Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Politics of Ronald Reagan:A Rhetoric of Values

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, TU Dortmund (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Emerson - The Worlds Eye, language: English, abstract: The importance of the Romantic period and the meaning of its ideas for the development of the United States can not be overestimated. Ralph Waldo Emerson as its ingenious prototype for the American Scholar formulated ideas that created a base for a transcending Civil Religion that seems to be the foundation of the American self-concept. This Civil Religion was also the base for the politics of one of the most conservative politicians of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan. In my work I want to show that Emersons ideas and the politics of Ronald Reagan dont exclude each other. Both, Emerson and Reagan, can be regarded as excellent speakers and writers, well versed in their rhetoric means. I want to show that there is a common ground where the ideas and the rhetoric of these seemingly contradictory characters meet, which supports the idea of an overaching truth within the minds of the American people.