American Enlightenment. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson. Plan

American Enlightenment. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson.
Plan:

Introduction

1. 
   Religious tolerance
   
2. 
   Intellectual currents
   
3. 
   European sources
   
4. 
   Architecture, arts, and culture
   
5. 
   Republicanism and liberalism
   

Conclusion
References

Introduction

The American Enlightenment was a period of intellectual fervor in the thirteen American colonies in the 18th to 19th century, which led to the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America. The American Enlightenment was influenced by the 17th- and 18th-century Age of Enlightenment in Europe and native American philosophy. According to James MacGregor Burns, the spirit of the American Enlightenment was to give Enlightenment ideals a practical, useful form in the life of the nation and its people.[1]
A non-denominational moral philosophy replaced theology in many college curricula. Some colleges reformed their curricula to include natural philosophy (science), modern astronomy, and mathematics, and "new-model" American style colleges were founded. Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis upon economic liberty, republicanism and religious tolerance, as clearly expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence.
Among the foremost representatives of the American Enlightenment were presidents of colleges, including Puritan religious leaders Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Clap, and Ezra Stiles, and Anglican moral philosophers Samuel Johnson and William Smith. Leading political thinkers were John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Paine, George Mason, James Wilson, Ethan Allen, and Alexander Hamilton, and polymaths Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
The term "American Enlightenment" was coined in the post-World War II era and was not used in the 18th century when English speakers commonly referred to a process of becoming "enlightened." Critical Realism in English LiteratureIn mid and late 19th century, appeared a new literary trend -- critical realism.English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the earlyfifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chieftraits (characteristics) of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from ademocratic viewpoint. It found its expressions in the form of novel. The greatestEnglish realist of the time was Charles Dickens. With striking force and truthfulness,he creates pictures of bourgeois civilization, showing the misery and sufferings of thecommon people. Another critical realist was William Makepeace Thackeray. Hisnovels are mainly a satirical portrayal of the upper strata of society. Others are Brontesisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. The novelistsexposed and criticized the corrupted society mercilessly. They are generally knownas critical realists.