In the tumultuous decades before and immediately after the Civil War, the Transcendentalists changed America through their literary achievements but also through their activism, advocating equality for women and a reform of church government, while battling slavery and inequality. Here John Buehrens illuminates the connections between key members of the circle—including James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Stanton, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, and Margaret Fuller—who created a community dedicated to radical social activism, and laid the groundwork for progressive religion in America.