

Protestantism shaped the views of the vast majority of Americans in the antebellum years. Alongside the religious fervor during this time, transcendentalists advocated a more direct knowledge of the self and an emphasis on individualism. The writers and thinkers devoted to transcendentalism, as well as the reactions against it, created a trove of writings, an outpouring that became what has now been termed the "American Renaissance."

Major Literary Works

Transcendentalist Writers

Many writers were drawn to transcendentalism, and they started to express its ideas through new stories, poems, essays, and articles. The ideas of transcendentalism were able to permeate American thought and culture through a prolific print culture, which allowed the wide dissemination of magazines and journals. Ralph Waldo Emerson emerged as the leading figure of this movement. In 1836, he published "Nature," an essay arguing that humans can find their true spirituality in nature, not in the everyday bustling working world of Jacksonian democracy and industrial transformation. In 1841, Emerson published his essay "Self-Reliance," which urges readers to think for themselves and reject the mass conformity and mediocrity taking root in American life.

Emerson's ideas struck a chord with a class of literate adults who also were dissatisfied with mainstream American life and searching for greater spiritual meaning. Among those attracted to Emerson's ideas was his friend Henry David Thoreau, whom Emerson encouraged to write about his own ideas. In 1849, Emerson published his lecture "Civil Disobedience" and urged readers to refuse to support a government that was immoral. In 1854, he published Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a book about the two years he spent in a small cabin on Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.

Walt Whitman also added to the transcendentalist movement, most notably with his 1855 publication of twelve poems, entitled Leaves of Grass, which celebrated the subjective experience of the individual. One of the poems, "Song of Myself," emphasized individualism, which for Whitman, was a goal achieved by uniting the individual with all other people through a transcendent bond.

Other Writers

Some critics took issue with transcendentalism's emphasis on rampant individualism by pointing out the destructive consequences of compulsive human behavior. Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or, The Whale emphasized the perils of individual obsession by telling the tale of Captain Ahab's single-minded quest to kill a white whale, Moby Dick, which had destroyed Ahab's original ship and caused him to lose one of his legs. Edgar Allan Poe, a popular author, critic, and poet, decried, "the so-called poetry of the so-called transcendentalists." These American writers who questioned transcendentalism illustrate the underlying tension between individualism and conformity in American life. Other notable works from this time period include Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851).

As often happens, historians emphasize the works produced by white men during the American Renaissance, but many African Americans and women produced great literary works, too. Emily Dickinson began writing poetry in the 1830s, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) rose to a prominent reputation in the late 1970s. African-American literature during this time, including slave narratives by such writers as Frederick Douglass and early novels by William Wells Brown, has gained increasing recognition as well.

Romanticism in America

American Romanticism emphasized emotion, individualism, and personality over rationalism and the constraints of religion.

Learning Objectives

Summarize the central commitments of American Romanticism

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Romanticism, which reached American from Europe in the early 19th century, appealed to Americans as it emphasized an emotional, individual relationship with God as opposed to the strict Calvinism of previous generations.

Romanticism emphasized emotion over reason and individual decision-making over the constraints of tradition.

The Romantic movement was closely related to New England transcendentalism, which portrayed a less restrictive relationship between God and the universe.

Romanticism gave rise to a new genre of literature in which intense, private sentiment was portrayed by characters who showed sensitivity and excitement, as well as a greater exercise of free choice in their lives.

The Romantic movement also saw a rise in women authors and readers. Prominent Romantic writers include Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville.

Key Terms

transcendentalism: A movement of writers and philosophers in New England in the 19th century who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on the belief in the essential supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.

rationalism: The theory that the basis of knowledge is reason rather than experience or divine revelation.

Calvinism: The Christian denomination which places emphasis on the sovereignty of God and distinctively includes the doctrine of predestination (that a special few are predetermined for salvation, while others cannot attain it).

American Romanticism

The European Romantic movement reached America during the early 19 th century. Like the Europeans, the American Romantics demonstrated a high level of moral enthusiasm, commitment to individualism and the unfolding of the self, an emphasis on intuitive perception, and the assumption that the natural world was inherently good while human society was filled with corruption.

Romanticism became popular in American politics, philosophy, and art. The movement appealed to the revolutionary spirit of America as well as to those longing to break free of the strict religious traditions of the early settlement period. The Romantics rejected rationalism and religious intellect. It appealed especially to opponents of Calvinism, a Protestant sect that believes the destiny of each individual is preordained by God.

Relation to Trascendentalism

The Romantic movement gave rise to New England transcendentalism, which portrayed a less restrictive relationship between God and the universe. The new philosophy presented the individual with a more personal relationship with God. Transcendentalism and Romanticism appealed to Americans in a similar fashion; both privileged feeling over reason and individual freedom of expression over the restraints of tradition and custom. Romanticism often involved a rapturous response to nature and promised a new blossoming of American culture.

Romantic Themes

The Romantic movement in America was widely popular and influenced American writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. Novels, short stories, and poems replaced the sermons and manifestos of earlier days. Romantic literature was personal and intense; it portrayed more emotion than ever seen in neoclassical literature.

America's preoccupation with freedom became a great source of motivation for Romantic writers, as many were delighted in free expression and emotion without fear of ridicule and controversy. They also put more effort into the psychological development of their characters, and the main characters typically displayed extremes of sensitivity and excitement. The works of the Romantic Era also differed from preceding works in that they spoke to a wider audience, partly reflecting the greater distribution of books as costs came down and literacy rose during the period. The Romantic period also saw an increase in female authors and readers.

Prominent Romantic Writers

Romantic poetry in the United States can be seen as early as 1818 with William Cullen Bryant's "To a Waterfowl". American Romantic Gothic literature made an early appearance with Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) and Rip Van Winkle (1819), followed from 1823 onwards by the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper. In his popular novel Last of the Mohicans, Cooper expressed romantic ideals about the relationship between men and nature. These works had an emphasis on heroic simplicity and fervent landscape descriptions of an already-exotic mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages". Edgar Allan Poe's tales of the macabre and his balladic poetry were more influential in France than at home, but the romantic American novel developed fully with the atmosphere and melodrama of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850).

