5 Lessons from Ralph Waldo Emerson (5 Lessons from Great Thinkers Book 12)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was known as the Sage of Concord, i.e., Concord, Massachusetts, outside Boston and site of "the shot heard round the world” made famous by Emerson in his Concord Hymn commemorating the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Scholars speak of Emerson and his associates sparking a second and cultural American Revolution giving rise to an independent American way of thinking. Emerson began as a Unitarian minister but eventually abandoned any remaining traditional Christian beliefs. Having received a legacy from the estate of his first wife, Emerson was economically independent but supplemented his income with the non-traditional career of paid public lecturer. His essays still form part of the standard high school curriculum in American literature. As a philosopher of sorts, his focus is the movement known as Transcendentalism which emphasized individual self-reliance and originality in life and thought. In many ways, Emerson anticipated the secular America of today in which individuals of each generation choose their beliefs anew. This book focuses on five Emersonian insights that still help to explain today's America. Read more