302 The Building Blocks of American Thought: A 400-Year-Adventure -- Part II: The American Enlightenment and America's Transcendentalism
History | Registration opens 4/15/25 9:00 AM EDT
This is an invitation to explore the development of the American mind, a unique set of ideas and thought processes that have created a cultural dynamic distinct among the World’s peoples. Whether engaged in mundane tasks or driven to causes “liberal” or “conservative,” all Americans are the heirs of common values generated by “a great cloud of witnesses” dating back four centuries. Part II’s lectures continue the quest emphasizing the American Enlightenment, a time of “scientific self-assurance” (ca. 1750s to 1820s), and Transcendentalism (think Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and those fascinated by and threatened by them).
Prometheus: Science and Reason in the Age of Revolution Era
The American Genius: Thomas Jefferson, his mind, his method, his monument
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Transcendentalism, and “the American Adam”
Transcendentalism Challenged: Roads not taken; 600,000 died
PART III (FALL 2025) will expand into the development of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and its impact on the multiple threads in American thought.
Fred Bailey
Fred Bailey brings to the ORICL program more than 40 years of experience as an American history professor and has traveled extensively across the United States, Europe and Asia researching and delivering professional papers. His primary academic interest is the history of American thought, and among his hobbies is exploring the different epochs of British history.