Every Revolution Was First a Thought: The Civil War and Transcendentalism in Transatlantic Context

Tracing the impact of transcendental philosophy on Union soldiers and their loved ones during the American Civil War Scholars of the American Civil War have long wondered about the seemingly earnest and sincere sentimental commitment that most Northern soldiers had to their nation and the North's cause.Unlike many others in other wars, Union soldiers appeared to embrace the war with an unusual conviction and sacrificed their lives with a rare nobility.Their grieving relatives were also buoyed up by their steadfast beliefs in the righteousness of the cause.What was so different about this war, and this period of American history, and what encouraged such an outlook? In Every Revolution was First a Thought, Aren Lerner Craig argues that in the Civil War era the American Transcendentalist movement provided a coherent worldview that fostered powerful idealism around issues of character, gender, race, and nationhood, even in the worst of times.Through an exploration of diaries, newspaper ed