Line	Despite their many differences of temperament and
	of literary perspective, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne,
	Melville, and Whitman shared certain beliefs. Common
	to all these writers is their humanistic perspective.
(5)	Its basic premises are that humans are the spiritual
	center of the universe and that in them alone is the
	clue to nature, history, and ultimately the cosmos.
	Without denying outright the existence of a deity, this
	perspective explains humans and the world in terms
(10)	of humanity.
	This common perspective is almost always
	universalized. It emphasizes the human as universal,
	freed from the accidents of time, space, birth, and
	talent. Thus, for Emerson, the “American Scholar”
(15)	turns out to be simply “Man Thinking,” while, for
	Whitman, the “Song of Myself” merges imperceptibly
	into a song of all the “children of Adam,” where “every
	atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
	Also common to all five writers is the belief
(20)	that self-realization depends on the harmonious
	reconciliation of two universal psychological
	tendencies: first, the self-asserting impulse of
	the individual to be responsible only to himself or
	herself, and second, the self-transcending impulse
(25)	of the individual to know and become one with
	that world. These conflicting impulses can be seen
	in the democratic ethic. Democracy advocates
	individualism, the preservation of the individual's
	freedom and self-expression. But the democratic self
(30)	is torn between the duty to self, which is implied by
	the concept of liberty, and the duty to society, which
	is implied by the concepts of equality and fraternity.
	A third assumption common to the five writers is
	that intuition and imagination offer a surer road to
(35)	truth than does abstract logic or scientific method. It
	is illustrated by their emphasis upon introspection—
	their belief that the clue to external nature is to be
	found in the inner world of individual psychology—and
	by their interpretation of experience as, in essence,
(40)	symbolic. Both these stresses presume an organic
	relationship between the self and the cosmos of
	which only intuition and imagination can properly take
	account. These writers’ faith in the imagination and
	in themselves led them to conceive of the writer as a
(45)	seer.

    Linda Kerber argued in the mid-1980's that after the American Revolution (1775-1783), an ideology of "republican motherhood" resulted in a surge of educational opportunities for women in the United States. Kerber maintained that the leaders of the new nation wanted women to be educated in order to raise politically virtuous sons. A virtuous citizenry was considered essential to the success of the country's republican form of government; virtue was to be instilled not only by churches and schools, but by families, where the mother's role was crucial. Thus, according to Kerber, motherhood became pivotal to the fate of the republic, providing justification for an unprecedented attention to female education.

    Introduction of the republican motherhood thesis dramatically changed historiography. Prior to Kerber's work, educational historians barely mentioned women and girls; Thomas Woody's 1929 work is the notable exception. Examining newspaper advertisements for academies, Woody found that educational opportunities increased for both girls and boys around 1750. Pointing to "An Essay on Woman" (1753) as reflecting a shift in view, Woody also claimed that practical education for females had many advocates before the Revolution. Woody's evidence challenges the notion that the Revolution changed attitudes regarding female education, although it may have accelerated earlier trends. Historians' reliance on Kerber's "republican motherhood" thesis may have obscured the presence of these trends, making it difficult to determine to what extent the Revolution really changed women's lives.