Background
Vernon Louis Parrington was borm on August 3, 1871 in Aurora, Illinois. His father was a school principal in New York and Illinois, served in the Union Army, and became a judge of probate in Kansas. Parrington grew up in Emporia, Kansas.
( The development of literature between 1800 and 1860 in ...)
The development of literature between 1800 and 1860 in the United States was heavily influenced by two wars. The War of 1812 hastened the development of nineteenth-century ideals, and the Civil War uprooted certain growths of those vigorous years. The half century between these dramatic episodes was a period of extravagant vigor, the final outcome being the emergence of a new middle class. Parrington argues that America was becoming a new world with undreamed potential. This new era was no longer content with the ways of a founding generation. The older America of colonial days had been static, rationalistic, inclined to pessimism, and fearful of innovation. During the years between the Peace of Paris (1763) and the end of the War of 1812, older America was dying. The America that emerged, which is the focal point of this volume, was a shifting, restless world, eager to better itself, bent on finding easier roads to wealth than the plodding path of natural increase. The culture of this period also changed. Formal biographies written in this period often gave way to eulogy; it was believed that a writer was under obligation to speak well of the dead. Consequently, scarcely a single commentary of the times can be trusted, and the critic is reduced to patching together his account out of scanty odds and ends. A new introduction by Bruce Brown highlights the life of Vernon Louis Parrington and explains the importance of this second volume in the Pulitzer Prize-winning study.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0747QNP3C/?tag=2022091-20
( This final volume of Vernon Louis Parrington's Pultzer ...)
This final volume of Vernon Louis Parrington's Pultzer Prize-winning study deals with the decay of romantic optimism. It shows that the cause of decay is attributed to three sources: stratifying of economics under the pressure of centralization; the rise of mechanistic science; and the emergence of a spirit of skepticism which, with teachings of the sciences and lessons of intellectuals, has resulted in the questioning of democratic ideals. Parrington presents the movement of liberalism from 1913 to 1917, and the reaction to it following World War I. He notes that liberals announced that democratic hopes had not been fulfilled; the Constitution was not a democratic instrument nor was it intended to be; and while Americans had professed to create a democracy, they had in fact created a plutocracy. Industrialization of America under the leadership of the middle class and the rise of critical attitudes towards the ideals and handiwork of that class are examined in great detail. Parrington's interpretation of the literature during this time focuses on four divisions of development: the conquest of America by the middle class; the challenge of that overlordship by democratic agrarianism; the intellectual revolution brought about by science and the appropriation of science by the middle class; and the rise of detached criticism by younger intellectuals. A new introduction by Bruce Brown highlights Parrington's life and explains the importance of this volume.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412851645/?tag=2022091-20
Vernon Louis Parrington was borm on August 3, 1871 in Aurora, Illinois. His father was a school principal in New York and Illinois, served in the Union Army, and became a judge of probate in Kansas. Parrington grew up in Emporia, Kansas.
Parrington was educated at the College of Emporia. After 2 years at the College, Parrington entered Harvard University as a junior and graduated in 1893. His Harvard experience was not happy, and he afterward returned to the College of Emporia to obtain his master of arts degree.
From 1893 to 1897 Parrington taught English and French at the College of Emporia. He also ran unsuccessfully for the school board on a "Citizen's" ticket. In 1897 he was appointed instructor in English and modern languages at the University of Oklahoma, where he stayed for 11 years. In 1903-1904 he did research in London and Paris, wrote some poetry, and took an interest in archeology. Fired from his job in 1908 because of a "political cyclone", Parrington accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Washington in Seattle. From his distinguished courses on the history of American literature at the University of Washington, ultimately came his Main Currents in American Thought, which appeared in three volumes from 1927 to 1930. This work was acclaimed immediately as the most stimulating survey of American thought and literature yet to appear. He also wrote The Connecticut Wits (1926), Sinclair Lewis, Our Own Diogenes (1927), and contributed to various publications.
( This final volume of Vernon Louis Parrington's Pultzer ...)
( The development of literature between 1800 and 1860 in ...)
(Number Five in the University of Washington Chapbooks ser...)
In 1901 Parrington married Julia Rochester Williams. They had two daughters and a son.