The second volume of “Literary History of the United States” is devoted to the process of formation of American literature and the formation of a national artistic tradition, coinciding with the heyday of romanticism. The generation of romantic writers that emerged in the early decades of the 19th century produced writers (W. Irving, F. Cooper), whose work acquired a worldwide resonance, providing young US literature with recognition far beyond the borders of the overseas republic. The volume offers a general description of American romanticism, its main philosophical and aesthetic concepts and development features. Much attention is paid to the factors of the literary process specific to the American context (the importance of oral tradition, frontier culture, which was the generator of a number of stable artistic ideas, etc.). A large section of the volume is devoted to transcendentalism, which, through the efforts of its leaders (R.W. Emerson, G.D. Thoreau), largely contributed to the solution of the most important problems facing US literature of that time.