Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ralph Waldo Emerson's History. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
History: Introduction
History: Plot Summary
History: Detailed Summary & Analysis
History: Themes
History: Quotes
History: Characters
History: Terms
History: Symbols
History: Literary Devices
History: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Historical Context of History
Other Books Related to History
- Full Title: “History”
- When Written: 1800s
- Where Written: Concord and Boston, Massachusetts
- When Published: 1841
- Literary Period: American Transcendentalism, American Romanticism
- Genre: Philosophical essay
- Point of View: Multiple (first-person, second-person, and third-person)
Extra Credit for History
Dear Diary. Emerson was a prolific diarist, with his personal journals spanning from his junior year at Harvard College up through his elderly years. His journals served as a major source of inspiration for fellow transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau and were eventually published in 16 volumes.
The Buddha of the West. Emerson was revered as an orator as well as an author, giving as many as 80 philosophical lectures in a year throughout the United States. Many of his contemporaries regarded him as a brilliant and wise thinker whose lectures inspired people to see the underlying beauty and mysticism of the world.