Examine the European influences on American thought and literature in the eighteenth century.

I think that one can find the presence of European thought
in the American intellectual movement of Transcendentalism.  The presence of Romanticism
in Europe was strongly evident in the American Transcendentalists.  The ideas of
asserting one's own individuality, breaking away from social conformity, and asserting
the role of emotions in consciousness are all European constructs that took hold in
America.  The Romantic tradition was present in how the Transcendentalists viewed their
ideas and how they should be applied in America.  Some have argued that
Transcendentalism was nothing more than an "American outgrowth of Romanticism."  This
helps to bring to light an example of how European intellectual traditions influenced
American thought and literature.