자본주의 사회주의 대안적 경제사회(학): The Americans: The Democratic Experience: Boorstin, Daniel J.

The Americans: The Democratic Experience: Boorstin, Daniel J.: 9780394710112: Amazon.com: Books

The Americans: The Democratic Experience Paperback – July 12, 1974
by Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 64 ratings
Book 3 of 3: Americans Series

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A study of the last 100 years of American history.
717 pages

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The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World Knowledge Trilogy (3)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Daniel J. Boorstin describes a post-Civil War America united not by ideological conviction or religious faith but by common participation in ordinary living: "A new civilization found new ways of holding men together--less and less by creed or belief, by tradition or by place, more and more by common effort and common experience, by the apparatus of daily life, by their ways of thinking about themselves." This is not a familiar litany of names, dates, and places, but an anecdotal account that rises far above impressionism and paints a compelling portrait of the United States as it climbed to new heights. Sheer reading pleasure for lovers of history, this fittingly ambitious conclusion to the Americans trilogy won the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1973. --John J. Miller
From the Inside Flap
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A study of the last 100 years of American history.

From the Back Cover
'Mr. Boorstin tells the story of the invention of a new democratic culture and the reorientation of the national character through countless little revolutions in economy, technology, and social rearrangements... Illuminated by reflections that are original, judicious and sagacious...' - Henry Steele Commager
About the Author
Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience, The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004.
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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (July 12, 1974)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 717 pages

4.2 out of 5 stars 64 ratings

Daniel J. Boorstin

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Eric F.
4.0 out of 5 stars Great bookReviewed in the United States on November 5, 2021
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Everything arrived on time and as advertised

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zen I
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting American History from someone who has done serious research.Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2020
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Very compelling reading on the progression of life and times in American through out the previous 2 centuries. I found the research in-depth and presented in a way that made it possible to jump in at any chapter along the way. Any student of American history who is interested to understand the way we got to where we are now should read this book.

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Buenoslibros.es
4.0 out of 5 stars Micro AmericaReviewed in the United States on October 23, 2009
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Not the regular history book, rather an intra-history: a history of America made by individuals, not by lords, kings, or dictators. It covers the stories of many American go-getters, from the 1880's to 1970, who made possible inventions that are today part of our daily lives: from packaging, automobiles, communications, to the moon-landing and the atom bomb. It covers so many aspects of America's popular culture, consumption, technology, education philosophies, that it lacks focus.

A microcosm of America.

You may be interested in some stories here, but there are many more that -probably- you won't care at all for. A pity, Mr. Boorstin knows how to write well, but this is almost like reading an encyclopedia.

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Dave Porter
3.0 out of 5 stars not what I thoughtReviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020
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I thought these 3 books would trace one family through multiple generations, but, they didn't. These 3 books are semi-documentaries about how America evolved to our present condition. I find the books dry, and hard to read.

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goathugger
4.0 out of 5 stars but a good readReviewed in the United States on September 5, 2016
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Not as engrossing as Borrstin's Colonial Experience and National Experience, but a good read

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PMaddx
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read!Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2018
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Very informative, interesting, a lot of bits of information about U.S. History that is never told or given in public schools. An excellent read!!!
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Aug 01, 2015Jim rated it really liked it

This is a remarkable book about colonial life in America, presented in a fashion quite unlike most history books provide. Boorstin looks at various aspects of life - religion, literacy and literature, the press, the military - and examines them in turn, and paints a picture of life in the colonies as reflected in the activities of the colonists. It is an excellent way into the beginnings of American history, from a fresh and innovative perspective.

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Aug 13, 2009Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, history, boorstin

What a difference just one book can make in your knowledge and understanding of something. This one definitely did it for me and American history. Funny thing is this was just the first of three books in The Americans trilogy written by Daniel J. Boorstin. On that note, what a difference an author can make! Boorstin reminds me of Carl Sagan in that he tended to romanticize his subject matter, subject matter considered tedious to most people, and to break it down in a way that most could appreciate. Click (view spoiler) for Boorstin's credentials.