Later transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson still show elements of its influence and imagination, as does the romantic realism of Walt Whitman. Emerson, a leading transcendentalist writer, was highly influenced by romanticism, especially after meeting leading figures in the European romantic movement in the 1830s. He is best known for his romantic-influenced essays such as "Nature" (1836) and "Self-Reliance" (1841). The poetry of Emily Dickinson-nearly unread in her own time-and Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick can be taken as epitomes of American Romantic literature. By the 1880s, however, psychological and social realism were competing with Romanticism in the novel.

Newspapers

During the middle of the nineteenth century, newspapers went from serving as mouthpieces of political parties to addressing broader public interests.

Learning Objectives

Identify the distinctive trends in newspaper journalism that emerged over the course of the eighteenth century

Key Takeaways

Key Points

In the early nineteenth century, most newspapers were controlled by political parties and served to support those parties' ideas and candidates. Journalism soon changed to address broader public interests, covering new topics that were important and relevant to everyone instead of a select few.

Many of the changes that came with this shift brought about new features of journalism that remain important today, such as the editorial page, personal interviews, business news, and foreign-news correspondents.

Advances in technology, such as the telegraph and railroad, made it possible to receive and report on news faster than ever before.

Penny press newspapers began to publish sensational human-interest stories and relied on advertising, instead of subscriptions, to sell issues.

Some reform movements published their own newspapers, and abolitionist papers in particular were met with a great deal of controversy as they reported on the evils of slavery.

Key Terms

penny press: Cheap, tabloid-style newspapers produced in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century.

editorial page: A newspaper section on which the leading article (United Kingdom), or leader (United States), is an opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper or magazine.

William Lloyd Garrison: Prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer (December 10, 1805-May 24, 1879).

Introduction

During the middle of the nineteenth century, newspapers changed from being mouthpieces of political parties to serving a broader public appeal. Many of the changes that came with this shift brought about new features of journalism that remain important today, such as the editorial page, personal interviews, business news, and foreign-news correspondents.

Many newspapers in the early part of the nineteenth century were published by political parties and served as political mouthpieces for the beliefs and candidates of those parties. Over the next few decades, however, the influence of these "administrative organs" began to fade away. Newspapers and their editors began to show greater personal and editorial influence as they realized the broader appeal of human-interest stories.

Birth of Editorial Comment

The editorial voice of each newspaper grew more distinct and important, and the editorial page began to assume something of its modern form. The editorial signed with a pseudonym gradually died, but unsigned editorial comment and leading articles did not become established features until after 1814, when Nathan Hale made them characteristic of the newly established Boston Daily Advertiser. From then on, these features grew in importance until they became the most vital part of the greater papers.

News Becomes Widespread

Nearly every county and large town sponsored at least one weekly newspaper. Politics were of major interest, with the editor-owner typically deeply involved in local party organizations. However, the papers also contained local news, and presented literary columns and book excerpts that catered to an emerging middle class and literate audience. A typical rural newspaper provided its readers with a substantial source of national and international news and political commentary, typically reprinted from metropolitan newspapers. In addition, the major metropolitan dailies often prepared weekly editions for circulation to the countryside.

Systems of more rapid news-gathering and distribution quickly appeared. The telegraph, put to successful use during the Mexican-American War, led to numerous far-reaching results in journalism. Its greatest effect was to decentralize the press by rendering the inland papers (in such cities as Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, and New Orleans) independent of those in Washington and New York. The news field was immeasurably broadened; news style was improved, and the introduction of interviews, with their dialogue and direct quotations, imparted papers with an ease and freshness. There was a notable improvement in the reporting of business, markets, and finance. A foreign-news service was developed that reached the highest standard yet attained in American journalism in terms of intelligence and general excellence.

This idea of the newspaper for its own sake, the unprecedented aggressiveness in news-gathering, and the blatant methods by which the cheap papers were popularized, aroused the antagonism of the older papers, but created a competition that could not be ignored. The growth of these newer papers meant the development of great staffs of workers that exceeded in numbers anything dreamed of in the preceding period. Indeed, the years between 1840 and 1860 saw the beginnings of the scope, complexity, and excellence of our modern journalism.

The Penny Press

Background

In the early 1800s, newspapers had catered largely to the elite and took two forms: mercantile sheets that were intended for the business community and contained ship schedules, wholesale product prices, advertisements and some stale foreign news; and political newspapers that were controlled by political parties or their editors as a means of sharing their views with elite stakeholders. Journalists reported the party line and editorialized in favor of party positions.

Appealing to the Commoner

Some editors believed in a public who would not buy a serious paper at any price; they believed the common person had a vast and indiscriminate curiosity better satisfied with gossip than discussion and with sensation rather than fact, and who could be reached through their appetites and passions. To this end, the "penny press" papers, which sold for one cent per copy, were introduced in the 1830s. Penny press newspapers became an important form of popular entertainment in the mid-nineteenth century, taking the form of cheap, tabloid-style papers. As the East Coast's middle and working classes grew, so did the new public's desire for news, and penny papers emerged as a cheap source that covered crime, tragedy, adventure, and gossip. They depended much more on advertising than on high priced subscriptions, and they often aimed their articles at broad public interests instead of at perceived upper-class tastes.

Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible when technology shifted from handcrafted to steam-powered printing. The penny paper was famous for costing one cent, unlike its competitors, which could cost as much as six cents. This cheap newspaper was revolutionary because it made the news available to lower-class citizens for a reasonable price. To be profitable at such a low price, these papers needed large circulations and feature advertisements; they needed to target a public who had not been accustomed to buying papers and who would be attracted by news of the street, shop, and factory.

Benjamin Day, an important and innovative publisher of penny newspapers, introduced a new type of sensationalism: a reliance on human-interest stories. He emphasized common people as they were reflected in the political, educational, and social life of the day. Day also introduced a new way of selling papers, known as the London Plan, in which newsboys hawked their newspapers on the streets. Penny papers hired reporters and correspondents to seek out and write the news, and the news began to sound more journalistic than editorial. Reporters were assigned to beats and were involved in the conduct of local interaction.

James Gordon Bennett's newspaper The New York Herald added another dimension to penny press papers that is now common in journalistic practice. Whereas newspapers had generally relied on documents as sources, Bennett introduced the practices of observation and interviewing to provide stories with more vivid details. Bennett is known for redefining the concept of news, reorganizing the news business, and introducing newspaper competition. The New York Herald was financially independent of politicians because it had large numbers of advertisers.

