Romanticism was a reaction against rationalism and focus on emotions and imagination. Romantic writers were influenced by new ideas from the Industrial Revolution and criticism of the past. They valued individualism, nature, and sentiment over reason. Subgenres included Fireside Poets who emphasized American themes, Transcendentalists who valued spirituality and individualism, and American Gothics who explored human psychology and capacity for evil. Significant American Romantic authors included James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, and Edgar Allan Poe.