Food Issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Food Issue - Essay Example In my opinion, I would support solar-based agriculture. First, the system has been shown to be prudent in saving energy. In my place, farmers have been spending too much energy that is available to produce crops in the petroleum-based agriculture. Moreover, the solar-based will help in conserving our local environment there will be less use of fertilizers and other forms of chemicals (Pollan 1). Secondly, I would support the solar-based agriculture due to the immense benefit it has on health. This is because the petroleum-based agriculture has led to the production of cheap food that is of low quality. Such food lacks essential nutrients and mostly comprised of fats. The effect has been the rise of various chronic diseases that are costly to the American people (Pollan 1). Thirdly, solar-based agriculture will help the country reduce overreliance of food from other countries. Food from foreign countries may provide a leeway for terrorist activities. Hence, solar-based agriculture wil l help production of food locally that is free from contamination from the rest of the world (Pollan 1). Recently, there has been growing interest in the community to shift to local foods and farms. The shift has been based on several reasons. The shift to local food has been mainly due to realization that the food is healthier, nutritious and of quality value. On the other hand, the shift to local farms has been due to the high prices of food produced through local means. In fact, it has come to the attention of the farmers that consumers are willing to pay an extra cash to get locally produced

Beauty of Switzerland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Beauty of Switzerland - Essay Example They have very skilled and qualified labors. The economy is divided into many areas most prominent of them are technology including biotechnology, banking and financial services and pharmaceutical industry. Small and medium-sized enterprises play an important role in the economic development. The GDP growth rate is 2.8% nominal and 2.7% real. Â  The area of Switzerland is 41285-kilometer square and the boundary is 18558 kilometers. The boundary lines with the neighboring countries include France, Italy Austria, and France. All the four dimensions have different names, such as, Oberbargen (N 47Â ° 48 35"), Piz Chavalatsch (E 10Â ° 29 36"), Chiasso (N 45Â ° 49 08") and Chancy (E 5Â ° 57 24"). Dufourspitze has the highest elevation i.e. 4634 m.a.s (15200 feet) and Lago Maggiore has the lowest elevation i.e. 193 m.a.s (633 feet) (Renouf 2010). Â  Music: basically Switzerland is not a complete musical country but in the 20th century it had some very good composers such as Arthur Honegger, Othmar Schoeck, and Frank Martin. The music is categorized in different areas such as folk music, classical music, rock, pop, and jazz. Â  Science: The scientists from Switzerland have shown great contributions in the field of science, for instance, they introduced chemistry in the medicine. There are recognizable contributions in physics and mathematics is also made. Â  Leisure: The beautiful mountainous areas of the country have really influenced the leisure of the people. Their leisure activities include skiing, mountaineering, golf, tennis, football, basketball, gliding, swimming, mountain biking, and hiking. Â  

Leaders vs Managers Essay Example for Free

Leaders vs Managers Essay According to many scholars, management is a basically the implementation of already established processes such as planning, staffing, measuring performance and budgeting thereby enabling an organization to do well. On the other hand, leadership is entirely different. It can be described as taking an organization to the future, exploring and successfully exploiting opportunities that come up. Leadership is about having vision, empowerment and most importantly providing useful change in the organization. The main differences between leaders and managers are: the relationship between the followers and managers and leaders, how leaders and managers solve problems, and the difference in emotional intelligence between leaders and managers. Leaders and managers have a difference in emotional intelligence. A leader is an individual who strategizes a visionary and most importantly someone who inspires other people to greatness. In order to achieve this, while leading one must share their vision with the staff or people brought together to solve a problem or create a strategy. Leaders serve as role models, motivate their staff, inspire cooperation and create a community both inside and outside of the organization. They mostly follow their intuition which in most cases benefits the company and in most cases they gain followers who become loyal to them and the organization. This is a direct contradiction to managers who carry out their instructions by the book and follow the organization’s policy to the letter and as a result the staff may or may not be loyal