Prior to reading this book, I knew bits and pieces of American history, but now I feel I have a very solid, fundamental understanding of America’s beginnings. Boorstin did a great job at giving a ground level view that encompassed everything from the first major colonies of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia and what influenced their distinct development and personality to the ways and degrees in which the colonials were vested in (or rather casual about) law, medicine, science, literature, warfare, etc. More than anything, Boorstin describes the overall frame of mind during these times – a frame of mind that was heavily influenced by the unending freedom, space and natural resources of America along with the benefits of the European roots. Colonial America wasn’t too keen on dogmas, philosophical ideals, and the worshipping of those “specialists” such as the English clergy, philosophers, and other European “experts”. They didn’t count on laboratory experiments or theorizing to understand their new world, but counted on day-to-day experience. Although they would make record of such experiences as sighting unfamiliar plants and animals, they'd leave it to the Europeans to muster over this information how they saw fit. They were jacks-of-all-trades. They were great implementers. They were literate, but not literary. Interestingly, as a group they spoke better English than the English themselves, primarily due to the way in which the colonial classes intermingled as well as their supposed desire to remain credible sounding to their mother England. They were also, it’s important to recognize, very crude in ways (as any new beginner can be) as exemplified by the behavior of their militiamen.

It's important to note that this book reads somewhat like an essay due to it's sharp focus, but seems to fan out mid way due to its engaging quality. Also important to note is that this book gives virtually no time to the discussion of slavery and only brief mention of Native American influences such as warfare and agriculture. It is admittedly focused on the landowners and other free colonials and their comparison to and evolvement away from their counterparts in England.

Last of all, Boorstin seems to have been a great fan of America and its history and may seem to give too much credit to the colonial Americans and not enough to their European forefathers. However, if you look closely you’ll see that he was more than aware of Europe’s influence on early America; he just chose to focus on the idyllic, romantic uniqueness of what America incidentally was which I feel is a legitimate perspective as long as the reader keeps in mind that this perspective is not all inclusive of American History. I consider this book an invaluable resource for those interested in American history!
(less)

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Jun 19, 2021Mike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, america, culture, history, ebook

A serious book for the student of American history, providing interesting views on how our colonial experience formed the nation. Boorstin is way smarter than the average bear but he assembles his arguments so clearly even I could follow. He divides the book into four major ideas. The first is on how the colonist’s visions of life in the new world came to be realized or not.
The Puritans established their community with very strict rules according to their orthodoxy. They didn’t want or accept anyone who wasn’t part of their religious beliefs. But their experiences in America forced them to make compromises and eventually come to the idea that toleration was required. They also understood that government requires good, moral people to hold positions and that power must be restricted and limited. We are certainly learning the importance of these principles today:
(view spoiler)

The Quakers also established their communities with rules according to their beliefs. But unlike the Puritans, the Quakers could not or would not adjust their vision to the realities of life in the New World. This became especially critical as settlers clashed with the Native Americans and suffered in the process.
(view spoiler)

The attraction of the colonies to the European hoi polloi:
(view spoiler)

The second major theme deals with education and knowledge. Boorstin makes clear there were no great philosophers in America. The experience of the real world was the laboratory for freedom. The legal and medical professions are also discussed along with scientific discovery.

(view spoiler)

Sadly, modern America with it’s tech monopolies no longer believes in the power of truth to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Earlier in our history, there was a higher opinion of people than exists today:

(view spoiler)

Ben Franklin would not be happy with the state of public discourse today…or the lack of it:
(view spoiler)

Medicine in America does not advance the practice but profits from the lack of European techniques:
And in Franklin’s Philadelphia people were handing about a pointed epigram of “The Advantages of having two Phisicians”,

One prompt Phisician like a sculler plies,
And all his Art, and skill applies;
But two Phisicians, like a pair of Oars,
Convey you soonest to the Stygian Shores.

The practice of medicine was amazingly stratified. At the top, doctors of medicine did not work with their hands.
(view spoiler)
The third major section deals with language and the power of the printed word.
(view spoiler)

One of the benefits of not having a European education is a mind open to new discovery. Ben Franklin is a great example. After Franklin spent so much time in Europe, his discoveries declined because he “knew how things were supposed to work” rather than wondering how something works…like electricity:

(view spoiler)

The last major theme deals with war and diplomacy. I grew up in the north where ‘Indian Summer” was a warm and happy experience. Boorstin reveals the origin of the term was not so idyllic:
(view spoiler)

