Customer Reviews

Walt Whitman's Civil War (Da Capo Paperback)

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Walt Whitman wrote many journals, letters and diaries during his years volunteering at the hospitals in Washington DC. There are many books out there which claim to combine all those elements into one book. This book does a great job keeping Whitman's actual writing--in other words, the entire passage is presented, including the date and location in which it was written. The major problem with this book is that the editor decided to break all of Whitman's work into Chapters with themes. There is a chapter about letter to his mother, about letters to soldiers, about observations of soldiers, etc. This means that the book is not chronological, meaning that in order to view all of Whitman's writing in the order he actually wrote it, you must jump all over this book. I am studying Whitman during the Civil War, and I use this book for most of my reference. But you should see how I have marked it, leaving notes all over the book to remind myself the order of the passages. There needs to be at least one book that has EVERYTHING in the order it was written. Despite this, this book is very good for anyone interested in getting a sense of what Whitman was doing during the Civil War. His language is easy to read and understand, and readers can skip to the chapters that interest them. I do recommend this book, but remember, the passages are not in order.

Whitman's book brings together his work from his journals and letters he wrote through out the entire war. As a nurse, Whitman tours hospitals and writes about the brutal realities of the war. His compassion for the wounded and sympathies radiates through out all of his work as he writes about various soldiers and his correspondence with them. With each chapter in the book we are treated to poems and scripture by Whitman that compliments his letters and journal entries. Whitman covers the entire war and it's easy to get a feel for his absolute care and love he had for the soldiers he tended to and visited. It's helpful for understanding just how horrible situations for many were and just what kind of man Whitman was. I highly recommend it.