"Although known as a founder of the transcendentalist movement, nineteenth-century Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson actually considered his own philosophical investigations idealism, the belief that humankind should reject experience and materialism in favor of intuition, inspiration, and spiritual awakening. His most powerful essays are featured here, including Nature, Plato, Spiritual Laws, Circle, and Experience, along with insightful commentary that explains how Emerson and the New England transcendentalist movement helped define American culture."