George Ripley was a U.S. journalist and reformer and Unitarian minister born in Greenfield, Mass. The social reform of the 1800s was cause by the belief that social reforms were needed to improve society. Churches and social groups set up charities to aid the poor and teach them how to help themselves. Reformers worked to reduce the working day from the usual 12 or 14 hours to 10 hours. Prohibitionists convinced that drunkenness was the main cause …showed first 75 words of 799 total…

…showed last 75 words of 799 total…his writing of the New American Cyclopedia, a 16-volume reference work that was as profitable as it was popular. This along with other projects brought Ripley some financial success and influence in the 1860s and 1870s. Ripley continued to write until he died in 1880. It was Ripley's philosophical principles of Transcendentalism and his experiment at Brook Farm that left their mark on history. He made an enormous contribution to the progressive movements of the 1840s.