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Main currents in American thought

Vernon Louis Parrington · Public domain text

550,131 words · about 38 h 31 min to read

Cover of Main currents in American thought
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The text of Main currents in American thought comes from Project Gutenberg e-text #78025. It is in English and public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg’s header and license text are removed, and RedLectern sets the text out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. More formats (EPUB, Kindle) · How RedLectern is built

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About this book

Cover of Main currents in American thought
Author
Vernon Louis Parrington (1871–1929)
Language
English
Subjects
United States › Politics and government, United States › Civilization, American literature › History and criticism, Philosophy, American, United States › Religion, United States › Intellectual life
Length
550,131 words · about 38 h 31 min
Sections
115 reader sections · Table of contents
Contents (115)
  1. Opening under 1 min
  2. Foreword about 10 min
  3. I. Liberalism and Puritanism under 1 min
  4. I. The Puritan Heritage--1620-1660 about 2 min
  5. II. The Twilight of the Oligarchy--1660-1720 about 1 min
  6. II. The Colonial Mind under 1 min
  7. I. The Mind in the Making--1720-1763 about 1 min
  8. II. The Awakening of the American Mind--1763-1783 about 2 min
  9. I. The Agrarian Defeat--1783-1787 about 1 min
  10. II. Political Democracy Gets under Way--1787-1800 about 4 min
  11. I. • English Backgrounds about 18 min
  12. II. • The Transplanting of Ideas about 18 min
  13. III. • The Chief Stewards of Theocracy about 43 min
  14. IV. • The Contributions of Independency about 44 min
  15. V. • Other Dreamers in Israel about 20 min
  16. I. • Samuel Sewall • Yankee about 18 min
  17. II. • The Mather Dynasty about 35 min
  18. III. • Stirrings of Liberalism about 21 min
  19. I. • Colonial Backgrounds about 27 min
  20. II. • The Anachronism of Jonathan Edwards about 27 min
  21. III. • Benjamin Franklin • Our First Ambassador about 27 min
  22. I. • Imperial Sovereignty and Home Rule about 24 min
  23. II. • The Mind of the American Tory about 45 min
  24. III. • John Dickinson • The Mind of the American Whig about 23 min
  25. IV. • Samuel Adams • The Mind of the American Democrat about 27 min
  26. V. • Literary Echoes about 26 min
  27. I. • Agrarianism and Capitalism about 19 min
  28. II. • The Great Debate about 23 min
  29. III. • Political Thinkers • The English Group about 50 min
  30. I. • The Impact of the French Revolution about 9 min
  31. II. • Political Thinkers • The French Group about 52 min
  32. III. • The War of Belles Lettres about 1 h 7 min
  33. I. Part I about 2 min
  34. I. Part II about 1 min
  35. II. Part I about 2 min
  36. II. Part II about 2 min
  37. III. Part I about 2 min
  38. III. Part II about 21 min
  39. Foreword about 2 min
  40. Introduction about 12 min
  41. I. The Mind of the South under 1 min
  42. I. The Virginia Renaissance about 2 min
  43. II. The Renaissance of Slavery about 2 min
  44. III. The Romance of the West about 1 min
  45. II. The Mind of the Middle East about 3 min
  46. III. The Mind of New England under 1 min
  47. I. The Twilight of Federalism about 1 min
  48. II. The Rise of Liberalism about 1 min
  49. III. The Transcendental Mind about 1 min
  50. IV. Other Aspects of the New England Mind about 4 min
  51. I. • The Old Dominion about 7 min
  52. II. • The Heritage of Jeffersonianism about 16 min
  53. III. • John Marshall • Last of the Virginia Federalists about 12 min
  54. IV. • The Older Plantation Mind about 21 min
  55. V. • Adventures in Romance about 32 min
  56. I. • Southern Imperialism about 10 min
  57. II. • Winds of Political Doctrine about 55 min
  58. III. • The Dream of a Greek Democracy about 15 min
  59. IV. • Adventures in Belles Lettres about 48 min
  60. I. • New Worlds about 12 min
  61. II. • Two Spokesmen of the West about 27 min
  62. III. • The Frontier in Letters about 34 min
  63. I. • The Old Capital about 13 min
  64. II. • The New Capital about 17 min
  65. III. • Two Knickerbocker Romantics about 34 min
  66. IV. • James Fenimore Cooper • Critic about 27 min
  67. V. • Some Contributions of New England about 57 min
  68. I. • The Passing of the Tie-Wig School about 34 min
  69. II. • Winds of Political Doctrine about 36 min
  70. I. • The Renaissance about 6 min
  71. II. • Liberalism and Calvinism about 31 min
  72. III. • Liberalism and the Social Conscience about 23 min
  73. IV. • Certain Militants about 45 min
  74. I. • The Genesis of Transcendentalism about 12 min
  75. II. • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Transcendental Critic about 26 min
  76. III. • Henry Thoreau • Transcendental Economist about 27 min
  77. IV. • Theodore Parker • Transcendental Minister about 20 min
  78. V. • Margaret Fuller • Rebel about 15 min
  79. I. • The Reign of the Genteel about 11 min
  80. II. • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Skeptic about 14 min
  81. III. • The Authentic Brahmin about 40 min
  82. I. Part I about 2 min
  83. I. Part II about 1 min
  84. I. Part III about 2 min
  85. Book II about 4 min
  86. III. Part I about 1 min
  87. III. Part II about 1 min
  88. III. Part III about 2 min
  89. III. Part IV about 43 min
  90. Foreword about 14 min
  91. I. Changing America under 1 min
  92. I. The Gilded Age about 2 min
  93. II. New Patterns of Thought about 1 min
  94. I. The Middle Border Rises about 1 min
  95. II. Proletarian Hopes about 1 min
  96. III. The Hesitant South under 1 min
  97. I. The Rise of Liberalism[497] about 1 min
  98. II. Liberalism and Letters under 1 min
  99. III. Reaction about 6 min
  100. I. • the American Scene about 1 h 11 min
  101. II. • The Culture of the Seventies about 1 h 33 min
  102. III. • Changing Theory about 1 h
  103. IV. • The Beginnings of Criticism about 1 h 32 min
  104. I. • Disintegration and Reintegration about 39 min
  105. II. • The Skepticism of the House of Adams about 44 min
  106. III. • Victorian Realism about 32 min
  107. I. • The Plight of the Farmer about 42 min
  108. II. • The Democracy of the Age of Innocence about 8 min
  109. III. • Literature and the Middle Border[765] about 24 min
  110. III. • The Quest of Utopia about 25 min
  111. IV. • The Darkening Skies of Letters about 2 h 29 min
  112. I. Part I about 7 min
  113. I. Part II about 3 min
  114. II. Part I about 2 min
  115. II. Part II about 19 min

The opening of Foreword

It is with a certain feeling of temerity that I offer the present study of a field of American letters which has been pretty largely neglected. That feeling springs from no sense of the slightness of the materials treated of, or their remoteness from present-day interests. To one who has dwelt for any length of time amidst the polemics of colonial debate, a conviction of the greatness of the issues and the intellectual honesty and masculine vigor of the disputants, comes home with compelling force. The subjects with which they dealt are old-fashioned only in manner and dress; at heart they were much the same themes with which we are engaged, and with which our children will be engaged after us. The feeling springs rather from a sense of the complexity and many-sidedness of the materials, with their ramifications into theology and politics and economics, and with backgrounds that conduct to remote origins in European systems of thought; and it is quickened by the realization that the interpretation here offered, runs in many points counter to that frequently given.

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