Roots & Influences

Criticism of Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government" changed dramatically from the 1920s to the 1970s. Michael Meyer's Several More Lives to Live: Thoreau's Political Reputation In America shows the progression of opinion surrounding Thoreau and his politics.

selection from thesis on James Marsh

It is important to note that American Transcendentalism as it is commonly understood was essentially secular in nature; Emerson was not trying to preserve orthodoxy; he was attempting to transcend orthodoxy. James Marsh, on the other hand, was not trying to secularize orthodoxy; he was attempting to regenerate it, and preserve it.

Transcendental Roots: Emerson and Goethe

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Emerson and Thomas Carlyle

Transcendental Roots: Emerson’s Inheritance

Introduction

Diane Yoder, M. A. Thesis in Theology and Literature, Antioch College McGregor (2009)

Chapter Two Early Beginnings: James Marsh and the Formation of His Thought

We love and hate by letters.

-James Marsh, quoting Moses Mendelsohn, in "Ancient and Modern Poetry," 1822