Romantic Impulse Research Paper

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The Romantic Impulse The Romantic Impulse changed a lot of American ideas, beliefs and cultural practices. American intellectuals were painfully aware of the low regard in which Europeans held their artistic and intellectual life, and in the middle decades of the 19th century, they continued to work for both an elevation and a liberation of their nation's culture — for the creation of an American artistic world independent of Europe, one that would express their nation’s special virtues. At the same time, however, some of the nation's cultural leaders were beginning to strive for another kind of liberation. That impulse was the spirit of romanticism period in literature, in philosophy, in art, even in politics in the economy, American intellectuals…show more content…
For such reasons, a broad array of movements intended to adapt society to its new conditions to reform the nation. Many of these movements rested on optimistic faith in human nature, a belief that within every individual resided a spirit that was good and that society should attempt to unleash. The romantic impulse had many effects on society. Americans had finally created new artistic traditions of their own, inspiring a sense of nationalism and individualism. Unlike their European counterparts, American painters did not favor gentle scenes of carefully cultivated countrysides. They sought to capture the undiluted power of nature by portraying some of the nation's wildest and most spectacular areas. In portraying such things, they seemed to announce that in America, unlike in Europe, “wild nature” still existed; and that America, therefore, was a nation of greater promise than the played-out…show more content…
Evangelical Protestantism added major strength to one of the most influential reform movements. In 1826, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance emerged as a coordinating agency among various groups; it attempted to use many of the techniques of revivalism in preaching abstinence. Many would say that there was no social vice more responsible for crime, disorder, and poverty that the excessive use of alcohol. Women, who participated actively in the temperance movement claimed that alcoholism placed a special burden on wives: men spent money on alcohol that their families needed for basic necessities, and drunken husbands often abused their wives and children. Some causes for the social reform was the fact that alcoholism was a huge problem in antebellum America. So much more than it has been in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The average male in the 1830s drank nearly three times as much alcohol as the average person does in present day. A costly effect would be that it created a spot for bootleggers to come in and infiltrate through the illegal selling of alcohol. In the long run, it would create more problems than short-term issues. This temperance movement was very similar to the prohibition of alcoholic drinks in the
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