Abolition: A Thorny Issue

In a period of widespread unrest and social change, many specialized forms of journalism sprang up, focusing on religious, educational, agricultural, and commercial themes. During this time, workingmen were questioning the justice of existing economic systems and raising a new labor issues; Unitarianism and transcendentalism were creating and expressing new spiritual values; temperance, prohibition, and the political status of women were being discussed; and abolitionists were growing more vocal, becoming the subject of controversy most critically related to journalism. Some reform movements published their own newspapers, and abolitionist papers in particular were met with a great deal of controversy as they rallied against slavery.

The abolitionist press, which began with The Emancipator of 1820 and had its chief representative in William Lloyd Garrison 's Liberator, forced the slavery question upon the newspapers, and a struggle for the freedom of the press ensued. Many abolitionist papers were excluded from the mails, and their circulation was forcibly prevented in the South. In Boston, New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and elsewhere, editors were assaulted, and offices were attacked and destroyed.

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The mid-nineteenth century often has been considered an "American Renaissance" due to the number and quality of literary works produced. Identify the major works of literature produced during the mid-nineteenth century "American Renaissance" Key Points The decades before the Civil War saw a number of American literary masterpieces.

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Week 11 Extended Facts (American Renaissance Literature, Puritans, OR Nathaniel Hawthorne):

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Week 11 Extended Facts (American Renaissance Literature, Puritans, OR Nathaniel Hawthorne):

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1. Puritans believed that there was only one true religion (Christianity) and that it was the duty of the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, upon all citizens in the interest of saving their souls. Those who did not conform could expect no mercy; they would be punished or even executed.

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be one of the most important authors in the history of American literature and the genre of Romanticism due to his unique style of writing and his focus upon subjects of Puritan religion and the unknown.

Sites Used:
- Shomica, et al. “Puritan Laws and Customs.” History of American Women, 31 May 2020, https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2007/10/puritan-laws-and-customs.html.
- “Nathaniel Hawthorne 's Influence on American Literature and the Genre of Romanticism Essay.” Bartleby, https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Nathaniel-Hawthorne-s-Influence-On-American-Literature-FKQJUE5Y9CXQ.

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In the Salem Witch Trials (which took place from 1692-1693), one of the methods of testing for witchcraft was referred to as the "touch test". It was believed that if the accused witch touched their victim, and the victim’s symptoms stopped, it meant that it was them who caused the illness.

Source: “Salem Witch Trials Facts, Worksheets &amp; Information for Kids.” KidsKonnect, 22 June 2021, https://kidskonnect.com/history/salem-witch-trials/.

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During the McCarthyism period (which took place from 1950-1954), McCarthy claimed that about 200 Communists had infiltrated the United States Government. Despite that, he offered no real evidence for this assertion. The fear of communism in the nation was eventually what brought him to power.

Source: Goodman, Paul. “12 Facts about Mccarthyism.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 22 May 2017, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Facts-About-McCarthyism.

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Date of birth: October 14, 1894
Date of death: September 3, 1962

Fact #1: Other than being a poet, Edward Estlin Cummings is also known for his works as a painter, essayist, author, and playwright.

Fact #2: The majority of Cummings works is traditional; his poems usually relate to themes of love and nature. His poetry also deals with the relationship of an individual with the world.

Fact 3: Cummings' poems contain a distinguishable 14 line sonnet structures with a complex rhyme scheme. Some of his poems are characterized by a typographical style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page. He does this to challenge readers both visually and psychologically.

Source: “E.E. Cummings and His Unique Writing Style: [Essay Example], 3343 Words.” GradesFixer, 14 Apr. 2021, https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/e-e-cummings-and-his-unique-writing-style/#:~:text=Despite%20his%20interest%20in%20avant,the%20individual%20to%20the%20world.

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Date of birth: December 10, 1830
Date of death: May 15, 1886

Fact #1:  The vast majority of Dickinson's work as a poet was discovered only after her death and published posthumously, with only fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems published during her lifetime.

Fact #2: The majority of Emily Dickenson's poems were innovative. She used extensive dashes, dots, unconventional capitalization, in addition to a distinctive vocabulary with vivid imagery. She favored irregular meters and most often wrote in ballad stanzas.

Fact #3: Emily Dickinson used images from nature, religion, law, music, commerce, medicine, fashion, and domestic activities to form the main themes of her writing which had to do with the wonders of nature, the identity of the self, death and immortality, and love.

Source: “Emily Dickinson.” Ultius, https://www.ultius.com/glossary/literature/authors/emily-dickinson.html#:~:text=Emily%20Dickinson's%20writing%20style%20is,and%20even%20dimeter%20at%20times.

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Date of birth: March 2, 1904

Date of death: September 24, 1991

Fact 1: Dr. Seuss is one of the most famous children's authors of all time and his use rhythmic, repetitive, playful language, and colorful illustrations has been loved by readers (both young and old) for decades.

Fact 2: He often came up with story ideas by doodling.

Fact 3: The majority of Dr. Seuss' books are written in anapestic tetrameter.

Source: “Dr. Seuss.” Ducksters, https://www.ducksters.com/biography/dr_seuss.php.

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important events:
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.

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. There are six different types of literary realism, and they include magical realism, social realism, kitchen sink realism, socialist realism, naturalism, and psychological realism. Magical realism blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Social realism focuses on the lives and living conditions of the working class and the poor. Kitchen sink realism focuses on the lives of working-class British men who spend their free time drinking in pubs. Socialist realism glorifies the struggles of the proletariat (created by Joseph Stalin and adopted by Communists). Naturalism explores the belief that science can explain all social and environmental phenomena. Psychological realism focuses on what motivates people to make certain decisions and why.

2. Literary realism is part of the realist art movement that started in 19th-century France. It began as a reaction to eighteenth-century Romanticism and the rise of the bourgeoisie in Europe.

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1. His original name was Samuel Clemens. He worked as a steamboat pilot. He came about this name when the leadsmen would say "by the mark twain", which meant that the river depth was safe for the steamboat. As his writing career continued to take off, he wanted to use a pen name; after trying out several aliases, he settled on Mark Twain.

2. Twain's work challenged the fundamental issues that America encountered at the time, such as racism, class barriers, access to education, evolving landscapes, and more.

3. A few of his most famous writings include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and The Innocents Abroad (1869).

Source: “Top 10 Facts about Mark Twain.” Discover Walks Blog, 8 Feb. 2021, https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/united-states/top-10-facts-about-mark-twain/.

