Emerson and Trains.

Reading G. Ferris Cronkhite's, "The Transcendental Railroad,"  was useful because it gave insight into 19th century intellectuals' views on the railroad.  It is one thing to read about railroads in the 19th century from a contemporary perspective, but yet another to examine quotes by people of the time.  The latter is less objective, but it gives a wider view on the subject.  One is able to compare the opinions limited by experiencing railroads as they came into being with the facts and opinions developed in hindsight.   For Wednesday's class, I focused upon Emerson's expressed opinions on railroads.  Emerson was less concerned with the practicality of railroads, and more with the idea of railroads: what they could be, what they represented, and the effects upon the lives and philosophy of Americans.   He found fault with an increasing materialism in America, which he attributed in part to railroads, but took faith in the idea that the railroads were bound up in faith, and the "oversoul" of the American public, a sense of spirituality, was leading the railroad industry onward.  He also saw in the railroads the opportunity to connect industry and nature and open up areas of nature before inaccessible to most people, noting that the opposite effect could also be positive.  The railroads could bring people to nature, and could also bring books and news to the wilderness so that "country people"  could have a sense of city life.   While other authors took other views on the subject- Thoreau expressing more negative sentiments and Hawthorne never coming to a clear consensus, I feel that Emerson best expressed both the opportunities and losses that society was experiencing as a result of the railroad industry.