In this new release, host James H. Bride brings the language and lives of the Transcendentalists to realization by recognizing the context, expression, and foundation of the movement. This program pioneers a new way for teachers and general readers to be on familiar terms with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays, as well as the journals and writings of Henry David Thoreau. Professors Richard Baker, Joel Myerson, Bob Richardson, Wes Mott, and Larry Buell add significant biographical commentary and teaching suggestions to introduce this body of American philosophy and literature. Still important in the curriculum for studying the development of 19th-century American ideas, Introducing the Transcendentalists reflects today’s 21st-century individual and philosophical challenges and associations. Additionally, historian and actor Richard Smith offers a reenactment of a day in Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond. A separate documentary, In The Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, mirrors the challenges and isolation in his 19th-century Walden Pond experiment. (50 minutes)