Test Bank for America: A Narrative History,
12th Edition All chapters included A+
What literary and philosophical movement emerged by the 1780s in reaction to the
scientific reasoning that had characterized the Enlightenment period? - answers
Romanticism
Who wrote a summary of the Romantic position in his "Critique of Pure Reason"
(1781)? - answers Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher
What did the "Critique of Pure Reason" delineate? - answers the limits of science and
reason in explaining the universe; and that people have innate conceptions of
conscience, beauty, and religious impulses too strong to be dismissed as illusion
What did Romantics believe? - answers In areas in which science could neither prove
nor disprove concepts, people were justified in having faith.
Who were the most intense proponents of Romantic ideals? - answers The
transcendentalists of New England
Where did "Transcendentalism" derive its name from? - answers its emphasis on those
things that transcend, (or rise above), the limits of reason.
What was Transcendentalism a reaction against? - answers Calvinist orthodoxy and the
cold rationalism of Unitarianism.
What were some of the Transcendentalists goals? - answers to embody a pure form of
personal spirituality, which they believed had been corrupted by organized religion;
awaken a new outlook for a new democratic age; and foster spirituality in harmony with
the perfectionism of the divine and of nature.
What did Transcendentalists believe? - answers that all people had the capacity to
realize the divine potential ("spark") present in all of God's creatures
What was the Transcendental Club? - answers A informal discussion group started in
1836 in Boston and Concord, Mass. to discuss philosophy, literature, and religion. It
was a loosely knit group of diverse individualists who rejected traditional norms and
nurtured a relentless intellectual curiosity
What did the Transcendental Club members all have in common? - answers their
assertion that the it was the right of individuals to interpret life in their own way
Who was the high priest of Transcendentalism? - answers Ralph Waldo Emerson
,Who edited the Trans. Clubs quarterly review, the "Dial" (1840-144) - answers Margaret
Fuller, followed by Emerson
Why did Emerson dismiss all religious denominations? - answers He found the
Unitarian denomination of which he was a parson, "cold and cheerless" and believed
that the Bible did not direct people to be part of a certain denomination
What did Emerson do after he had traveled in Europe and met great Romantic figures?
- answers He settled in Concord to be an essayist, poet, and public speaker
What did Emerson preach? - answers the sacredness of Nature; he also celebrated the
virtues of optimism, self-reliance, and the individual's unlimited potential.
What was Emerson determined to do? - answers transcend the limitations of inherited
conventions and rationalism in order to penetrate the inner recesses of the self.
What was Emerson's speech "The American Scholar" delivered at Harvard in 1837,
about? - answers It urged young Americans to put aside their awe of European culture
and explore their own new world. It was an "Intellectual declaration of Independence
What is this excerpt from: "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist,...Speak
what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard
words again, though it contradict everything you said today...To be great is to be
misunderstood"? - answers Emerson's essay on "Self-Reliance"
Who was Thoreau? - answers Emerson's friend who was an ardent supporter of
Transcendentalism
After graduating Harvard and a brief stint as a teacher, what did Thoreau do? - answers
tried to make pencils with his father, but then decided to live in the woods in an
experiment in self-reliance
What was Thoreau committed to? - answers leading a life of plain living and high
thinking
Where did Thoreau conduct his experiment on self-reliance? - answers At Walden pond
on Emerson's land near Concord
Why did Thoreau go live in a tiny, one-room cabin he built by Walden pond? - answers
He wanted to free himself from the complexities and hypocrisies of conventional life to
devote his time to observation, reflection, and writing
Who said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...and not, when I
came to die, discover that I had not lived" - answers Thoreau, in his "Walden, or Life in
the Woods" (1854)
, What did the Mexican War prompt Thoreau to do? - answers Since he believed that the
Mexican was was an unjust war to advance slavery, he refused to pay his poll tax
Who did Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" influence? - answers Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where is this excerpt from: "If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an
agent of injustice to another, then...break the law" - answers Thoreau's "Civil
Disobedience" (1849)
What did Thoreau and other Transcendentalists teach? - answers That people must
follow their conscience
What did Transcendentalists portray their movement as? - answers an expression of
moral idealism, although critics dismissed it as an outrageous expression of egotism
What was one of the animating ideal of the Founding Fathers concerning education? -
answers A well-informed citizenry equipped with knowledge not only for obtaining a
vocation but also for promoting civic virtue
Why did the demand for public schools peak in 1830? - answers Workers wanted free
schools to give their children an equal chance to pursue the American dream. It was
argued that education would improve manners and reduce crime and poverty
Who led the early drive for statewide school systems? - answers Horace Mann of
Massachusetts
What did Mann sponsor? - answers the creation of a state board of education (serving
as its leader), education reforms, including first state-supported school for training
teachers, a state association of teachers, and a minimum school year of 6 months. He
promoted the public-school system as the way to achieve social stability and equal
opportunity
Which state lead the way in state-supported education in the South? - answers North
Carolina, which had enrolled more than 2/3 of its white school-age population for an
average term of four months
Why was the school year in NC so short? - answers the rural state needed children to
do farm work
Why did the educational pattern in the South continue to reflect the aristocratic
pretensions of the region? - answers The South had a higher percentage of college
students than any other region, but a lower percentage of public-school students. It also
had some 500,000 white illiterates, more than half the total number in the nation
12th Edition All chapters included A+
What literary and philosophical movement emerged by the 1780s in reaction to the
scientific reasoning that had characterized the Enlightenment period? - answers
Romanticism
Who wrote a summary of the Romantic position in his "Critique of Pure Reason"
(1781)? - answers Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher
What did the "Critique of Pure Reason" delineate? - answers the limits of science and
reason in explaining the universe; and that people have innate conceptions of
conscience, beauty, and religious impulses too strong to be dismissed as illusion
What did Romantics believe? - answers In areas in which science could neither prove
nor disprove concepts, people were justified in having faith.
