Definition of Modern Age of Adventure. The term "Modern Age of Adventure" can be interpreted in different ways, but for the purposes of this class, it is defined as a period of time starting in the early to mid 1800s and extending to the present. From an historical perspective, the early and mid nineteenth century marks an important change in attitude about adventure and exploration. Not all, but most previous exploration was undertaken for exploitation. The Modern Age of Adventure begins when explorers went exploring for the sake of exploration—not for financial gain, not for colonial expansion, and not for the purpose of religious conversion.
Generations - Since our course covers a time period encompassed by the Modern Age of Adventure, we will be studying ten generations identified by Straus and Howe from the late 1700s to present. Before listing the actual generations, let's look at some basic concepts associated with generations.
Social Movements. Social Movements consist of two major sub-categories: secular crises and spiritual awakenings.
Secular crises are times of widespread fear for one's own safety and the safety of one's way of life. Primarily these are times of war or extreme economic hardship. Here are the secular crisis during US history:
American Revolution (1773-1789)
Civil War (1857-1865)
Great Depression-World World II (1932-1945)
Spiritual Awakenings, on the other hand, are periodic times in history when there is a society wide interest in self-examination: finding meaning or seeking a higher purpose in life. Here are spiritual awarkenings during US history:
Transcendental (1832-1837)
Missionary (1886-1903)
Boom Awakening (1967-1980)
Life Phases. Another concept which is helpful in understanding generational history is that of life phases.
Youth: 0-21 years old
Rising Adults: 22-43 years old
Midlife: 44-65 years old
Elder: 66-87 years old
Four Basic Generational Types. When American history is viewed through a generational lens, four distinct generational types become apparent. The four generational types are Idealist, Reactive, Civic and Adaptive, and always appear in history in that order.
Idealistic Generation
Short Definition: This generation is very idealist
Detailed Definition: Grows up as increasingly indulged youths after a secular crisis. Comes to age inspiring a spiritual awakening. Fragments into narcissistic rising adults. Cultivates principle as moralistic midlifers. Emerges as visionary elders guiding the next secular crisis.
Reactive Generation
Short Definition: This generation reacts to the excesses of the previous idealistic Generation
Detailed Definition: Grows up as underprotected and criticized youth during a spiritual awakening. Matures into risk-taking, alienated adults. Mellows into pragmatic midlife leaders during a secular crisis. Maintains respect (but less influence) as reclusive elders.
Civic Generation
Short Definition: This generation is very civic minded and works together well to solve problems and build society.
Detailed Definition: Grows up as increasingly protected youths after a spiritual awakening. Comes to age overcoming a secular crisis. Unites into a heroic and achieving cadre of rising adults. Sustains that image while building institutions as powerful midlifers. Emerges as busy elders attacked by the next spiritual awakening.
Adaptive Generation
Short Definition: This generation is conformist, adaptable, and indecisive. It is not very ambitious and is willing to let other generations solve big problems.
Detailed Definition: Grows up as overprotected and suffocated youths during a secular crisis. Matures into risk averse, conformist rising adults. Produces indecisive midlife arbitrator-leaders during a spiritual awakening. Maintains influence (but less respect) as sensitive elders.
Generations in American History. With this background, let's take a look at specific generations. For the first half of the class, the following are the generations that you should know. (Note that you do not have to know the exact dates, just a general idea of when they appear in history):
Transcendental (b. 1792-1821). Idealistic Type. Leaders during civil war. Rapid expansion of evangelical religion. Great interest among the literati in transcendental philosophy. We studied: Thomas Cole (painter), Henry David Thoreau, and Osborne Russell.
Gilded (b. 1822-1842). Reactive Type. Soldiers in Civil War. Came of age in era economic swings. Pragmatic and a bit jaded. We studied: Mark Twain, Edward Wymper, John Wesley Powell, Isabella Bird and John Muir - and the painters Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran.
Progressive (b. 1843-1859). Adaptive Type. Children during Civil War. Good organizers. Founded many enduring fraternal, labor, academic and professional organizations. (We looked at William Henry Jackson who was the photographer on the Hayden Expedition to Yellowstone. The only person that we'll study from this generation is Theodore Roosevelt, but we'll discus him in the second half of the class).
Missionary (b. 1860-1882). Idealistic Type. Boom era for youthful outdoor sports: golf, tennis, roller skating and bicycling. Went at life with a missionary zeal: social reformers and moral pathfinders. The Missionary Generation fought for and obtained a woman's right to vote and also passed prohibition amendment. (We'll look at specific outdoor examples in the second half of the class).
Attitudes Toward Wilderness
During the early settlement of the New World, the idea that Europeans brought with them was that wilderness was something alien to man. It was something with which civilization had to struggle and defeat. This notion of the Old World applied to the New left a lasting imprint on American thought.
Subduing wilderness was a chief source of pioneer pride. Many pioneers moved westward where they couldn't see the smoke of neighbor's house -- not because of the love of the wilds but a hunger for their destruction. It was a challenge to pioneers.
