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Walt Whitman’s Multitudes

Labor Reform and Persona in Whitman’s Journalism and the First "Leaves of Grass</I>, 1840-1855

by Jason Stacy (Author)
©2008 Monographs X, 170 Pages

Summary

In the fifteen years before the publication of Leaves of Grass (1855), Walt Whitman constructed three authoritative voices by which he engaged the upheavals endemic to the Industrial Revolution. Through these public personas, found mostly in his journalism, Whitman offered remedies for American artisans who had lost their economic autonomy and status. Instead of attacking broad forces beyond worker control, Whitman blamed artisans for oppressing themselves through the temptations of consumerism and affectation. Walt Whitman’s Multitudes places the first edition of Leaves of Grass on par with Whitman’s journalism and exposes a writer different from most poetry-directed analyses. In doing so, it traces Whitman’s public voice as he wrestled intimately with the debates of his day: conspicuous consumption, nativism, slavery, and, through it all, labor and the status of the new working class.

Details

Pages
X, 170
Publication Year
2008
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433101533
ISBN (Softcover)
9781433103834
Language
English
Keywords
Arbeitswelt (Motiv) American Literature Whitman, Walt Wirtschaftsreform (Motiv) Sozialreform (Motiv) Geschichte 1840-1855 U.S. History Labor consumerism nativism slavery
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2008. X, 170 pp.

Biographical notes

Jason Stacy (Author)

The Author: Jason Stacy received his Ph.D. in history from Loyola University Chicago. He is Assistant Professor of U.S. History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

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Title: Walt Whitman’s Multitudes