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Mar 1, 2009 · Emerson makes it crystal clear that “Saxon” (or, later, “Anglo-Saxon”) is not a synonym for “white,” even though the historiographical literature often seems to equate them. My remarks this evening come from my work in progress, The History of White People , which W. W. Norton will publish in the spring of 2010.
- Nell Irvin Painter
- 2009
That Emerson found the Germanic philosophical tradition more to his liking than the Anglo-Saxon was the natural result of his individualism, his belief in the primacy of personality, and his closely related admiration for the hero, genius, or great man, in which he joined Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Carlyle, and Nietzsche (see especially Representative Men). He expressed these fundamentally ...
Jan 3, 2002 · In America, this interest was entangled with the institution of slavery, the encounters with Native American tribes, and with the notion of “Anglo-Saxon liberties” that came to prominence during the American Revolution, and developed into the idea that there was an Anglo-Saxon race (see Horsman). Emerson would not be Emerson, however, if he ...
All Videos. How Emerson Redefined Race. . 4 min. —. with. Nell Irvin Painter. Description Transcript. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a vocal abolitionist, yet also romanticized a “Saxon” racial ideal.
- 4 min
The Saxon and the Northman are both Scandinavians. History does not allow us to fix the limits of the application of these names with any accuracy; but from the residence of a portion of these people in France, and from some effect of that powerful soil on their blood and manners, the Norman has come popularly to represent in England the aristocratic, and the Saxon the democratic principle.
For Emerson, the Saxon is the master race and its divine mission is to civilize the world. His Saxonism is frankly imperialistic, for he is sure that the Saxon will absorb and dominate "all the blood" and conquer "a hundred Englands, and a hundred Mexicos" (Essays 958). All other races are temporary beings destined to serve the Saxon and to ...
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This paper, however, argues that Emerson’s Anglo-Saxonism represents as despairing departure from self-reliant political action, rather than a manifestation of it. When Emerson explains history and fate in Anglo-Saxonist terms—employing weak rationalizations of supposedly inevitable historical circumstances—despair over the inadequacy of agency is often nearby.