to them. Even when the idea of a divinely appointed leader prevailed, there existed a contrary view that the leader was actually empowered by followers, this theory was analyzed by Thomas Paine â€Å"Titles are but nicknames†¦it is common opinion only that makes them anything or nothing . . . . [A]body of men, holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by anybody† (1944, pp. 59-60, 63). Another major difference between leaders and managers is how their duties and relationship with their followers differ. A leader creates or rather innovates whilst the manager administers , meaning that the leader is the individual who comes up with fresh ideas in order to move the bulk of the organization into a new direction that is more beneficial and profitable. He has to come up with new strategies and tactics by keeping his focus on the horizon constantly. It is important for him to be updated on the latest trends as well as studies and the skill sets. Contrary to this, a manager simply maintains a system that has already been established and is in use. It is his duty to maintain control and ensure that things run normally and everyone in the staff is pulling their weight and contributing fully and effectively. One of the distinguishing characteristics of a typical manager is how dependent he is on the activities of a variety of other people to perform his job effectively. (Kotter, 1983, p. 360). He is rigid and unable to be creative in carrying out his duties, thereby barring him from being considered a business leader. According to Richard Rosenberg, (1992) one of the most profound examples of the difference between leaders and managers is how computers create significant changes in any organization. He illustrates how information is able to travel from top to bottom effectively without the intervention of managers somewhere in between. This shows how the difference between leaders and managers which is that managers are easily replaceable and in some cases they are not required at all to some extent. Leaders inspire greatness and effectiveness unlike managers who more or less rely on control. In other words, leadership is not what one does but actually how they respond to you. If people do not choose to join your cause then you cannot really be considered as a leader since they have inspired no one. If people do indeed join your cause then it would mean that you have inspired them, thereby creating a bond with them and the company, which is very important particularly if the organization or business is changing rapidly and needs people who believe in it to support its mission. Leaders and managers handle and prepare for problems in a different ways. Managers prepare themselves for turbulent times and during these times the primary task is to make sure that the organization’s capacity to survive and to ensure that the it maintains its structural strength as well as is capacity to survive failure and adapt as quickly as possible in the shortest time period (Peter D., 1980). Business leaders instill a staff loyalty that a manager cannot be able to because of his rigid methods and lack of spontaneity. In the case of managers, their primary job is to control their staff by aiding them to develop their assets and discover their greatest talents. In order to do this they have to know the people working for them and understand their abilities and interests. G. Lumsden (1982) describes how middle managers model themselves on top managers in a form of hierarchical mimicry: what happens is that the behavior inheritance persists. As it is passed down deeper in the organization, sans power, such behavior begins not to work so well. And at lower levels it gets muddied even further because it’s being used on individuals who don’t understand it, aren’t impressed by it, or are downright opposed to it. (p. 8) A leader focuses on the reasons why to make certain decision whereas a manager considers how and at what times decisions are made. Managers prefer to execute plans accordingly and maintain the status quo without deviating even when failures are experienced. If the company experienced failures, then a leader would learn from it and use it as a clarification point in order to get better and avoid losses in future. Levine and M. Crom (1993) in their book â€Å"The leader in you† highlight an example of leadership changes and state that â€Å"Good human relation skills have the ability to transform people from managing others to leading them. People can learn how to move from directing to guiding, from competing to collaborating and from operating under secrecy to one of sharing all of the information required, from a mode of passivity to a mode of risk taking, from one of regarding people as an expense to one of viewing people as an asset,† (P.15) In conclusion, management and leadership are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They are however different in that leadership entails inspiration as well as steering an organization whereas management is simply overseeing and delegating.

