A Race of Singers

September 15, 2000
Garman (history, Sidwell Friends Sch., Washington, DC) examines the legacy and limitations of the Whitmanesque working-class hero since the turn of the century. Beginning with Whitman himself, he describes the poet's republican vision of an egalitarian social order within the parameters of a white, male-dominated, individualistic society. The author charts the radicalization of Whitman's ideals from 1892 to 1940 by such leftists as Socialist Horace Traubel and Communist editor Michael Gold. Garman then finds the embodiment of Whitman's wandering people's poet in folksinger Woody Guthrie, who sang about social justice for all men and women while drifting alone down the open roads of America. He ends with Guthrie's direct link to the New Left and Bob Dylan, his fall from radical grace, and his reinstatement by Bruce Springsteen, who continued to preach the contradictory goals of working-class solidarity and the supremacy of the individual spirit. Well written, well researched, and provocative, this book provides an interesting interpretation of three popular music icons and their connection to the Whitman tradition. Highly recommended for social historians.--David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

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