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1. At the age of 8, she became permanently blind in one eye when her brother shot her accidentally with a BB gun. She was not able to receive any treatment. After this injury, she began to retreat to more solitary activities, such as reading and writing.

2. Walker's work consisted of an insightful portrayal of African American life and culture. She is best known for her 1982 novel, The Color Purple, which made her the first Black author to win a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for Fiction.

3. Walker's literary influences include Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer, Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks, South African novelist Bessie Head, and Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor.

Source: “Walker, Alice, 1944-.” Civil Rights Digital Library, http://crdl.galileo.usg.edu/people/w/walker_alice_1944/?Welcome.

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important events:
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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1. Thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx were part of this era. Their writings were extremely influential, and changed the world, for better or for worse.

2. Modernism was not only in literature, but also in other forms of art, architecture, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even in some sciences. Its concepts were essentially based on a utopian vision of human life/society, and a belief in progress.

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The Rise of Modernism

Modernism was a philosophical movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that was based on an underlying belief in the progress of society.

Learning Objectives

Summarize the ideas that constitute Modernism

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by the horror of World War I.

Modernism was essentially based on a utopian vision of human life and society and a belief in progress, or moving forward.

Modernist ideals pervaded art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences.

In painting, modernism is defined by Surrealism, late Cubism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, German Expressionism, and Matisse as well as the abstractions of artists like Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky, which characterized the European art scene.

The end of modernism and beginning of postmodernism is a hotly contested issue, though many consider it to have ended roughly around 1940.

Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from enormous transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by the horror of World War I.
Modernism was essentially based on a utopian vision of human life and society and a belief in progress, or moving forward. It assumed that certain ultimate universal principles or truths such as those formulated by religion or science could be used to understand or explain reality.

Modernist ideals were far-reaching, pervading art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was the touchstone of the movement's approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past. In this spirit, its innovations, like the stream-of-consciousness novel, atonal (or pantonal) and twelve-tone music, divisionist painting and abstract art, all had precursors in the 19th century.

In painting, during the 1920s and the 1930s and the Great Depression, modernism is defined by Surrealism, late Cubism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, German Expressionism, and Modernist and masterful color painters like Henri Matisse as well as the abstractions of artists like Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky, which characterized the European art scene. In Germany, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, and others politicized their paintings, foreshadowing the coming of World War II, while in America, modernism is seen in the form of American Scene painting and the social realism and regionalism movements that contained both political and social commentary dominated the art world.

Modernism is defined in Latin America by painters Joaquín Torres García from Uruguay and Rufino Tamayo from Mexico, while the muralist movement with Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Pedro Nel Gómez, and Santiago Martinez Delgado, and Symbolist paintings by Frida Kahlo, began a renaissance of the arts for the region, characterized by a freer use of color and an emphasis on political messages. The end of modernism and beginning of postmodernism is a hotly contested issue, though many consider it to have ended roughly around 1940.

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impression refers to a genre that rejected the naturalism of Impressionism in favor of using color and form in more expressive manners.

Learning Objectives

Compare and contrast Post-Impressionist techniques with those of Impressionism

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Post-Impressionists extended the use of vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, and were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort forms for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colors in their compositions.

Although they were often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement, and younger painters in the early 20th century worked in geographically disparate regions and in various stylistic categories, such as Fauvism and Cubism.

The term " Post- Impressionism " was coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910, to describe the development of French art since Manet.

Key Terms

Post-Impressionism: (Art) a genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of impressionism, using color and form in more expressive manners.

Post-Impressionist: French art or artists belonging to a genre after Manet, which extended the style of Impressionism while rejecting its limitations; they continued using vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary color.

post-and-lintel: A simple construction method using a header or architrave as the horizontal member over a building void (lintel) supported at its ends by two vertical columns or pillars (posts).

Move from Naturalism

Post-Impression refers to a genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of Impressionism, in favor of using color and form in more expressive manners. The term "Post-Impressionism" was coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations. For example, they continued using vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were also more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort forms for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colors in their compositions.

Significant Artists of Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism developed from Impressionism. From the 1880s onward, several artists, including Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, envisioned different precepts for the use of color, pattern, form, and line, deriving these new directions from the Impressionist example. These artists were slightly younger than the Impressionists, and their work contemporaneously became known as Post-Impressionism. Some of the original Impressionist artists also ventured into this new territory. Camille Pissarro briefly painted in a pointillist manner, and even Monet abandoned strict en plein air painting. Paul Cézanne, who participated in the first and third Impressionist exhibitions, developed a highly individual vision emphasizing pictorial structure; he is most often called a post-Impressionist. Although these cases illustrate the difficulty of assigning labels, the work of the original Impressionist painters may, by definition, be categorized as Impressionism.

A Diverse Search for Direction

The Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with the triviality of subject matter and the loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, although they did not agree on the way forward. Georges Seurat and his followers, for instance, concerned themselves with Pointillism, the systematic use of tiny dots of color. Paul Cézanne set out to restore a sense of order and structure to painting by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the bright fresh colors of Impressionism. Vincent van Gogh used vibrant colors and swirling brush strokes to convey his feelings and his state of mind. Hence, although they were often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement, and younger painters in the early 20th century worked in geographically disparate regions and in various stylistic categories, such as Fauvism and Cubism.

Cézanne

Cézanne was a French, Post-Impressionist painter whose work highlights the transition from the 19th century to the early 20th century.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the evolution and influence of Cézanne's style of painting during the Post-Impressionist movement

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Cézanne's early work is often concerned with the figure in the landscape, often depicting groups of large, heavy figures. In Cézanne's mature work there is a solidified, almost architectural style of painting. To this end, he structurally ordered his perceptions into simple forms and color planes.

This exploration rendered slightly different, yet simultaneous, visual perceptions of the same phenomena to provide the viewer with a different aesthetic experience.

Cezanne 's "Dark Period" from 1861-1870 contains works that are characterized by dark colors and the heavy use of black.

The lightness of his Impressionist works contrast sharply with the dramatic resignation found in his final period of productivity from 1898-1905. This resignation informs several still life paintings that depict skulls as their subject.

Key Terms

Cezanne: Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

Impressionism: A 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists. Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), common, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.

Post-Impressionism: (Art) a genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of impressionism, using color and form in more expressive manners.

Introduction

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was a French artist and Post- Impressionism painter whose work began the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art. Cézanne's often repetitive brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes to form complex fields and convey intense study of his subjects.

