The Only Sin is Limitation

Book excerpt: In this book, Ralph Waldo Emerson's influence on the United States of America is seen through ten different lenses. The essays are lumped together under four general headings: Emerson and Poetry, Emerson and Social Criticism, Emerson and Intellectualism, and Emerson and Art. Essays link Emerson to Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, John Holt, Randolph Bourne, Frank Lloyd Wright, and John Cassavetes. Emerson is also linked to modern dance, used as a counterargument to political dualism and rampant technological progression, and interrogated for the social deficiencies of his philosophy. All in all, the work is an attempt to revitalize a great American thinker, and to show how those who have followed his example and his words continue to make this country great today.