Table of Contents
Introduction 11
Chronology 14
Chapter 1 Background on Walt Whitman
1 The Life of Walt Whitman Ed Folsom Kenneth M. Price 19
2 Whitman's Complexity Helps Readers Better Understand Democracy and Themselves Richard Gambino 34
3 Whitman's Love of Country Did Not Prevent Him from Speaking Out Against Injustice David S. Reynolds 42
Chapter 2 Democracy in Walt Whitman's Poetry
1 Whitman Forged His Own Theory of Democratic Poetics Patrick Redding 53
2 Whitman Celebrated the Creative, Risk-Taking Spirit of Capitalist Pioneers Benjamin R. Barber 60
3 Whitman's "Song of Myself" Presents a Composite Democratic Individual George Kateb 71
4 Whitman's Principle of Democratic Comradeship Rested on Bonds of Love Between Men Stephen Alexander 81
5 Whitman Was Not Socially-or Sexually-Isolated, and This Informed His Vision of Democratic Community Michael Moon 87
6 Whitman's Democratic Legacy Is Uneven Michael Frank 95
7 Whitman Took a Proslavery Position in His First Novel Martin Klammer 102
8 The Nazis Reshaped Whitman's Democratic Themes with Their Own Message Walter Grünzweig 111
9 Whitman's Views Earned Him Scorn from the Proslavery Press Eric Conrad 120
10 Whitman's "Democratic Vistas" Is a Key to Understanding America David Brooks 130
11 Whitman Offers a Complex, Imaginative Model of Patriotism Stephen Cushman 137
12 A Twenty-First-Century Whitman Would Express His Views Through Rock and Roll David Haven Blake 146
13 Whitman Loved America with a Ferocity Tempered by Compassion C.K. Williams 156
Chapter 3 Contemporary Perspectives on Democracy 165
1 Democracy Requires an Informed Electorate Henry Aubin 165
2 Democracy Does Not Necessarily Promote Individual Autonomy Jonah Goldberg 169
3 Short-Sighted and Self-Serving Policies Doom Democracies Randy Salzman 174
4 Excessive Individualism Creates Inequality and Weakens America's Social Fabric D. Stanley Eitzen 178
5 American Individualism Is Threatened by a Growing Climate of Resentment and Victimization Peter Goodspeed 185
6 Individuals Have More Opportunities than Ever Before Thomas L. Friedman 191
For Further Discussion 195
For Further Reading 197
Bibliography 198
Index 201