Early Work

Cézanne's early work is often concerned with the figure in the landscape, often depicting groups of large, heavy figures. Later, he became more interested in working from direct observation, gradually developing a light, airy painting style. Nevertheless, in Cézanne's mature work, there is development of a solidified, almost architectural style of painting. To this end, he structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and color planes.

Cézanne was interested in the simplification of naturally occurring forms to their geometric essentials, wanting to "treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone." For example, a tree trunk may be conceived of as a cylinder and an apple or orange as a sphere. Additionally, his desire to capture the truth of perception led him to explore binocular graphic vision. This exploration rendered slightly different, yet simultaneous, visual perceptions of the same phenomena, providing the viewer with a different aesthetic experience of depth.

Dark Period

Cezanne's "Dark Period" in 1861-1870 was comprised of works that are characterized by dark colors and the heavy use of black. They differ sharply from his earlier watercolors and sketches at the École Spéciale de dessin at Aix-en-Provence in 1859. In 1866-67, inspired by the example of Courbet, Cézanne painted a series of paintings with a palette knife. He later called these works, mostly portraits, une couillarde (a coarse word for ostentatious virility). All in all, works of the Dark Period include several erotic or violent subjects.

After the start of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, Cézanne's canvases grew much brighter and more reflective of Impressionism. Cézanne moved between Paris and Provence, exhibiting in the first (1874) and third Impressionist shows (1877). In 1875, he attracted the attention of collector Victor Chocquet, whose commissions provided some financial relief. On the whole, however, Cézanne's exhibited paintings attracted hilarity, outrage, and sarcasm.

The lightness of his Impressionist works contrast sharply with his dramatic resignation in his final period of productivity from 1898-1905. This resignation informs several still life paintings that depict skulls as their subject.

Cézanne's explorations of geometric simplification and optical phenomena inspired Picasso, Braque, Gris, and others to experiment with ever more complex multiple views of the same subject. Cézanne thus sparked one of the most revolutionary areas of artistic enquiry of the 20th century, one which was to affect the development of modern art. A prize for special achievement in the arts was created in his memory. The "Cézanne medal" is granted by the French city of Aix en Provence.

Vorticism

Vorticism, an offshoot of Cubism, was a brief modernist movement in British art and poetry of the early 20th century.

Learning Objectives

Describe the short-lived Vorticism movement in Britain

Key Takeaways

Key Points

The movement of Vorticism rejected the typical landscapes and nudes popular at the time in favor of a geometric style tending towards abstraction.

The movement was announced in 1914 in its first issue of BLAST, Vorticism's official literary magazine, which declared the movement's manifesto.

Vorticism diverged from Cubism and Futurism. It tried to capture movement in an image. In Vorticist paintings, modern life is shown as an array of bold lines and harsh colors drawing the viewer 's eye to the center of the canvas.

Key Terms

Industrial Revolution: The major technological, socioeconomic, and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century when the economy shifted from one based on manual labor to one dominated by machine manufacture.

Vorticism: An offshoot of Cubism; a short-lived modernist movement in British art and poetry of the early 20th century, based in London but international in make-up and ambition.

Vorticism was a brief modernist movement in British art and poetry during the early 20th century. It was based in London but was international in make-up and ambition. As a movement, Vorticism rejected the typical landscapes and nudes of the time in favor of a geometric style tending towards abstraction.

The Vorticism group began with the Rebel Art Centre established by Wyndham Lewis as a break with other traditional schools, and had its intellectual and artistic roots in the Bloomsbury Group, Cubism, and Futurism. Lewis saw Vorticism as an independent alternative to Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism. Though the style grew out of Cubism, it is more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age, and all things modern. However, Vorticism diverged from both Cubism and Futurism in the way it tried to capture movement in an image. In Vorticist paintings, modern life is shown as an array of bold lines and harsh colors drawing the viewer's eye to the center of the canvas.

The Vorticists published two issues of the literary magazine BLAST, edited by Lewis, in June 1914 and July 1915. It contained work by Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and by the Vorticists themselves. Its typographical adventurousness was cited by El Lissitzky as one of the major forerunners of the revolution in graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s.

Paintings and sculpture shown at the Rebel Art Centre in 1914, before the formation of the Vorticist Group, were considered "experimental work" by Lewis, Wadsworth, Shakespear and others, who used angular simplification and abstraction in their paintings. This work was contemporary with and comparable to abstraction by continental European artists such as Kandinski, František Kupka, and the Russian Rayist Group. The Vorticists held only one official exhibition in 1915 at the Doré Gallery in London. After this, the movement broke up, largely due to the onset of World War I and public apathy towards their work.

Symbolism

Symbolism was a late 19thcentury art movement of French, Russian, and Belgian origin.

Learning Objectives

Discuss Symbolism's use of artwork as a search for absolute truths

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles that were attempts to represent reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism, on the other hand, favored spirituality, the imagination, and dreams.

Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. Thus, they wrote and painted in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning.

Symbolist artists stressed the power of personal subjectivity, emotions and feelings rather than any reliance on realism to suggest larger truths.

Symbolism expressed scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena that are not depicted for their own sake, but rather as perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with primordial ideals.

Key Terms

symbolism: Symbolism was a late 19th century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature. Symbolism creates quality aspects that make literature like poetry and novels more meaningful.

A Move Toward Meaning

Symbolism was a late 19th century art movement of French, Russian, and Belgian origin that manifested in poetry and other arts. The term "symbolism" is derived from the word "symbol" which comes from the Latin symbolum, a symbol of faith, and symbolus, a sign of recognition. Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles that were attempts to represent reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism, on the other hand, favored spirituality, the imagination, dreams, emotions, and the personal subjectivity of the artist as a tool to illustrate larger truths. Thematically, Symbolist artists tended to focus on themes surrounding the occult, decadence, melancholy, and death.

A Search for Hidden Truth

Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. Thus, they wrote and painted in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning. Jean Moréas published The Symbolist Manifesto (" Le Symbolisme ") in Le Figaro on 18 September 1886 (see 1886 in poetry). Moréas announced that symbolism was hostile to "plain meanings, declamations, false sentimentality, and matter-of-fact description," and that its goal was to "clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form " whose "goal was not in itself, but whose sole purpose was to express the Ideal." In other words, symbolism expressed scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena not for their own sake, but as perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with primordial ideals.

