Essays examine philosophical aspects of rock musician Bruce Springsteen's music, lyrics, and legacy --Provided by publisher.

Born to run the USA. Prophets and profits: poets, preachers and pragmatists / Randall E. Auxier ; Who's the boss? Springsteen on the alienation and salvation of work and labor / Steven Michels ; They play guitars all night and all day: on the ethics of encores / Steven Gimbel ; Where were you born, Bruce Springsteen, and what does it matter? / John Shook ; On the cover of the rolling stone: revolution in the U.S.A. / Doug Anderson and Russell Anderson -- When we were wild and innocent. Blinded by the subterranean homesick muse: the poet as virtuous and virtuoso / Randall E. Auxier ; Racing in the street: freedom, feminism, and collateral damage / Doug Anderson ; An everlasting kiss: the seduction of Wendy / Randall E. Auxier -- The dark edges. Driving with Springsteen into the darkness at the edge of the world / James Couch ; Thunder Road / Gary L. Herstein ; Everything dies: facing fatalism in Atlantic City / John Jacob Kaag ; Living on the edge: a reason to believe / Erin McKenna and Scott Pratt ; Living in my hometown: local philosophies for troubled times / Heather E. Keith ; Bruce Springsteen or philosophy / Michael Ventimiglia -- Tom Joad's ghosts. Straight time: images of oppression / Luke Dick ; Whatever you say, boss, or, What the Thunder Road said / Michael F. Patton, Jr ; A little of that human touch: knowledge and empathy in the music of Bruce Springsteen / Scott Calef ; Socrates the sculptor, Springsteen the poet: philosophy and art against the tyrants / Jason M. Bell and Jessica Bell ; Elvis, 57 channels, and a .44 magnum: a cross-section of Springsteen's imagination / Randall E. Auxier.