Explore religious, literary, philosophic, scientific, and civic questions as they emerge in the arts and letters of America in the period up to and including Reconstruction. Focus on issues such as the nature of virtue and freedom, the character of the self and its relation to God and nature, and the relation between the individual and authority. Study sources of wisdom in such figures as the Puritans, James Fennimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Frederick Douglass.