The left realist perspective on crime

The left realist perspective on crime This assignment is about how realism define crime,it causes and how these crimes could be prevented.There are numerous crime theories, example labelling theory,life course theory,anomie theory an so forth.All of the above mentioned theories have different views in the definition of crime,it causes and prevention.This essay will talk about realism theory in particular on how they do define crime.its causes and prevention.There are two types of realism theories and these are left and right realism but for the purpose of this assignment left realism will be the key area that will be discussed on how property crime like shoplifting its causes and how it could be prevented. Left realism sees crime as a real problem for ordinary people and explains it through analysis, social and economic relationships, and how some groups become marginalised. In one regard, the left realists do share some degree of agreement with the radical theorists in that it is common ground that crime is a reaction to an unjust society (Lea and Young, 1984:45). Emergence as a means of explaining its main principles in respect of how the left realists see the causes of crime and its prevention methods. It will also identify its criminological perspectives with which it conflicts with other theories like right realism and the theory of anomie.One of the basic dogmas of the left realism is that criminals offences other than white collar crimes are serious problems and they demand to be explained and tackled.Left realist counter a number of arguments which criminologist have gone on to suggest that such offences are grievous.Jock Young(1993) argued that there has been a substantial and significance increase in street crimes since World War Two. In one regard, the left realists do share some degree of agreement with the radical theorists in that it is common ground that crime is a reaction to an unjust society (Lea and Young, 1984:45). However, on that point is also disagreement in that, unlike radical criminologists, left realists do not imagine that the criminal should not be blamed for responding by engaging in offending behavior. Offense is one form of egoistic response to loss. Its roots are injustice, but its growth often perpetrates injustice (Lea and Young, 1984:72). Lea and young believed that deprivation will only contribute to crime where it is known as relative deprivation. A group experiences relative deprivation when it feels deprived in comparism to other similar groups or when its prospects are not touched. It is not the fact of being deprived as such, only the touch of privation which is significant. Lea and Young (1984) point to a group army of young unemployed for whom a collective violence and the tempora ry ascendancy over their territory through riots is a substitute for organized crimes. Lea and Young suggested that culture and subjective meanings also have to be critically analyzed. Relative deprivation may be defined as the experience of being deprived of something to which one believes oneself to be entitled (Walker and Smith 2001). According to Runciman (1966) he argued hat the poor became aware of the scale of difference between them and the rich through political revolutions. Lea and Young asserted that not just unemployment or poverty lead to the cause of crime, it is when the feelings of resentment of the people what they could actually earn compared to their expectations which leads them to perpetrate a felonious crime. While single causes of crime are rejected, they argue that much is brought about by relative deprivation.This does not mean deprivation in itself produces crime as there is no clear evidence to substantiate this argument and such argument neglects white collar crime (Lea and Young 1993).Left realists believe that most group in a society have different expectations which are connected to what they feel they deserve.They may compare their s ituations with other members in the society whom they would expect to equal.If these expectations are not met ,they may feel deprived not absolutely but relatively.Unemployed youth in society may feel relatively deprived when they compare themselves with employed youth in the same society and this may lead them to frustration because they might feel for them being unemployed is not their fault and this can lead them in engaging them to commit property crimes such as shoplifting. The second facet of causes of crimes in left realistic perspective is marginalisation.Lea and Young argued that marginalisation means the process by which certain groups find themselves on the edge of society.Black and white working class youth sometimes feel alienated by the police force,educational institutions ,low- wages and unemployment.Young peole, example those in black community do face some level of marginalisation through prejudice and harassment example military police (stop and search) and they asserted that this may be the â€Å" straw that breaks the camel back†. Economic marginalisation that have been created by upper class in the society are transferred in criminal acts like committing property crime example shoplifting. The third problem of the left realist identified as a cause to crimes such as property crime is the problem of subculture. Lea and young argued that subculture of blacks is distinctly different from their parents who largely acceptd their marginalised position in society.Black people in a society example those in subculture has got aspirations and high expectations in life that is they always try to use status symbols like acquiring flashy cars , buying expensive clothings and the use of costly mobile phones and other expensive gadgets. Because black youth is so closely enmeshed in values of consumption style, and wealth, this is precisely why they engage in committing crime because of blocked opportunities.Lea and Young see subcultures as the collective solutions to groups problem.So, if a group of people share a sense of relative deprivation,they develop lifestyles which allow them to cope with this problem.Nevertheless,a particular subculture is not an automatic,inevitable respons e to a solution; Human creativity will allow a mixture of resolutions to be developed. These are the three main causes the left realist identified as causes of crimes.The left realists did not only focus on the offender as compared to some other theories.They did go beyong the scope of the offender and showed concerns for the victim patterns and formal and informal as well.They did so by explaining the square of crime which are the Offender, Victim,State and lastly the internal controls.Lea and Young argued that there must be interrelationship between these four elements before crime could be understood. Above all, these causes left realism adopted some approaches as a prevention methods to curb the growing of crime.Left realist believe that for crimes to be prevented ,there must be a considerable attention by focusing on practical measures .In Losing the Fight Agaisnt Crime(1986), Jock Young,Richard Kinsey and John Lea suggested the ways policing could be changed.Lea ,Young and Kinsey contended that the key to police success lies in improving relationships with the community so that stream of data which the police rely increases.To accomplish this ,they suggested minimal policing should be adopted.Even