ABSTRACT
Vernon Louis Parrington developed a methodology that allowed him to treat literary artists and political, theological, and economic thinkers similarly by classifying them according to a shared style of mind rather than by vocation or ideological categories. The visual component in Main Currents is the reflection of Parrington’s long and lively interest in painting, in architecture, in prose style, and in poetry. Parrington’s concern with the intellectual’s style of mind colors his portrait of Jefferson as much as his concern with Jefferson’s political principles. focus on intellectuals not only entails a more sophisticated scheme of classification than the like-dislike approach and allows Parrington to treat, say, a political figure like Franklin, a religious figure like Channing, and a novelist like Howells as significant contributors to American thought. The major figures of the New England Renaissance had long been considered important contributors to and shapers of American thought.