Who were the most intense proponents of Romantic ideals? - answers The
transcendentalists of New England
Where did "Transcendentalism" derive its name from? - answers its emphasis on those
things that transcend, (or rise above), the limits of reason.
What was Transcendentalism a reaction against? - answers Calvinist orthodoxy and the
cold rationalism of Unitarianism.
What were some of the Transcendentalists goals? - answers to embody a pure form of
personal spirituality, which they believed had been corrupted by organized religion;
awaken a new outlook for a new democratic age; and foster spirituality in harmony with
the perfectionism of the divine and of nature.
What did Transcendentalists believe? - answers that all people had the capacity to
realize the divine potential ("spark") present in all of God's creatures
What was the Transcendental Club? - answers A informal discussion group started in
1836 in Boston and Concord, Mass. to discuss philosophy, literature, and religion. It
was a loosely knit group of diverse individualists who rejected traditional norms and
nurtured a relentless intellectual curiosity
What did the Transcendental Club members all have in common? - answers their
assertion that the it was the right of individuals to interpret life in their own way
Who was the high priest of Transcendentalism? - answers Ralph Waldo Emerson
,Who edited the Trans. Clubs quarterly review, the "Dial" (1840-144) - answers Margaret
Fuller, followed by Emerson
Why did Emerson dismiss all religious denominations? - answers He found the
Unitarian denomination of which he was a parson, "cold and cheerless" and believed
that the Bible did not direct people to be part of a certain denomination
What did Emerson do after he had traveled in Europe and met great Romantic figures?
- answers He settled in Concord to be an essayist, poet, and public speaker
What did Emerson preach? - answers the sacredness of Nature; he also celebrated the
virtues of optimism, self-reliance, and the individual's unlimited potential.
What was Emerson determined to do? - answers transcend the limitations of inherited
conventions and rationalism in order to penetrate the inner recesses of the self.
What was Emerson's speech "The American Scholar" delivered at Harvard in 1837,
about? - answers It urged young Americans to put aside their awe of European culture
and explore their own new world. It was an "Intellectual declaration of Independence
What is this excerpt from: "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist,...Speak
what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard
words again, though it contradict everything you said today...To be great is to be
misunderstood"? - answers Emerson's essay on "Self-Reliance"
Who was Thoreau? - answers Emerson's friend who was an ardent supporter of
Transcendentalism
After graduating Harvard and a brief stint as a teacher, what did Thoreau do? - answers
tried to make pencils with his father, but then decided to live in the woods in an
experiment in self-reliance
What was Thoreau committed to? - answers leading a life of plain living and high
thinking
Where did Thoreau conduct his experiment on self-reliance? - answers At Walden pond
on Emerson's land near Concord
Why did Thoreau go live in a tiny, one-room cabin he built by Walden pond? - answers
He wanted to free himself from the complexities and hypocrisies of conventional life to
devote his time to observation, reflection, and writing
Who said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...and not, when I
came to die, discover that I had not lived" - answers Thoreau, in his "Walden, or Life in
the Woods" (1854)
, What did the Mexican War prompt Thoreau to do? - answers Since he believed that the
Mexican was was an unjust war to advance slavery, he refused to pay his poll tax
Who did Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" influence? - answers Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where is this excerpt from: "If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an
agent of injustice to another, then...break the law" - answers Thoreau's "Civil
Disobedience" (1849)
What did Thoreau and other Transcendentalists teach? - answers That people must
follow their conscience
What did Transcendentalists portray their movement as? - answers an expression of
moral idealism, although critics dismissed it as an outrageous expression of egotism
What was one of the animating ideal of the Founding Fathers concerning education? -
answers A well-informed citizenry equipped with knowledge not only for obtaining a
vocation but also for promoting civic virtue
Why did the demand for public schools peak in 1830? - answers Workers wanted free
schools to give their children an equal chance to pursue the American dream. It was
argued that education would improve manners and reduce crime and poverty
Who led the early drive for statewide school systems? - answers Horace Mann of
Massachusetts
What did Mann sponsor? - answers the creation of a state board of education (serving
as its leader), education reforms, including first state-supported school for training
teachers, a state association of teachers, and a minimum school year of 6 months. He
promoted the public-school system as the way to achieve social stability and equal
opportunity
Which state lead the way in state-supported education in the South? - answers North
Carolina, which had enrolled more than 2/3 of its white school-age population for an
average term of four months
Why was the school year in NC so short? - answers the rural state needed children to
do farm work
Why did the educational pattern in the South continue to reflect the aristocratic
pretensions of the region? - answers The South had a higher percentage of college
students than any other region, but a lower percentage of public-school students. It also
had some 500,000 white illiterates, more than half the total number in the nation
