Transcendentalism is the central American wisdom, about which tilts and turns the rest of American thought. Yet it is so little understood today that it sometimes passes for incomprehensibly strange. How can something so near to us be so strange to us? How can wisdom once gained be so entirely lost again? In this straightforward course, we will go back to the beginning—back to Emerson and Thoreau and the others—as a way of moving forward toward the future. What would Transcendentalism look like if it were new and fresh and useful today? Registration required.