American Romanticism

American Romanticism was a cultural movement in the early to mid-19th century that emphasized emotion, nature, individualism, and the importance of personal experience. It arose as a reaction against the rationality of the Enlightenment and industrialization. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Edgar Allan Poe celebrated intuition, the beauty of the natural world, and the depth of human emotion. This movement encouraged a sense of spirituality and imagination, influencing literature, art, and philosophy, and shaping American identity by fostering a deeper connection to nature and self-exploration.