# Main currents in American thought

Author: Parrington, Vernon Louis, 1871-1929

Genre: United States -- Politics and government

Language: English

License: Public domain

Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78025

Amazon editions: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Main+currents+in+American+thought+Parrington&tag=cyberlibrar00-20

## Summary

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 aft...

## Chapters

- [Chapter IV • The Darkening Skies of Letters](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/126/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • The Beginnings of Criticism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/116/index.md)
- [Chapter I • the American Scene](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/112/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Culture of the Seventies](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/113/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The War of Belles Lettres](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/38/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Changing Theory](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/115/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Winds of Political Doctrine](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/62/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Political Thinkers • The French Group](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/37/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Political Thinkers • The English Group](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/35/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • Adventures in Belles Lettres](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/64/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • Certain Militants](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/84/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Mind of the American Tory](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/29/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Skepticism of the House of Adams](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/118/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • The Contributions of Independency](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/16/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The Chief Stewards of Theocracy](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/15/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Plight of the Farmer](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/121/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The Authentic Brahmin](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/92/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Disintegration and Reintegration](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/117/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Winds of Political Doctrine](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/80/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Mather Dynasty](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/20/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Passing of the Tie-Wig School](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/79/index.md)
- [Book III: Part IV](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/100/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The Frontier in Letters](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/67/index.md)
- [Book III: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/44/index.md)
- [Chapter V • Adventures in Romance](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/60/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Liberalism and Calvinism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/82/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Victorian Realism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/119/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Two Knickerbocker Romantics](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/71/index.md)
- [did. Nevertheless from his own experience he had come to agree with](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/77/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Benjamin Franklin • Our First Ambassador](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/27/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Two Spokesmen of the West](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/66/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Colonial Backgrounds](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/24/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Henry Thoreau • Transcendental Economist](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/87/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • Samuel Adams • The Mind of the American Democrat](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/31/index.md)
- [Chapter V • Literary Echoes](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/32/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Transcendental Critic](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/86/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The Quest of Utopia](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/125/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Anachronism of Jonathan Edwards](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/25/index.md)
- [did. He never was at home in the world of catholic thought, but all](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/114/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Literature and the Middle Border[765](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/123/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Imperial Sovereignty and Home Rule](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/28/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Great Debate](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/34/index.md)
- [Chapter III • John Dickinson • The Mind of the American Whig](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/30/index.md)
- [Chapter V • Some Contributions of New England](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/76/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Liberalism and the Social Conscience](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/83/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • The Older Plantation Mind](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/59/index.md)
- [Book Three was to present the movement of liberalism from 1903 to](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/101/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • James Fenimore Cooper • Critic](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/73/index.md)
- [Chapter IV • Theodore Parker • Transcendental Minister](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/88/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Agrarianism and Capitalism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/33/index.md)
- [Chapter III • Stirrings of Liberalism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/21/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Transplanting of Ideas](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/14/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Samuel Sewall • Yankee](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/19/index.md)
- [Chapter I • English Backgrounds](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/13/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The New Capital](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/70/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Heritage of Jeffersonianism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/57/index.md)
- [Book II: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/132/index.md)
- [Chapter V • Other Dreamers in Israel](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/17/index.md)
- [Chapter III • The Dream of a Greek Democracy](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/63/index.md)
- [Chapter V • Margaret Fuller • Rebel](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/89/index.md)
- [Chapter II • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Skeptic](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/91/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Old Capital](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/69/index.md)
- [Chapter III • John Marshall • Last of the Virginia Federalists](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/58/index.md)
- [Chapter I • New Worlds](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/65/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Genesis of Transcendentalism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/85/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Reign of the Genteel](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/90/index.md)
- [Chapter I • Southern Imperialism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/61/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Impact of the French Revolution](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/36/index.md)
- [Chapter II • The Democracy of the Age of Innocence](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/122/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Old Dominion](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/56/index.md)
- [Book I: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/128/index.md)
- [Chapter XXV.)](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/75/index.md)
- [Chapter I • The Renaissance](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/81/index.md)
- [Book Three • The Mind of New England](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/78/index.md)
- [Book Two deals with new beginnings from the raw materials of European](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/3/index.md)
- [Chapter XVI.)](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/72/index.md)
- [Part Two: the Twilight of the Oligarchy • 1660-1720](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/18/index.md)
- [Book One • Changing America](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/111/index.md)
- [Book II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/96/index.md)
- [VOLUME THREE • 1860-1920](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/1/index.md)
- [Book Two • The Old and the New: Storm Clouds](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/120/index.md)
- [Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/110/index.md)
- [Book II: The Mind of the Middle East](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/49/index.md)
- [Book One • The Mind of the South](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/55/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/47/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/9/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/5/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/11/index.md)
- [Book I: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/93/index.md)
- [Chapter 4.](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/26/index.md)
- [Book I: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/39/index.md)
- [Volume II concerns itself with the creative influence in America of](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/2/index.md)
- [Book I: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/129/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/103/index.md)
- [Book III: Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/99/index.md)
- [Book II: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/131/index.md)
- [Book One • Liberalism and Puritanism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/12/index.md)
- [Book III: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/43/index.md)
- [Book I: Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/95/index.md)
- [Book Two • The Colonial Mind](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/23/index.md)
- [Book Two • The Mind of the Middle East](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/68/index.md)
- [Book II: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/41/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/46/index.md)
- [Book II: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/42/index.md)
- [Part IV](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/54/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/52/index.md)
- [Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/48/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/10/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/51/index.md)
- [Book I: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/40/index.md)
- [Book I: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/94/index.md)
- [Chapter XXV.)](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/74/index.md)
- [Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/53/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/8/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/105/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/6/index.md)
- [Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/108/index.md)
- [Book III: Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/98/index.md)
- [Chapter III see Francis Marion Crawford, _The Novel: What It Is_ (New](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/130/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/106/index.md)
- [Book III: Part I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/97/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/104/index.md)
- [Book XII, p. 327; and in Wise, _Vindication of the Government of the](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/22/index.md)
- [Part III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/107/index.md)
- [Part II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/109/index.md)
- [Book Three, but covers much of the ground indicated there.--_Publisher.](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/127/index.md)
- [Book III: The Mind of New England](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/50/index.md)
- [Book I: Changing America](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/102/index.md)
- [Part Two: Proletarian Hopes[776](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/124/index.md)
- [Book I: Liberalism and Puritanism](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/4/index.md)
- [Book I: The Mind of the South](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/45/index.md)
- [Book II: The Colonial Mind](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/main-currents-in-american-thought-78025/chapters/7/index.md)