though,he indicated that the public should establish priorities for the police.Young also identified some sectors which he believes are under-policed and over-policed.Young thought the state and the police force spend too much of their time and energy in tackling certain types of crimes and not enough to others.This type of approach to policing warp the stats as to the genuineness nat ure of crime. Young and Lea also suggested that for offenses to be foreclosed, there must be some prioritization of social justice programs of crime prevention. When groups in a society feel that the law treats everyone in the same society, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, race, etc. they forget the presence of marginalisation and as such for them (lower-class) thinking that they have been prejudiced will be out of context. This will not create any social misconduct in the society henceforth prevent committing of criminal offenses. Another prevention methods the left realists adopted was the idea of prison sentences should be longer than usual which will create a solution rising crime rates.They also believed that for crimes to be prevented , the powers of the police force should be increased (Formal social Control).They did also suggested that there should be more informal social controls such as quality housing, improvement of social services,good job prospects,quality community areas like play areas; which all these create a sense of belongings. The left realists also suggested that there should be pre-emptive deterrence (situational and social target hardening) should be adopted in order to control or prevent crimes.To prevent crimes from left realists perspective involves intervention of each part of the crime at the level of factors which give putative offender (such as structural unemployment), the formal organisation (such as lack of public mobilisation),the victim (such as inadequate target hardening) and the formal systems (such as ineffective policing) (Young,1986:41). Above all,Feminist criminological theorists have been critical of left realism in its tackling both of female criminal behaviour and its failure to explain the crimes that are traditionally viewed as targeting women,such as rape.Precisely,as it could be criticised for neglecting to offer an adequate account of different types of criminal behaviour.Left realism was accused of an overly one-dimensional focus on youth,male,working-class criminal behaviour to the detriment f offenders from other socio-demographic backgrounds.Female criminality is largely unaddressed and moreover,exposes a central weaknes in one of the key principlesof left realism.Evenly, it difficult to see how left realism can explain sexual crimes against women unless it comes within the same class of violent offences that are the result of frustration following a failure to achieve legitimate success.This appears an extremely tenuous argument for such complex crimes and in any case,left realist have tended not engros s with the issue of rape to any degree thus the explanation remains speculative(Heidensohn,1985). To conclude,the left realists see the causes of crime example property crime(shoplifting) are relative deprivation,marginalisation,and subculture which all these constitute the causes of crime.They also suggested some approaches which must be practised in order to prevent crimes from happening.They suggested formal social control measures thus the police should be given more powers to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently and also suggested longer prison sentences to avert crimes from rising.Lastly they suggested informal social control measures like good job prospects,quality housing and quality community areas like playing grounds for belongingness.

Conformity Essay -- essays research papers

According to Leon Mann, conformity means ‘yielding to group pressures’. Everyone is a member of one group or another and everyone expects members of these groups to behave in certain ways. If you are a member of an identifiable group you are expected to behave appropriately to it. If you don’t confirm and behave appropriately you are likely to be rejected by the group. Like stereotypes, conforming and expecting others to conform maintains cognitive balance. There are several kinds of conformity. Many studies of conformity took place in the 1950’s which led Kelman to distinguish between compliance, internalisation and identification. Compliance is the type of conformity where the subject goes along with the group view, but privately disagrees with it. Internalisation is where the subject comes to accept, and eventually believes in the group view. Identification is where the subject accepts and believes the group view, because he or she wants to become associated with the group. Leon Mann identifies normative conformity which occurs when direct group pressure forces the individual to yield under the threat of rejection or the promise of reward. This can occur only if someone wants to be a member of the group or the groups attitudes or behaviour are important to the individual in some way. Apart from normative conformity there is informational conformity which occurs where the situation is vague or ambiguous and because the person is uncertain he or she turns to others for evidence of the appropriate response. Thirdly, Mann identifies ingratiational conformity which occurs where a person tries to do whatever he or she thinks the others will approve in order to gain acceptance (if you make yourself appear to be similar to someone else, they might come to like you). The first major research into conformity was conducted in 1935 by Sherif who used a visual illusion, known as the auto-kinetic effect. Sherif told his subjects that a spot of light which they were about to see in a darkened room was going to move, and he wanted them to say the direction and distance of the movement. In the first experimental condition the subjects were tested individually. Some said the distance of movement wasn’t very far in any directio, others said it was several inches. Sherif recorded each subjects response. In the second experimental condition, Sherif gathered his subject... ... and Willis give some criticisms of the early research into conformity. Firstly the studies do not identify the motive or type of conformity. Do the subjects conform in order to gain social approval? Are they simply complying? Do they really believe that their response is correct? Secondly Hollander and Willis claim that the experiments do not identify whether the subjects are complying because they judge that it’s not worth appearing to be different, or because the actually start to believe that the groups judgement is correct. Hollander and Willis also claim that the studies cannot show whether those who do not conform do so because they are independant thinkers or because they are anti-conformists. And Lastly, they claim that the studies seem to assume that independance has to be good and conformity has to be bad. However conformity is often benificial. Sherif and Asch have each conducted fairly artificial laboritory experiments which showed that about 30% of responses can be explained by the need or desire of the subjects to conform. These experiments may not accurately reflect real life when conformity might be benificial and sometimes contribute to psychological well-being.