Women had to fend off attacks, just as the men did. In either case, the population knew they were the “first responders” in today’s language.
(view spoiler)

The idea of the American backwoods marksman was well used:
(view spoiler)

The natural right to keep and bear arms is a result of experience.
(view spoiler)

There was only one area that I wish Boorstin had covered in more detail. That is what the impact of slavery was on colonial America. He covers it only in the case of what impact it had on land use and skills needed by the plantation owners. Overall 5 Stars (less)

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Dec 09, 2012David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

This book is the first of a trilogy by Daniel Boorstin. The book takes the reader through an in-depth analysis of life in pre-revolutionary America. Compared to more recent history books, this one is a bit dry, but nevertheless very interesting, and comprehensive in scope. The book shows how a large chunk of English culture was planted into the American psyche. But the huge area of the country, the relative sparseness of settlements, the isolation caused by difficulties in transportation, the constant threats of Indian, French, and Spanish attacks, led to some very important differences. Colonial Americans had a stronger sense of equality, provincialism, and practical "know-how" than people in England. Their sense of equality demanded that militia elect their own leaders! Despite their isolation, Colonial Americans spoke a purer form of English language, and linguistically their speech was much more homogeneous across the entire country, than neighboring cities in England.

Four colonies are examined in detail; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia. The charters of these colonies were quite different, and their varied geographies contributed to big differences in psychology, politics, and attitudes, especially towards religion. Colonials read a lot, especially newspapers. The press was censored by state governments, but more people read newspapers than in any other country of the time. In some of the colonies, church and state were very closely tied.

There are plenty of fascinating analyses of all facets of life in Colonial America. This book is essential reading for anybody interested in early history of the country. (less)

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Aug 04, 2022Paul Haspel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: united-states-of-america

The Americans of the United States have done much to change the world in the two and a half centuries since the country was founded. And the eminent historian Daniel Boorstin, in his three-volume study The Americans (1958-74), performed a valuable service in depicting the continuity of certain pre-eminent national and cultural characteristics among the American people – characteristics that any ordinary American, living in the time when these books were published, could have observed from the presidential administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower to that of Gerald R. Ford. The first volume of The Americans, with the subtitle The Colonial Experience, shows how that process of identity formation, American-style, can be traced all the way back to the nation’s colonial founding.

Boorstin’s own life is as fascinating as the histories he wrote. On his way to becoming a University of Chicago historian, and the 12th Librarian of the U.S. Congress, he was a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University, and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. After a brief, pre-World War II membership in the Communist Party, he moved toward more conservative views, willingly testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee regarding former party comrades. He was also among the historians of the mid-20th-century “consensus school” who emphasized American unity and downplayed cultural and social divisions within U.S. society. Such views might have found wider acceptance in the “I Like Ike” days of 1958, when Volume 1 of The Americans was published, than in the more turbulent years of 1967 and 1974 when the second and third volumes of the work reached the reading public.

The reader of a book with a title like The Americans and a subtitle like The Colonial Experience might typically expect a linear history that starts with Roanoke Island, Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay, and proceeds steadily forward until it ends with various Signers fixing their signatures to the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776 – but that is not how The Colonial Experience, or any of the three volumes of Boorstin’s The Americans, works.

Rather, this book calls to mind works like Andrew Malcolm’s The Canadians (1985), John Hooper’s The Spaniards (1986), Marion Kaplan’s The Portuguese: The Land and Its People (1992), or Patrick Oster’s The Mexicans: A Personal Portrait of a People (2002). Such works invoke history, to be sure, but their primary purpose is to provide insight regarding the national character of a people. Boorstin’s The Americans works in much the same way.

The reader of The Americans: The Colonial Experience will perceive very quickly that Boorstin sees a focus on the practical rather than the theoretical as being a core trait of the American character – and that he feels that the demands and pressures of colonial life fostered in colonial Americans this pragmatic mindset that remains central to the thinking of contemporary Americans.

When writing about the New England colonies, for example, Boorstin argues that “[W]hat really distinguished them in their day was that they were less interested in theology itself, than in the application of theology to everyday life, and especially to society. From the 17th-century point of view, their interest in theology was practical” (p. 5), and adds shortly afterward that “If, indeed, the Puritans were theology-minded, what they argued about was institutions” (p. 6). The focus on practical application of ideas to the life of a society, on the formation of sound social institutions, all sounds very American.

