American Transcendentalism: A History by Philip F. Gura

Hill & Wang / November 20, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-8090-3477-2

Hardcover

During several decades leading up to the middle of America’s 19^th century, arguably one of the most dynamic and pivotal periods of America’s brief history, an eclectic group of Americans (principally in New England) joined forces in a remarkable social, political, and religious experiment: Transcendentalism.

Professor Philip R. Gura’s important new narrative history now gives readers in the 21^st century a fresh, vigorous, and provocative look at that singular movement—its long list of adherents and detractors—and its long-lasting spiritual, cultural, and international impact.

With the principal players—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Peabody, Orestes Brownson, George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, Caroline Healey Dall, Theodore Parker, and Bronson Alcott—at the center of his informative narrative, Gura looks also at the larger group of clergymen, social reformers, writers, and the other men and women who constituted two generations in the unique group ultimately known as Transcendentalists (a term first used derisively against and initially rejected though later embraced by the participants).

American Transcendentalism traces the unusual movement’s European (especially German) and American roots, and clearly shows the ways in which a complex and diverse group of American intellectuals, liberals, and progressives during the 1830s through the 1850s had such a profound impact on America’s social philosophy, religious thought, intellectual life, the abolition movement, women’s rights, and political attitudes in subsequent years.

Gura’s book is most highly recommended for all serious students of American literature and history. The author is the William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his lucid analysis in American Transcendentalism is perhaps the most accessible and comprehensive presentation on the subject in more than half a dozen decades.

Concise yet thorough, highly readable and lively, American Transcendentalism is a must-read look at the multifaceted period of American intellectual history that has been so often misunderstood but has so profoundly influenced this country’s literary, spiritual, philosophical, social, and political heritage. If you can read only one book about Transcendentalism, this should be the one.

Copyright © 2009 Good Books

Review of AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTALISM

The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Peeples

Camden House

ISBN 978-1-57113-357-1

Trade Paperback

Perhaps few authors are more significant to the development of the American short story than Edgar Allan Poe. Certainly fewer authors are better known. Although frequently but unfortunately too closely associated with all those low-budget horror movies featuring the magnificent actor Vincent Price (and others) during the 1960s, and having often been perennially more popular with adolescent than adult (the so-called “serious” and “sophisticated”) readers, Poe’s works (including his short stories and poetry) have been regarded rather unevenly and sometimes skeptically by literary critics.

Beginning with Poe’s entry into the literary marketplace in 1827 with the publication of his first book of poetry (Tamerlane and Other Poems) and ending with the posthumous publication of his last works, including “Annabel Lee,” critics have consistently given Poe plenty of attention (even if the publishing marketplace had not been either generous or kind to the ill-fate genius). The critical attention, however, was not always positive; fortunately, though, the critics’ attentions to Poe’s works during the past 180 years have been lively, diversified, and unabated.

Now, in a superb book from Poe scholar Scott Peeples, readers can trace the critical history that has kept pace with the millions of worldwide readers’ unflagging interests in Poe’s works. Beginning with an overview of the critical reactions of Poe’s contemporaries and continuing during the 19^th century, Peeples—in a fascinating, fact-filled study that reads something like an annotated bibliography masquerading delightfully as narrative history—shows the ways in which literary critics have attempted to explicate, analysis, and critique Poe’s works (and his life). Moving into the 20^th century through the highlights of psychoanalytic (especially Freudian) literary criticism to early formalism, New Criticism, and deconstruction, Peeples then goes on to show readers the ways in which social-historical critics and cultural critics have sought to fully engage the enigmatic master of the macabre, the “inventor” of the modern detective story, and the master of the American short story form.

Written by the same author who produced the most highly recommended Edgar Allan Poe Revisited (New York: Twayne, 1998), The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe is the perfect addition to any Poe fan’s or student’s or teacher’s bookshelf. Erudite and entertaining, Afterlife is an important and useful addition to the studies of America’s most well-known and most misunderstood author. Moreover, for anyone beginning any serious study of Poe’s works in the academic environment, Afterlife is the indispensable first stop.

Copyright © 2009 Good Books

Review – The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe

The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter R. Borneman

HarperCollins

ISBN: 0060761849

Hardcover

In the middle of the 18^th century, trouble was once again disturbing the balance of powers in Europe. Seemingly perpetual rivals, England and France, were battling among themselves and cultivating alliances with other countries; each country had one goal: domination. The French and Indian War, Walter R. Borneman’s compelling new narrative history, explores the people and policies involved in that rivalry between England and France, especially as it was played out in North America.

In 1758, the newly empowered William Pitt in England was finally politically positioned “to accelerate his global strategy,” and central to his “global strategy” for British dominance was the problem of North America, a most bothersome focal point in the strategy. The French had dominated Canada and North America’s major Midwestern river valleys, and the English had dominated the thirteen coastal colonies; each was now cultivating alliances with Native American tribes in efforts to control all rivers and regions west of the Appalachian Mountains. For many years, bloody battles had already been marring the promise of peace and prosperity associated with North American westward expansion.

Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin had noted that “it was useless to hope for a permanent peace [in the western regions of the colonies] so long as the French were masters of Canada.” As if reinforcing Franklin’s observation, Pitt had already acknowledged that the key to his “global strategy” was his firm conviction that “‘Canada was to be attacked from all sides and exhausted.’”

And so it was that England followed through on Franklin’s and Pitt’s beliefs. North America became the bloody chessboard on which the British and French—with the alliances formed, broken, and reformed among Native Americans—played out their brutal game for European dominance. When all the bloodshed and battles were over, the British were victorious in the so-called French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years’ War). In fact, the “French and Indian War created the British Empire [. . . and had] decided the fate of the North American continent[; moreover, the war] decisively expelled France from North America, although descendents of the French and French culture flourish to this day in the province of Quebec[.]”

Author Walter R. Borneman tells the story of the French and Indian War with diligence and enthusiasm. Thoroughly documented and engagingly written, Borneman’s book features all the main personalities: Jeffrey Amherst, Edward Braddock, Thomas Gage, the marquis de Montcalm, William Pitt, Robert Rogers, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Horatio Gates, Francis Marion, the marquis de Vaudreuil, James Wolfe, Lord Howe, and others.

Through a nicely detailed chronological narrative, Borneman tells the complete, fascinating story, and he finishes his quite readable presentation with a number of interesting “what if” questions which focus on some of the most controversial issues in the conflict. Fresh and exciting throughout, The French and Indian War is highly recommended.

Copyright © 2009 Good Books

Review – The French and Indian War