Alexis de Tocqueville's Observations
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French writer who went to North America to study American penitentiaries in the 1830s. He was a keen observer of American customs and institutions. When he asked to travel in the forest, Americans thought him mad:
"In Europe people talk a great deal of the wilds of America, but the Americans themselves never think about them; they are insensible to the wonders of inanimate nature and they may be said not to perceive the mighty forests that surround them till they fall beneath the hatchet. Their eyes are fixed upon another sight: the march across these wilds, draining swamps, turning the course of rivers, peopling solitudes, and subduing nature." (From his famous work: Democracy in America)
Wilderness and its Close Ties to Religion
Wilderness was something that had be conquered. It was a threat to survival. It was dark, sinister and forbidding. It was evil. The first settlers of the New World found a wilderness far bigger and menacing than anything in Europe.
Because of its association with darkness and evil, wilderness at that time - and to some degree in modern times - has a close connection with religion. It follows, then, that religious and spiritual concepts can be used to describe wilderness. Since it is dark and sinister, wilderness is wicked and ungodly. By conquering wilderness, a pioneer is able to convert a place of wickedness (wilderness) to a place godliness (civilization). A pioneer, thus, is doing God's work.
Let's look at some religious terms which describe this relationship between wilderness and religion:
Regenerate means spiritually reborn. The Regenerative process is the process of becoming spiritually reborn. In relation to wilderness, it is the process of turning the ungodly and useless into something that beneficial to civilization. Indeed, that is what pioneers were doing. Wilderness was an ungodly place, a blight on the face of the earth, and they were turning it in something that was beneficial to humankind.
Unregenerate - means not converted to a belief. Not spiritually re-born. Wilderness is unregenerate. Wilderness is moral chaos.
Exceptions
There were a few exceptions to the prevailing attitude. The exceptions included: 
1) Mountain men (trappers) of the west (pictured to the right), and . . .
2) Voyageurs of the north country (Voyageurs are trappers that used canoes to transport goods - pictured below) .
In both cases, they didn't need to change the landscape. They lived with it. They very quickly reverted to primitive lifestyles, and in some cases even joining Indian tribes.
Other terms:
Theism - Belief in God. (It isn't necessary to use reason or evidence like deists- nor do they believe God is the universe like Pantheists) Theists believe in a personal God, a God that involves himself in the lives of people.
Deism - Belief in God on evidence of reason and nature. (As opposed to theism who simply believe in God without any kind of reason). To deists the power of reason is very important. Deists believe that God doesn't involve himself in every day affairs.
Pantheism - God is the ultimate reality. Man and the material universe are only manifestations of this reality. The universe is God. God is the universe. God is not a personal God. Taoism (is an example).
Primitivism - Belief that qualities of the primitive (back to nature) or that early cultures are superior to contemporary civilization.
Changes Due to Literary and Artistic Influences Americans harbored a strong hate for wilderness that had built up over the centuries. But there were some changes of thought afoot . . .
Romantic Movement
The first change in attitudes came from the literati through the Romantic Movement. The movement flowered in the 1700s and early 1800s. It is a style of literature and art (France, Germany, England & US) characterized by freedom of treatment as opposed to classic style which was regular, simplistic, balanced.
Romantics appreciated the beauties of nature. Primitivism was an important idea among romantics. Primitivists believed that man's happiness decreased in direct proportion to his degree of civilization.
One of the most outspoken advocates of the wild was Lord Byron:
There is a rapture on the lonely shore.
There is society where none intrudes
I love not man the less, but nature more.
When De Tocqueville came to the US, he wanted to experience the "trackless" forests. He was a romantic.
The Ideas of Romanticism Appear in Early American Writings
William Byrd (Surveyor)Born in Virginia, lived in London, then returned to the colonies. He was influenced by Romantic literature.
In 1728, Byrd began surveying. His History of the Dividing Line was the first written American commentary on wilderness which is not hostile. He calls the Appalachian Mountains the "Range of Blue Clouds."
William Bartram (Botanist) In mid to late 1700's, a small number of naturalists began to view wild places from a different perspective. Wilderness, they came to believe, was not necessarily a forbidding place.
Of the early American naturalists, William Bartram wrote particularly well. He was a botanist and a romantic. In the late 1780's after traveling 5,000 miles throughout the Southeast US, he completed his famous Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc. He wrote of the beauty he encountered, used the word "sublime" which was the first extensive use of the word in American letters. He linked sublime with God's grandeur.
Others. Gradually, we see evidence that frontiersmen, the ones that do battle with wilderness, adopting the ideas of the Romantics. For example:
Benjamin Bonneville (1796-1878) said that returning to civilization displeased him compared to the stirring excitement of wilderness adventure.
John C. Fremont in an 1842 trip to Wind Rivers called the country "grand" & "magnificent" "romantic" scenery.
Slowly - The idea of wilderness is beginning to change in American minds. In the next class, we'll look at that change in thought as represented by artists.
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