The Dial was a journal published in Boston from July 1840 through April 1844 by the American Transcendentalists and edited by Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Ripley, and Henry David Thoreau. This book is the only full-length study of the Dial available.

This is the first comprehensive scholarly account of the journal that was the official organ of Associationism and Fourierism in America in the 1840s, as well as a major forum for Transcendentalist writers. The author traces the journal's history, examines its handling of important contemporary social, political, and economic questions, evaluates its literary and musical criticism, and considers The Harbinger's role in the reform-minded Associationist and Transcendentalist movements.

This lavishly illustrated volume examines the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement and explores the places that inspired them. Beginning with Transcendentalism’s birth in Boston and Cambridge, the book charts the development of a movement that revolutionized American ideas about the artistic, spiritual, and natural worlds. At the same time, it creates a vivid sense of New England in the nineteenth century, from its idyllic countryside and sleepy towns to its bustling ports and burgeoning cities. The book is divided geographically into chapters, each focusing on a town or village famous for its relationship to one or more of the Transcendentalists.

Presents a reference guide to transcendentalism, with articles on significant works, writers, concepts and more.