Library of America Broadsides

Gathered together for the first time, Walt Whitman’s urgently needed prose writings on the democratic spirit and the soul of the nation.

12 short works encapsulate the American Bard’s fiery passions and timeless wisdom for today.

Here for the first time in a convenient pocket edition are all of Walt Whitman’s essential prose writings on democracy, including his unforgettable reflections on the roots on American division, the fearful legacy of the Civil War, and shining example of Abraham Lincoln. Few writers have been as harsh in their condemnation of America’s sins and spiritual shortcomings or as abiding in his faith in democratic ideals as Whitman. His clarion voice speaks to us with renewed urgency today.

Gathered here are:
“The Eighteenth Presidency!,” written during the 1856 presidential campaign, in which Whitman expresses his rage over the immediate prospects for American democracyDemocratic Vistas (1871), in which he dramatizes his role as poet-prophet of a better Americathe searing essay “Origins of Attempted Secession” and shorter extracts on democracy from the classic book Specimen Days (1882).
In his introduction, acclaimed political observer David Bromwich examines Whitman’s political prose writings and highlights why they matter today.

More urgent than ever: as we grapple with how to respond to emerging threats against democracy, Library of America brings together two seminal essays about the duties of citizenship and the imperatives of conscience

Together for the first time, classic essays on how and when to disobey the government from two of the greatest thinkers in our literature.

In “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849), Henry David Thoreau recounts the story of a night he spent in jail for refusing to pay poll taxes, which he believed supported the Mexican American War and the expansion of slavery. His larger aim was to articulate a view of individual conscience as a force in American politics. No writer has made a more persuasive case for obedience to a “higher law.”  

In “Civil Disobedience” (1970), Hannah Arendt offers a stern rebuttal to Thoreau. For Arendt, Thoreau stands in willful opposition to the public and collective spirit that defines civil disobedience. Only through positive collective action and the promises we make to each other in a civil society can meaningful change occur. 

This deluxe paperback features an introduction by Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and Professor of Politics, Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College, who reflects on the tradition of civil disobedience and the future of American politics.