Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T05:31:47.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Stark Regime and American Democracy: A Political Interpretation of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2017

Joseph H. Lane Jr.
Joseph H. Lane Jr.*
Affiliation:
Emory and Henry College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men is a political novel that deserves the serious study of political scientists interested in understanding the formative effects of American democracy. A careful reading of the novel that is informed by the classical approach to the analysis of regimes reveals the close connection between the politics of Willie Stark and the politics of modern American democracy. Furthermore, by viewing Stark's actions through the eyes of Jack Burden, a perceptive narrator who is moving toward self-knowledge, we can gain insight into both why modern democracies encourage the formation of a debilitating nihilism among their citizens and the prospects for countering these effects.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 95 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 811 - 828
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alighieri, Dante. 1982. Purgatorio, trans. Mandelbaum, Allen. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Barrus, Roger. 1994. “Politics as Theater: The Presidential Debates.” In America through the Looking Glass: A Constitutionalist Critique of the 1992 Election, ed. Barrus, Roger and Eastby, John. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp. 11–27.Google Scholar
Baumbach, Jonathan. [1965] 1987. “The Metaphysics of Demagoguery: All the King's Men .” In Modern Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 19–36.Google Scholar
Blair, John. 1993. “‘The lie we must learn to live with’: Honor and Tradition in All the King's Men .” Studies in the Novel 25 (Winter): 457-73.Google Scholar
Bloom, Harold. 1987. Modem Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men. New York: Chelsea House.Google Scholar
Blotner, Joseph. 1966. The Modern American Political Novel: 1900–1960. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Steven R. 1977. “Political Literature and the Response of the Reader: Experimental Studies of Imagery, Interpretation, and Criticism.” American Political Science Review 71 (June): 567-84.Google Scholar
Burt, John. 1988. Robert Penn Warren and American Idealism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Cantor, Paul. 1995. “Literature and Politics: Understanding the Regime.” PS: Political Science & Politics 28 (June): 192-5.Google Scholar
Ceasar, James W., Thurow, Glen E., Tulis, Jeffrey K., and Bessette, Joseph M.. 1994. “The Rise of the Rhetorical President.” In Readings in American Government, ed. Nichols, Mary P. and Nichols, David K.. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Pp. 249-56.Google Scholar
Cleopatra, Sister. 1985. The Novels of Robert Penn Warren. New Delhi: Associated Publishing House.Google Scholar
Dannhauser, Werner J. 1995. “Poetry v. Philosophy.” PS: Political Science & Politics 28 (June): 190-2.Google Scholar
Dauer, Manning J. 1948. “Recent Southern Political Thought.” Journal of Politics 10 (May): 327-53.Google Scholar
Davidson, James F. 1967. “Review of The American Political Novel by Gordon Milne.” Journal of Politics 29 (May): 410-1.Google Scholar
Ealy, Steven. 1999. “The Interplay of Corruption and Innocence in Robert Penn Warren's Fiction.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Graham, Hugh Davis. 1970. “The Enigma of Huey Long: An Essay Review.” Journal of Southern History 36 (May): 205-11.Google Scholar
Gray, Richard. [1972] 1987. “The American Novelist and American History.” In Modern Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 91–102.Google Scholar
Heilman, Robert B. [1947] 1977. “Melpomene as Wallflower; or, the Reading of Tragedy.” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Chambers, Robert H.. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 16–28.Google Scholar
Howe, Irving. 1957. Politics and the American Novel. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Irish, Marian D. 1952. “Recent Political Thought in the South.” American Political Science Review 46 (March): 121-41.Google Scholar
Johnson, Glenn. 1980. “The Pastness of All the King's Men .” American Literature 51 (January): 553-7.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Charles. [1965] 1987. “Jack Burden: The Modern Ishmael.” In Modern Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 9–17.Google Scholar
King, Richard H. [1980] 1987. “From Politics to Psychology: Warren's All the King's Men .” In Modem Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 145-54.Google Scholar
Krieger, Murray. [1971] 1987. “The ‘Burden’ of History in All the King's Men .” In Modem Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 71–90.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolo. 1988. The Prince, trans. Mansfield, Harvey C. Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Madison, James, Hamilton, Alexander, and Jay, John (Publius). [1788] 1990. The Federalist Papers, ed. Carey, George and McClellan, James. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.Google Scholar
Mizener, Arthur. [1967] 1987. “Robert Penn Warren: All the King's Men .” In Modern Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 37–56.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friederich. [1874, 1947] 1957. The Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life, trans. Collins, Adrian. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friederich. [1885] 1954. Thus Spake Zarathustra. In The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Kaufmann, Walter. Harmonds-worth, Middlesex: Penguin. Pp. 103–349.Google Scholar
Payne, Ladell. 1968. “Willie Stark and Huey Long: Atmosphere, Myth, or Suggestion?” American Quarterly 20 (Autumn): 580-5.Google Scholar
Ruoff, James. [1957] 1977. “Humpty Dumpty and All the King's Men: Warren's Teleology.” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Chambers, Robert H.. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pp. 84–92.Google Scholar
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1938. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, vol. 1. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Allen. [1970] 1987. “Robert Penn Warren as a Philosophical Novelist.” In Modern Critical Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Bloom, Harold. New York: Chelsea House. Pp. 57–70.Google Scholar
Simmons, James C. [1971] 1977. “Adam's Lobectomy Operation and the Meaning of All the King's Men .” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Chambers, Robert H.. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pp. 73–83.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis. [1850] 1979. Democracy in America, trans. Lawrence, George and ed. Mayer, J. P.. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Warren, Robert Penn. [1946] 1974. All the King's Men. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Warren, Robert Penn. [1953] 1977. “Introduction to the Modern Library Edition of All the King's Men .” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of All the King's Men, ed. Chambers, Robert H.. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pp. 93-7.Google Scholar
Warren, Robert Penn. [1964] 1965. “ All the King's Men: The Matrix of Experience.” In Robert Penn Warren: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Longley, John Lewis Jr. New York: New York University Press. Pp. 75–81.Google Scholar
Warren, Robert Penn. 1975. Democracy and Poetry. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Whalen-Bridge, John. 1998. Political Fiction and the American Self. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Deborah. 2000. “Medusa, the Movies, and the King's Men.” In The Legacy of Robert Penn Warren, ed. Madden, David. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Pp. 70–83.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Catherine. 1981. “On Reading Classic American Novelists as Political Thinkers.” Journal of Politics 43 (September): 683–706.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Catherine. 1990. Natural Right and the American Imagination: Political Philosophy in the Novel Form. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefleld.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Catherine. 1995. “Why Political Scientists Want to Study Literature.” PS: Political Science & Politics 28 (June): 189-90.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.