Romanticism- Can I sign up for that?

In the early 19th century, the budding movement that started in western Europe made it over the Atlantic ocean to America. Romanticism took form on the plains of this newly freed country, and began to shape and define the "American Dream". It was a cultural movement that encompassed art, literature, music, and even education. People began to see things for their beauty and divinity as opposed to their practicality. The Romantic movement was a strong reaction the the previous cultural norms of rationality and classicism that had fueled the revolutions of the previous century as well as the strong commercial and economical ventures of all major countries at the time. The early 19th century was also the time of the Industrial Revolution and was surrounded by war, so romanticism was a kind of escape from reality.

Washington Irving

 In America, the romantic period has some of it's most definitive works in the field of literature. Writers like Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Uncas, Nathaniel Hawthorn, and Walt Whitman wrote about the ideal, the possibilities of man and the supernatural qualities of nature. Writers esteemed to express their feelings of nationalism and pride in the America they saw and what they thought it could become. This movement also differed from its predecessors in the fact that it spoke not use to the wealthy, but to the common man, the peers of the writer, the fellow sufferers in a world filled with war. Writers wrote to lift spirits and to inspire awe.

Artists like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas cole painted with a style never before seen. They painted the land for it's beauty and for the sheer respect they felt for it. The nationalism felt in all examples of romanticism was never far from art of this period and showed a great deal about the inspiration artists received from the world around them to participate actively in American Society. 

The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak- Albert Bierstadt

There were certainly problems going on in the world at the time of the romantic period; wars were raging, America was fighting to become a stable and productive country, foreign and domestic affairs were simply a mess, but regardless of all of this, I have to be envious of this kind of mindset. We live in a culture today where it is almost trendy to be critical of our government and our nation as a whole. We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and yet there always seems to be something to complain about. I can't imagine being alive at a time like the romantic period, when the pop culture of the time was encouraging American audiences to be grateful for the beauty around them, to be open and aware of their capabilities. I argue that while this time in artistic and literary history may be called frivolous or irrational, we need a little more frivolous and irrational. We need positive thinkers that are louder than the clamor of complaints. There will always be something to complain about, but I believe that we also need to take the time to find something to praise about our world today. 


A positive and awe-filed media, where can I sign up for that?