The twelve essayists in this critical collection examine anew two fundamental concerns of Penn Warren's landmark work, which has as valid a claim to being "The Great American Novel" as any in the literary canon. The first challenging conundrum these critics examine is narrator Jack Burden's adequacy as a historiographer and the impact of his reliability upon his alter-ego-persona-narrative: does Jack succeed in becoming an able historian of his family and of Willie Stark's political career, or does he become self-delusive and resort to a "selectively culled" history to justify himself to his audience as a trustworthy chronicler of the Willie Stark era of Jack's life. The second major thematic motif these essays explore is Penn Warren's implicit positing of a spiritual dimension to Jack Burden's quest for a viable identity to sustain him in his ultimate decision to join humanity and finally live in the history he's so long lived outside of, as a cynically un-involved observer.
The provocative efforts of these twelve scholars, fifty-six years after the publication of All the King's Men , testifies to the novel's great philosophical and psychological depths, riches that continue to induce new readers and returning readers to shadow Jack Burden in his quest of the examined life: the quest to fully engage ourselves in becoming ever more human despite our being flawed, ever-plagued by our social shortcomings, as are "all the king's men."