The Story of Jesus Through Matthews Gospel Essay -- God Religion Jesu

The Story of Jesus Through Matthew's Gospel   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Who is this man Jesus? Where was he from? What did he do for others and us? A great source of reference to answer this question would be someone who had direct contact with him in everyday life. Someone who saw the daily wonders he created would be the best source for information. Matthew, the apostle, is believed to have written the gospel of Matthew. He was able to experience firsthand all of the amazing miracles that Jesus performed. God inspired his words, and his gospel relates to the other three gospels in overall context. They were written in different formats and styles, but the overall message and story remains constant throughout all four gospels. This creates a strong reliability that gives confidence in Matthew’s knowledge of Jesus. If the author of the gospel of Matthew was someone other than Matthew, the writings still tell an excellent story of the life of Jesus regardless of who wrote it. Therefore, the story of Jesus can be told through Mat thew and his gospel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus that traces his existence back to Abraham. This direct line of heritage back to Abraham shows the fulfillment of God’s promise through Jesus. In Genesis 15:5, God promises Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars. These descendants, who make up the people of Israel, were promised a child to be named Emmanuel (â€Å"God with us†) in Isaiah 7:14. Matthew’s gospel tells how Jesus, the child of God who will be with us forever, fulfills the promise that was given by God many years before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Matthew tells of the birth of Jesus to conclude the first chapter. Jesus surely is the Son of God because Mary conceived him even though she had no knowledge of man. In Matthew 1:20, God spoke to Joseph in a dream through an angel telling him of his intentions for Jesus and his family. Because Matthew tells of this story, he clarifies Jesus’ uniqueness from the beginning. Jesus is the Son of God who fulfills all of God’s promises, and he will change the world forever.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Matthew further depicts Jesus as the Savior of the world when he tells of the wise men coming to visit him as a baby in Bethlehem. The wise men were surely blessed because they took notice of the once in a lifetime miracle that took place in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:6 says, â€Å"for from you shall come a ruler who is to S... ...ically stay with the people for long, so he knew that he must direct them as to what to do in order to keep the message of God alive in the world forever. To conclude the gospel, Matthew records Jesus as saying, â€Å"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.† Jesus gave them the confidence and ability to continue the work of God by blessing them in this way. They carried on his message of the greatness of God for as long as they lived, and also passed it on to the next generation to share with the future. These stories of the works of Jesus written by Matthew tell of a marvelous man, who was God present among everyone on earth. He spoke and acted with wisdom, and his ministry proved that God’s love surpasses everything. Whoever was unfamiliar with Jesus would have an excellent understanding of his life and purpose after reading the gospel of Matthew. The message of the kingdom of God will live on forever through the life of Jesus. Bibliography Bible - New James Version

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and died in 1892. He has been proclaimed as one of the greatest American poets to ever live. His work has been considered both enlightened and controversial. His work has been well received all over the world and translated into over twenty-five languages. He wrote of American life, including the very dark period of American history, the Civil War or also referred to as the War Between the States. His book of poems, Leaves of Grass, which he self published has become a classic especially in reference to the Civil War. â€Å"Aroused and angry, I thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war; But soon my fingers fail’d me, my face droop’d, and I resign’d myself, To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead.