On Democracy

by Walt Whitman, David Bromwich (Introduction)

Genres: Nonfiction

155 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book at all, neither the ignorant introduction nor the espousal of the Monroe Doctrine by Walt and his aggressive nationalistic stance.

I didn't like the introduction by David Bromwich, a Professor at Yale. Mr Bromwich indicates that Walt Whitman 'knew' there were political democracies before the United States for example the city-state of Athens. Athens was only unworthy of the name democracy because the freedom of its citizens was made possible by their acceptance of slavery. Sounds similar to another country don't you think?

Mr Bromwich also writes "England too, after the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 enlarged the franchise, was on its way to a parliamentary democracy akin to the American bicameral system." So England was catching up to the American system, not the other way around? The American system included the Electoral College, officially selected as the means of electing a president towards the end of the Constitutional Convention, due to pressure from slave states wanting to increase their voting power. The electoral college is still in existence.

Mr Bromwich should know that the Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain.

Whitman writes "Long ere the second centennial arrives, there will be some forty to fifty great States, among them Canada and Cuba." The book was written in 1871. Whitman continues "The Pacific will be ours, and the Atlantic mainly ours" and "Where, elsewhere, one so great? The individuality of one nation must then, as always, lead the world. Can there be any doubt who the leader ought to be?"

So 'you know who' got the idea from Walt Whitman?

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short set of papers by W. Whitman carry his vision of democracy based on his pre and post-Civil War life. Unfortunately, this turned out to be less than I had hoped for.

While Whitman’s voice is priceless and some of the mechanics of government that made up the essay were interesting, the narrative was very difficult to follow. The flowing sentences were too long and the repetitive listing of the variable qualities, types and arrangements of the wide world being described as our United States experiment with self government. Whitman expresses the anxiety that accompanied emancipation and reconstruction - but his argument is tangled with that part of our history and the problem of equity in the U.S.

By the end I felt like I was plowing through the dense florid paragraphs because the book was required reading.

[Virginia Palencia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up because it is Papa Walt.

I was fascinated by his papers because as a writer, he was situated at such an instrumental time in American history. A newspaperman who volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, he saw firsthand the bloodshed that went into the making of the country and had the words to express it. I adore him as a poet and love his enthusiasm and positive belief in people. I sometimes select books like these to retrain my brain to focus and read with intention. This was definitely an exercise in focus for me.

Whitman, who never met a comma or run-on sentence he didn't like, does a lot of rambling in his poetic fashion as he tries to express his anxiety and fear about democracy in America. He has excellent points - women are eventually going to get the vote, beware of political parties, and America is a great experiment. He has some not so excellent points - the answer is American literature! And some questions that linger for me as a 2026 reader, such as - does he actually know what women want? What about the black vote?? or Native Americans? At times, he is unintentionally funny- his disdain for culture and shallow people at that time are hilarious and horrifyingly relevant to today.

In the end this was a positive experience for me because while lengthy, excessive, and sooooo optimistic, it is important to listen to the voice of a time from that time, if that makes sense. And it is prescient now to consider what do we mean by America? Democracy for whom?

[Peter Brackney · Rating 4 out of 5]

To a contemporary reader, engaging Whitman can be a bit daunting. As is always the case when reading literature from another era. Despite the difficulty, this collection of Whitman essays is most worthy of digestion particularly this year as America celebrates its semi-quincentennial.

"Democratic Vistas" is the longest essay in the collection. Whitman emphasizes individualism so that the individual is learned and curious and tolerant. The strength of this individual, in turn, strengthens the collective.

If you can embrace the rhythm of the text, it inspires toward goodness and toward that old motto of the nation 'e pluribus unum.'

In addition to individualism, contendedness is noted as an important but lesser virtue: "Ever the most precious in the common. Ever the fresh breeze of field, or hill, or lake, is more than any palpitation of fans, though of ivory and redolent with perfume; and the air is more than the costliest perfumes."

[Jason Watkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painful read, not for content, but for prose. This a collection essays that bracketed the civil war. It’s a stream of Whitman’s consciousness to make sense of the democratic hopes, and failures of America’s still fledgling Republic. He toils with the ideas of rebutted “unchecked democracy” but struggles to present cogent position throughout. He argues for states rights, in a pure sense, supported federal enforcement of states’ laws, returning fugitives slaves to their owners. That part lost me. Yet, argues for inherent liberty, equality, and general suffrage.

One thing I found representative of today was his critique for the quality of political leaders we tend to see ascend to represent their parties—often, through, corruption, cronyism, bribery, theft—as opposed to the rich talent the citizenry might have to offer.

2 stars—don’t recommend.

[FP⚡️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so bored up until the excerpts from Specimen Days, which were all amazing