Democratic Vistas and Other Papers (Paperback)

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Walt Whitman (1819-1892) contributed to the greatest prose of American letters with Democratic Vistas, now considered a classic discussion of the theory of democracy and its possibilities. In this essay he protests the unrestrained materialism, greed, corruption and spiritual failure of what, two years later, Mark Twain would label "The Gilded Age." Whitman criticizes America for its "mighty, many-threaded wealth and industry" that mask an underlying "dry and flat Sahara" of soul. He calls for a new kind of literature to revive the American population: "Not the book needs so much to be the complete thing, but the reader of the book does."

Whitman was one of the few writers to keep the Emersonian faith in individual and cultural regeneration after the Civil War.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL) (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410100669
• ISBN-13: 978-1410100665
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,094,469 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vision of an American democracy of limitless promise, February 1, 2003

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Whitman proposed, optimistically, that America's shortcomings would be overcome in time: "by recognizing the worth of common people, dramatized especially in the selfless heroism of the Civil War soldiers; by cultivating both individuality and social unity; by having faith in the electoral process ..; by permitting women to develop fully in many ways; by seeing that America is steadily developing through its current practical, business-oriented phase toward a time when great 'bards' will arise, producing a true democratic literature that will instill much-needed religiosity and moral conscience into American life."