George+Ripley+(Brook+Farm+and+transcendentalism)+-+SP09

=**George Ripley**=

Birth: October 3, 1802 Died: July 4, 1880
 * [[image:http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/images/Ripley_brookfarmwcsms.jpg width="240" height="240" caption="http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/images/Ripley_brookfarmwcsms.jpg"]] || **George Ripley**

American Social Reformer Unitarian Minister Journalist on Transcendentalism ||
 * **Historical Background:** George Ripley grew up with his decently well set up family. In his family he was raised primarily by women and his Unitarian Father. His father sent him to a private school to get well educated and then, against his wishes to go to Yale(A majority christian school), he was sent to Harvard(A majority Unitarian and Theological School) by his father. Ripley attended Harvard and while diligent in his studies he was also unpopular with his peers when he decided to side with the administration on a protest against the food. Ripley wanted a meaningful job and so worked as a teacher at Fitchburg during his senior year. He then graduated from Harvard College in 1823, and then graduated from Harvard Trinity in 1826. During this time at Harvard Trinity Schools he became very much interested in the "liberal" religion. He believed that the moral philosophy was much more reasonable than most other religions. A year later he married Sophia Dana. He kept this fact a secret from his parents for a short while, but told his sister, Marianne Ripley, to tell his parents for him. Thus moving past college and marriage Ripley became a minister for a Unitarian Church called the Boston's Purchase Street Church.


 * Transcendentailism:** The Transcendentalist Club, as named by the public, was a small group of people with like minds on many different things. The club, also commonly known as "The Brotherhood of the Like Minded," was made primarily to discuss and debate over the lack of knowledge, tolerance, and humanity in the American Society. The club's members were refused writing abilities in major magizines and so therefore thought to create their own. George Ripley was chosen to be the main editor for this magazine after the other members refused to. The magazine was hence named "The Dial." The Goals of the Magazine were to make people think about their lives and what has been altered in undesirable ways as to blind them from seeing a much more obvious and harsh reality. This magazine, although the most original of its time showed little change to human society and was therefore a failure. The magazine was riduculed by the larger theological magazines, such as the "The North American Review" and "The Christian Examiner," mainly because "The Dial" was new and in some senses better and fresher than the larger business'. The magazine was also not quite as well publicized and recieved little recognition by the public eye as they did not undertand the subject matters nor could the public mind think through them well enough to reform themselves. If this movement had recieved Federal aid, it may have been a much more successful event. The government would have had to break the laws of seperation of church and state for this to work out properly and so it would not have been very possible for the magizine to have been endorsed by the government to the people. The only way that the government could have helped is through adding better and more theological classes into the education system which was slowly beginning to form in this that time.

http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/georgeripley.html http://www.nndb.com/people/961/000114619/ http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/brhistory.html http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/dialhistory.html http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/brook_farm.html ||
 * Brook Farms:** Brook Farms was a revolutionary idea that was meant to be a house for intelectual people who had the desire to think and who all also saw the problems in American Society. George Ripley bought the farm and started mortgaging out sections to different people, or trustees to start the farm going. On the farm all the members sought the same goals. They all wanted an environment where evryone had like minds on bringing together values, morals, harmony, and a body and spirit which see the greater good. Everyone in the experiment saw that doing physical labor was good for the mental well being as well as showed good health. Every member participated in physical labor to show that the efforts were beneficial even to those who were writers or poets. The members hoped that by doing things and working together they could create a utopian society on a small scale that would eventually extend to the the entire population. Also included in the daily ritual of the member's lives was an in-depth look at the veiws of Fourierism, which was a mix of leaving the bad points of Unitarianism, as well as keeping the main points of freedom in the Unitarian Religion. Many of the members on an economic scale were well balanced as each member shared the oppurtunities sasme as the next. All of the members were highly intrigued by performing arts, recreational leisure, as well as socialization so each member was fully satisfied with what one another did. Although the farm provided equal oppurtunities for its members, to become a member was one of their bigggest downfalls. The farm was a joint stock project and so in order to be apart of the community one had to own stock, or which was not cheap running at 500 dollars a share. Although the community operated extremely successfully within its boundaries, it was ultimately a failure due to the small scale it was acted upon. The farm was a very propogational idea but it only made small roots that died quickly before it could grow into a giant tree. The building on the continual expansion was burned down when the Phalanstery literally burned to the gound and due to the lack of sufficient funds the group could not continue on its revolutionary idea. Federal Government aid could have been given to the community in the form of monetary assistance, in addition to when the building burned down. The Federal Government could have helped aid for insurance policies on the account of creating a successful Utopia type society. ||
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ripley_(transcendentalist)