The seeds sown by Hamann burst to life in the Germanic states. There the counter-Enlightenment dissent was nourished and grew strong, finding voice in many artistic forms: literature, theology, the Sturm und Drang movement, musical composition, philosophy, architecture, painting...here was the momentum which could counter the advance of an enthralling scientific society; here was the tale of a solitary soul, standing exposed in the torn veil of his humanity, facing the onslaught of an annihilating, impersonal force. It was a song western man took up eagerly.
The Romantic, writes Wills, is "Faustian, Promethean, Dionysian, Dostoyevskian".
These forces shaped the identity of an adolescent nation; Americans became explorers and abolitionists and transcendentalists, invented new religions and utopian societies, redefined education, and nourished the sentiments that engendered spiritual revival and awakening.
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