The symbolist style has frequently been confused with decadence and, by the late 1880s, the terms "symbolism" and "decadence" were understood to be almost synonymous. Though the aesthetics of the styles can be considered similar in some ways, the two remain distinct. The symbolists emphasized dreams, ideals, and fantastical subject matter, while the Decadents cultivated précieux, ornamented, or hermetic styles, and morbid subject matters. The symbolist painters were an important influence on expressionism and surrealism in painting, two movements that descend directly from symbolism proper.

The harlequins, paupers, and clowns of Pablo Picasso 's "Blue Period" show the influence of symbolism, and especially of Puvis de Chavannes. In Belgium, symbolism became so popular that it came to be thought of as a national style: the static strangeness of painters like René Magritte can be considered as a direct continuation of symbolism. The work of some symbolist visual artists, such as Jan Toorop, directly affected the curvilinear forms of art nouveau.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was an international style of art and architecture that was most popular from 1890-1910.

Learning Objectives

Describe the origins and characteristics of Art Noveau

Key Takeaways

Key Points

Art Nouveau was an international style of art and architecture that was most popular from 1890-1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art." The origins of Art Nouveau are found in the resistance of the artist William Morris to the cluttered compositions and the revival tendencies of the 19th century.

A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, Art Nouveau was inspired by natural forms and structures, exemplified by curved lines, asymmetry, natural motifs, and intricate embellishment.

Art Nouveau is considered a "total style," meaning that it pervaded many forms of art and design such as architecture, interior design, the decorative arts, and the visual arts. According to the philosophy of the style, art should strive to be a way of life.

Key Terms

Art Nouveau: Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture, and applied art-especially the decorative arts-that was most popular during 1890-1910.

japonisme: The influence of Japanese art and culture on European art.

syncopated: A variety of music rhythms that come unexpected.

Background

Art Nouveau is an international style of art and architecture that was most popular from 1890-1910 AD. The name Art Nouveau is French for "new art." A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in flowers and plants, but also in curved lines. It is also considered a philosophy of furniture design. Art Nouveau furniture is structured according to the whole building and made part of ordinary life. Art Nouveau was most popular in Europe, but its influence was global. It is a very varied style with frequent localized tendencies.

Before the term Art Nouveau became common in France, le style moderne ("the modern style") was the more frequent designation. Maison de l'Art Nouveau was the name of the gallery initiated during 1895 by the German art dealer Samuel Bing in Paris that featured exclusively modern art. The fame of his gallery was increased at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, where he presented coordinated installations of modern furniture, tapestries and objets d'art. These decorative displays became so strongly associated with the style, that the name of his gallery subsequently provided a commonly used term for the entire style. Likewise, Jugend (Youth) was the illustrated weekly magazine of art and lifestyle of Munich, founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth. Jugend was instrumental in promoting the Art Nouveau style in Germany. As a result, Jungenstil, or Youth Style, became the German word for the style.

Origins of Art Nouveau

The origins of Art Nouveau are found in the resistance of the artist William Morris to the cluttered compositions and revivalist tendencies of the 19th century. His theories helped initiate the Art Nouveau movement. About the same time, the flat perspective and strong colors of Japanese wood block prints, especially those of Katsushika Hokusai, had a strong effect on the formulation of Art Nouveau. The Japonisme that was popular in Europe during the 1880s and 1890s was particularly influential on many artists with its organic forms and references to the natural world.

Although Art Nouveau acquired distinctly localized tendencies as its geographic spread increased, some general characteristics are indicative of the form. A description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall hanging Cyclamen (1894), described it as "sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip," which became well known during the early spread of Art Nouveau. Subsequently, the term "whiplash" is frequently applied to the characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists. Such decorative "whiplash" motifs, formed by dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm, are found throughout the architecture, painting, sculpture, and other forms of Art Nouveau design.

Art Nouveau as a Total Style

Art Nouveau is now considered a "total style," meaning that it can be seen in architecture, interior design, decorative arts (including jewelry furniture, textiles, household silver, and other utensils and lighting), and the visual arts. According to the philosophy of the style, art should strive to be a way of life, and thereby encompass all parts. For many Europeans, it was possible to live in an Art Nouveau-inspired house with Art Nouveau furniture, silverware, crockery, jewelry, cigarette cases, etc. Artists thus desired to combine the fine arts and applied arts, even for utilitarian objects.

Art Nouveau in architecture and interior design eschewed the eclectic revival styles of the 19th century. Art Nouveau designers selected and "modernized" some of the more abstract elements of Rococo style, such as flame and shell textures. They also advocated the use of very stylized organic forms as a source of inspiration, expanding their natural repertoire to use seaweed, grasses, and insects.

In Art Nouveau painting, two-dimensional pieces were drawn and printed in popular forms such as advertisements, posters, labels, and magazines. Japanese wood-block prints, with their curved lines, patterned surfaces, contrasting voids, and flatness of visual plane, also inspired Art Nouveau painting. Some line and curve patterns became graphic clichés that were later found in works of artists from many parts of the world.

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Modernism was a philosophical movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that was based on an underlying belief in the progress of society. Summarize the ideas that constitute Modernism Key Points Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by the horror of World War I.

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1. The American dream originally had to do with freedom, mutual respect, and equality of opportunity; it was possible for anyone to have a better quality of life. However, it changed to become the acquisition of materialistic things. People focused more on this aspect of life and considered the attainment of such things as success.

Source: New Dream. “The Balance: What Is the American Dream Today?” New Dream, 17 Jan. 2019, https://newdream.org/blog/the-balance-what-is-the-american-dream-today.

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2. This change in the dream led to the Roaring Twenties, which ended in the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. As time continued, it returned to its original ideas and did not necessarily focus on tangible items. The American Dream is more about what matters, such as living a meaningful life and contributing/helping your community/society in your own unique manner. Everyone has an equal right to liberty and the ability to pursue their personal vision.

Source: New Dream. “The Balance: What Is the American Dream Today?” New Dream, 17 Jan. 2019, https://newdream.org/blog/the-balance-what-is-the-american-dream-today.

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The Great Depression, which started at the end of the 20s had a lasting effect and stayed for the majority of the 30s. Industrial production fell by 47%, the GDP fell by 30%, and unemployment rates reached 25%. The effects were felt globally as well, and many countries experienced similar economic declines. The American Dream in the 30s had more to do with freedom, respect, and equal opportunities than it did with material success.

