For Further Study Morris, Roy, Jr., A Better Angel: Walt Whitman and the Civil War, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Morris examines the impact of the war on Whitman's life and poetry. He weaves biographical information in with Whitman's poetry to help students understand Whitman's work.

Paludan, Phillip Shaw, "A People's Contest": The Union and Civil War, 1861-1865, Harper & Row, 1988.

Paludan explores the interrelationship between two of Whitman's frequent themes, war and work, as he views war through the lens of the other great event of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution.

Reynolds, David S., Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

This recent biography gives a good sense of the cultural background of Whitman's time, relating his life to the social events surrounding it.

Zweig, Paul, Walt Whitman: The Making of a Poet, Basic Books, Inc., 1988.

This book is mostly concerned with Whitman's earlier...