Who led the transcendentalist movement in america?

Major figures in the transcendentalist movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Amos Bronson Alcott. read more

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the founder of the Transcendentalist movement in American literature. Emerson is known for his essays "Self-Reliance" and "Nature. His protege, who became a well-known Transcendental author as well, was Henry David Thoreau. read more

Eclectic and cosmopolitan in its sources and part of the Romantic movement, New England Transcendentalism originated in the area around Concord, Massachusetts, and from 1830 to 1855 represented a battle between the younger and older generations and the emergence of a new national culture based on native materials. read more

As a group, the transcendentalists led the celebration of the American experiment as one of individualism and self-reliance. They took progressive stands on women's rights, abolition, reform, and education. They criticized government, organized religion, laws, social institutions, and creeping industrialization. read more