Source: Romer, Christina D. and Pells, Richard H.. "Great Depression". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Oct. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression. Accessed 8 April 2022

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It took until the late 30s and early 40s for the country to recover from the Great Depression. The role of fiscal expansion (especially military expenditure as a result of World War 2) helped play a role in returning the economy to its trend path and reducing the unemployment rate to below its pre-Depression level. Back home, the American Dream focused on gaining stability after a tough decade or two and usually consisted of having a house in the suburbs, a steady job, and a family.

Source: Romer, Christina D. and Pells, Richard H.. "Great Depression". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Oct. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression. Accessed 8 April 2022.

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When World War 2 ended and the economy improved, America experienced a spike in the birth rate, and in the 15 year period after 1946, 63.5 million babies were born (as compared to the 41.5 million babies born 15 years prior when families delayed having children due to hardships and uncertainties). Babies born in this era were known as the Boomer generation. The American Dream was similar in how it was about having a family, a secure job, and a house in the suburbs.

Source: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "baby boom". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Jan. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/baby-boom-US-history. Accessed 8 April 2022.

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The 1950s were also marked by the beginnings of the Cold War and also the Civil Rights movement. The country was the world's strongest military power, its economy was booming, and things such as houses, cars, and other goods were available to more people than ever before. America somewhat returned to its status in the 20s as a result of World War 1, but with a new understanding of material success and its limits. Conflicts such as the civil rights movement exposed underlying divisions and inequality in American society.

Source: History.com Editors. “The 1950s.” History.com, A&amp;E Television Networks, 17 June 2010, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/1950s.

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Also known as:
"The Jazz Age"
"The Roaring 20s"

important events:
"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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Harlem Renaissance: Famous Authors and Works

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Harlem Renaissance: Famous Authors and Works

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- James Weldon
- Johnson Claude McKay
- Countee Cullen
- Langston Hughes (poetry)
- Zora Neale Hurston

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1. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in African American history that involved the arts (music, theatre, literature, etc.)and culture. Harlem became a destination for African Americans in the U.S. as they fought for equality and a better life following the end of slavery.

2. Specific art forms that were popular during this era included surrealism, impressionism, and art deco.

Source: “Harlem Renaissance Facts.” Math, https://www.softschools.com/facts/world_history/harlem_renaissance_facts/2890/.

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The 1960s was a decade in which thousands of ordinary Americans helped bring about new meaning to the nation's ideals. African Americans fought segregation, poverty, and unemployment. Feminists demanded equal job opportunities and an end to sexual discrimination. Mexican Americans protested discrimination in voting, education, and unemployment. Native Americans fought for their land. At this stage, the American Dream was heading in a direction that everyone can attain.

Source: Digital History, https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=17&amp;smtid=1#:~:text=The%201960s%20was%20a%20decade,an%20end%20to%20sexual%20discrimination.

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The 70s were a continuation of the 60s. African Americans, Native Americans, women, gays, lesbians, and other marginalized people continued to fight for equality. Many Americans were also protesting the war in Vietnam. Additional political and economic issues caused divisions and disappointments in American society and showed that there was still a long way to go, in terms of achieving the American Dream. The dream at the time focused on everyone attaining their dreams while simultaneously living in peace and harmony.

Source: History.com Editors. “The 1970s.” History.com, A&amp;E Television Networks, 30 July 2010, https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/1970s-1.

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1.  In the 80s, Americans lived more of a conservative life compared to the past two decades in terms of its social, economic, and political aspects; this was characterized by the policies of President Reagan. The decade was also known for its materialism and consumerism, with many advancements in technology as well.

Source: History.com Editors. “The 1980s.” History.com, A&amp;E Television Networks, 23 Aug. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/1980s.

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2. During the early 1980s, much of the world faced a recession. Though not as horrible as the Great Depression, many Americans still suffered; farmers were especially unfortunate as crop prices and exports declined. The American Dream at the time focused on people making enough money to live a lifestyle that is successful, enjoyable, and carefree.

“" 1980's American Dream ".” Prezi.com, https://prezi.com/zg9tyvz2cdan/1980s-american-dream/.

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1. In the 90s, money played a major role in shaping the American Dream, as it was the goal of the majority of the population. With money, people would gain power, obtain wealth, and rise to the top of the social class. Unlike the past decades of the 60s and 70s, the dream was not about peace but individual success.

Source: “American Dream of the 1990s.” Prezi.com, https://prezi.com/j-_cilmin6_6/american-dream-of-the-1990s/?webgl=0.

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2. The 2000s were a lost decade with wages declining or even flatlining. The American Dream has changed from owning a home or moving up economically to the desire of just being debt-free and having financial stability. The recession was brought about by real estate issues when housing prices fell as supply outpaced demand. This trapped homeowners who couldn't afford the payments, but couldn't sell their houses. When the values of the derivatives crumbled, banks stopped lending to each other and led to the financial crisis.

Source: Cooper, Marianne. “The Downsizing of the American Dream.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 July 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/american-dreams/408535/.

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Date: 1950–present

Important Events:
- 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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1. Postmodernism is a way of thinking about culture, philosophy, art, upon many other things. Postmodernism believes that there is no real truth. Such contemporary works often included ordinary places and portray a release from meaning, a desire to correct the past, and a desire to enjoy oneself.

2. Events that inspired this period include the end of the Second World War, the Korean War, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement. These events influenced the writings of this era which display the diversity, materialism, and pride seen throughout America. Postmodernism focused on the present and the future. It was and still is an ongoing aspect of American literature.

Source: “The Postmodernist Period.” American Literature&nbsp; - Home, http://jordansylaramericanliterature.weebly.com/the-postmodernist-period.html.

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This novel is written by Quentin Tarantino. It is a story that premises around Rick Dalton, who was once a successful actor but is now struggling to find meaningful work in a Hollywood that is ever-changing and is always looking for younger and better-looking actors. Rick takes this journey along with his best friend who is also his stunt double, Cliff Booth. This is juxtaposed when Rick also happens to live next to a filmmaker and actress who are currently very successful in the industry. Despite their dwindling careers that are heading towards the bottom, Rick and Cliff are still hopeful and optimistic that their careers will go forward. The story closes open-ended with Rick eventually making friends with his famous neighbors.