† (Whitman 110) The above quote is the first lines of the poem, Drum Taps by Walt Whitman. It is but many of the poems of Leaves of Grass that Whitman wrote as he agonized over the war as it was written during the beginning of the war. It is hard to always look upon Civil War literature as only that which follows the years after the war ceased. Whitman was an essayist and a journalist as well as a poet. He wrote of the things he saw not only in his hometown but also in what he observed as he followed the war through travels and reading. A conflict of great sadness, the deepest tragedy of the Civil War was the country been torn in two by the differing of opinions of both sides but the war was among Americans, Americans fighting Americans. â€Å"Central to this task is his revaluation of the print medium, which he previously viewed as a barrier between himself and his readers, but which he now figures, in â€Å"As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life,† as deconstructing his culture's boundary-oriented notion of embodiment. Whitman does not unequivocally embrace this new model of fluidity, however. Instead, he balances fluidity and difference to illustrate for the reader both â€Å"[t]he desire to lose and the fear of losing the boundary lines in force around . . . sexual definition† (156). The 1867 Leaves of Grass, which incorporates the Civil War volume Drum-Taps ( 1865), extends Whitman's critique of the oedipal system to its patriarchal foundation.† (Maslan 131) It had been suggested that Whitman had fallen into decline after 1865 as if the views of the war and the internal strife of his country seemed to cripple him as a poet. Through all the horror and sadness that he had seen and experienced as if he could not rally himself to write with the same fervor that he did before the war and during it, but it had been such a dramatic experience for anyone at first hand that it is no wonder that his poetic inspiration would have dimmed and waned. â€Å"TO thee, old Cause! Thou peerless, passionate, good cause! Thou stern, remorseless, sweet Idea! Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands! After a strange, sad war—great war for thee, (I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be really fought, for thee;) These chants for thee—the eternal march of thee.†(Whitman 93) The Leaves of Grass incorporates such a magnitude of emotion and observation that to read each separate poem will leave the reader with the feeling of viewing it themselves but critics have retained that Whitman wrote more to himself, as if in a separate conversation with himself that he seems to be almost uncaring of the way it expresses itself to anyone else. â€Å"'70 in paper 5 in cloth . . .' appears to be a reference to copies of the first edition of Leaves of Grass which was issued in various forms. See Charles E. Feinberg, â€Å"‘Notes on Whitman Collections and Collectors,'† Walt Whitman: A Catalog. The Library of Congress ( Washington, D.C., 1955), pp. xi-xii. Whitman probably noted the sailors' monument in the Brooklyn Cemetery of the Evergreens at the interment of his father who had died 11 July 1855. ‘I see the highlands of Abyssinia' appears in line 14, section 7 of ‘Salut au Monde,' inc. ed., p. 119†. (Whitman 41) A poetic journal; observations in poetic dialogue, as he observes those around him and what the impact of the war has had upon them so that the Leaves of Grass is filled with views of Manhattan and how that part of New York dealt with the northern activity in the war against the south. Whitman was not the only American writer to be disturbed by the post Civil War period as many of them wrote of a country so vastly changed and so still almost in shock of what had happened to it. Whitman was a Northerner but the Southern writers such as Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). â€Å"This deeply pessimistic, critical view of post-Civil War America was, of course, shared by Mark Twain ( The Gilded Age) and Henry Adams ( Democracy). The moralizing fervor of the passage above seems to echo Thomas Nast's scathing Tweed Ring cartoons, which were appearing in Harper's Weekly at the very time that Whitman was composing Democratic Vistas.† (Abrams 8) Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass has seen many different publishing editions since its first conception in 1867. It has been analyzed and critiqued and praised as one of the great volumes of American poetry. It brings to vivid life for the readers one of the saddest periods of American history, the Civil War and the struggling years that followed that war as a country healed and its people recovered. Works Cited Abrams, Sam, ed. The Neglected Walt Whitman: Vital Texts. 1st ed. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993 Maslan, Mark. â€Å"Whitman and his Doubles: Division and Union in Leaves of Grass and Its Critics.† American Literary History 6.1 (1994): 119-139 Thomson, James, and Bertram Dobell. Walt Whitman, the Man and the Poet. London: The Editor, 1910. Whitman, Walt. An 1855-56 Notebook toward the Second Edition of Leaves of Grass. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1959 Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York: Modern Library, 1921