Source: Arrowsmith, Charles. “Review | Quentin Tarantino Turned His Last Movie into a Novel, but Don't Think You Know the Ending.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 July 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-novel/2021/06/28/49402de0-d816-11eb-8fb8-aea56b785b00_story.html.

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A modern-day example in which I can remember people taking a stand would be how many athletes (basketball players, football players, F1 drivers, etc.) would kneel during national anthems as a gesture of taking a stand against racism and fighting for equal rights and opportunities for everyone. However, I am still conflicted whenever this happens. Are people just doing this to avoid confrontation or do they have an actual genuine desire to put an end to racism? Everyone can say that they are against racism, but only a few only athletes act on it and really show their support for equality through their actions. An example of an athlete can be Lewis Hamilton, an F1 driver, and how he chooses to stand up against racism not only by taking a knee, but by also constantly educating himself, those around him, and also by holding other people accountable in the fight for this cause.

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Lewis Hamilton has admitted to changing his approach in the fight against racism by deploying diplomacy instead of "embarrassing people".

The seven-times world champion was outspoken in his views last season - demanding Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, do more to tackle inequality within the sport.

Hamilton also called out his fellow drivers for remaining silent on social media after the death of George Floyd, while singling out Romain Grosjean, the former director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, for failing to convince the grid to be united on the subject of taking a knee.

Hamilton says he will continue to perform the gesture before races this season, and last weekend in Bahrain he was joined by a number of drivers, while others elected to stand. Hamilton wore a T-shirt with the message: "Actions speak louder than words".

The British driver, who opened his championship defence by winning in Bahrain, said: "At the beginning of the year I was very outspoken and calling out the sport.

"At the time that was the right thing for me, but I discovered that there's times where you have to be very diplomatic, where there's more you can do by discussions in the background, rather than embarrassing people.

"I'm having conversations, trying to hold people in the sport more accountable. I'm constantly sending emails, I'm constantly on Zoom calls with Formula One and challenging them like they wouldn't want to be challenged."

In an interview with Wired UK, the British driver, an avid environmentalist, also said retiring from F1 - among the least eco-friendly sports in the world - would have little impact.

Hamilton said: "What are my options? I could quit. The positives of that are that I won't be driving a car around 20 different tracks, we'll be flying less.

"But the fact is if I stop, the thing will keep going. They're not going to stop for me."

Hamilton, who is attempting to win an unprecedented eighth world crown this year, beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen on Sunday at the thrilling season opener in the gulf kingdom. He will next be in action at Imola on 18 April.

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Lewis Hamilton admits change of approach in fight against racism

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Lewis Hamilton has admitted to changing his approach in the fight against racism by deploying diplomacy instead of "embarrassing people". The seven-times world champion was outspoken in his views last season - demanding Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, do more to tackle inequality within the sport.

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Taking a Stand 2: Palestine-Israel Conflict

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Taking a Stand 2: Palestine-Israel Conflict

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Another recent example would be how earlier this year, people took a stand against the injustices that were occurring amidst the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Thousands (possibly even millions of people) were showing their support for the Palestinean people through online posts or even through actual protests. People are not only standing up by raising awareness, but they are also taking further action in the cause by holding people/companies and corporations accountable, donating items/food, and also sponsoring an orphan or family just to name a few examples.

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Thousands of people took to the streets of cities across the world Saturday, to show their support for Palestinians, as airstrikes pounded Gaza and rocket attacks hit Israel for a sixth consecutive day.

Palestinians across the world mark the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe" each year on May 15 to mark their displacement in the 1948 war around Israel's creation. The violence showed little sign of abating Saturday as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 people and rocket attacks from Gaza killed a man in Israel.

In London, where several thousand people took to the streets, charity worker Rohan Talbot, 34, said he had friends in Gaza and he "couldn't live with myself if I didn't stand up in solidarity with them, when they are enduring so much."

Bongani Njalo, 33, a student from South Africa, also demonstrating in London, said that he took "some time away from my studies to be here, as I thought my silence would make me complicit in the violence."

Protesters in the Australian city of Sydney also chanted "free, free Palestine" after gathering outside the Town Hall on Saturday.

"I see people who are no longer going to remain silent. People who are fed up, people who are responding to oppression and violence by standing up for themselves," Walla Abu-Eid told Reuters at the demonstration.

Hundreds of people also took to the streets of Melbourne.

In France, thousands were in Paris in support of the Palestinians, despite the Ministry of Interior deeming the planned protest illegal Friday over fears of violence.

A police spokesperson told the French television channel BFMTV, that a water canon, along with 4,200 police officers, including riot police, were in place throughout the French capital. Some stores also closed early. Similar demonstrations were held in other French cities.
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French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and called for peace in the region. In a statement, Macron condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and said Israel had the right to defend itself but also expressed concern about the plight of the civilian population in Gaza.

Germany's Foreign Ministry also wrote on Twitter that the country remained "strongly committed to de-escalating the situation in the Middle East and ending the ongoing violence," ahead of demonstrations Saturday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also condemned the burning of Israeli flags, tweeting Friday that those who did so "also burn the values ​​of our Basic Law."

"Part of the identity of our country is that we do not accept any form of antisemitism and clearly acknowledge Israel's right to exist," he wrote.

In neighboring Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that his country stood in solidarity with Israel.

But his stance drew ire from Iran whose Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif canceled a trip to the country to meet his counterpart, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

International diplomatic efforts have yet to show any signs of halting hostilities.

President Joe Biden's envoy Hady Amr, the deputy assistant secretary for Israel and Palestinian affairs, arrived in Israel on Friday. The U.S. Embassy in Israel said in a statement that the American envoy aimed "to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm."

Andy Eckardt, Nancy Ing and Reuters contributed.

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Thousands take part in pro-Palestinian protests in cities across the world

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Thousands of people took to the streets of cities across the world Saturday, to show their support for Palestinians, as airstrikes pounded Gaza and rocket attacks hit Israel for a sixth consecutive day. Palestinians across the world mark the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe" each year on May 15 to mark their displacement in the 1948 war around Israel's creation.

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I had an interesting experience learning all about American Literature, from where it started with the Native Americans all the way to today’s period of contemporary postmodernism. Through this timeline, I was able to better understand how America grew up, through the best and worst times, and how it eventually formed into the country that it is today. I am grateful for all the knowledge I learned in this course and in the timeline activities we have completed.