And it is clear that Boorstin is looking ahead toward the Constitutional Convention of 1787 when he writes that the Puritans of New England faced three key problems of social organization: “The first was how to select leaders and representatives” (p. 29); “Their second concern was with the proper limits of political power” (p. 30); and “The Puritan’s third major problem was, what made for a feasible federal organization? How should power be distributed between local and central organs?” (p. 32) John Winthrop in Massachusetts Bay could just as well have been paging James Madison in Philadelphia.

Boorstin reviews various models of colonial organization – religious reformism in Puritan New England, rigid adherence to moral principles in Quaker Pennsylvania, humanitarian philanthropy in Georgia – and finds all of them lacking, precisely because the founders’ idealism rendered them unable to cope with specific realities of the colonial situation. In Virginia, by contrast, where the hope was to establish a profitable colony that would recreate in the New World the social model of the English gentry, Boorstin sees a healthy focus on the practical: “Here we see no grandiose scheme, no attempt to rule by an idea, but an earthy effort to transplant institutions….Squire Westerns and Horace Walpoles underwent an Atlantic sea-change which made them into Edmund Pendletons, Thomas Jeffersons, and George Washingtons. What made them American was not what they sought but what they accomplished” (pp. 97-98).

Boorstin then looks at various fields of colonial American life – education, law, medicine, science, language, culture, the media, diplomacy, defense policy – always with an eye on how the new American model in the colonies diverged from the British paradigm of the mother country. With regard to the legal profession, for instance, Boorstin points out how the frontier circumstances of the American colonies meant that there was a relative lack of formal legal training for lawyers in colonial America – no Inns of Court or anything like that. Accordingly, emphasis in the colonies, for budding American lawyers, was placed on the knowledge that one could gather through apprenticeship – “reading law” with an established lawyer – and on establishing a record of good moral character. One of the results was that

Out of a distrust of lawyers grew a widening respect for law. The American Revolution could be framed in legal language because that language spoke for the literate community. The great issues of American politics through the Civil War in the 19th century and the New Deal in the 20th would be cast in legal language – the sacred test of “constitutionality” – precisely because Americans saw the revered legal framework as the skeleton on which the community had grown. (p. 206)

One can see this characteristically American dichotomy every time one sees or hears an American who moves seamlessly from complaining about lawyers with one breath, to looking at a proposed new piece of federal legislation in the next, and arguing passionately about whether or not it is Constitutional.

I particularly enjoyed Boorstin’s reflections on how the development of the English language spoken in the United States of America came to be so different from the British English spoken in the mother country:

Our insistent spelling-pronunciation shows itself in our habit of preserving the full value of syllables. In long words like secretary, explanatory, laboratory, and cemetery, we preserve the full value of all, including the next-to-last syllable, while the English almost always drop that syllable and say ‘secret’ry,’ ‘explanat’ry,’ ‘laborat’ry,’ and ‘cemet’ry.’ These are only a few examples of the American insistence on giving every spelled syllable its fully pronounced due. (p. 285)

Professor Henry Higgins, the arrogant linguist from the musical play and film My Fair Lady, can joke if he likes about how "the Americans haven’t spoken [the English language] in years"; but I think most observers, on either side of the pond, would agree that American English has proven to be a powerful instrument for expression that is both direct and eloquent, both terse and profound, in fields from literature (e.g., Hemingway) to politics (e.g., Lincoln).

The consistent emphasis, throughout The Americans: The Colonial Experience, is on how U.S. society, from its colonial antecedents forward, focused on innovation rather than tradition, the practical rather than the ideal, the functional rather than the ornamental. I look forward to seeing how Boorstin continues to apply the arguments of this first volume of The Americans in Volume 2, The Democratic Experience, and Volume 3, The National Experience. (less)

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Apr 23, 2017Daniel rated it did not like it

Shelves: history

Heralded as "the winner of the Bancroft Prize," this doesn't speak well for the Bancroft Prize. I cannot remember reading a nonfiction account of any chapter of American history which consists of more didactic dribble, more tripe, more utter garbage than Daniel Boorstin's "The Americans, Vol. 1: The Colonial Experience."

I feel more ignorant of our nation's history having read this. Nearly every chapter begins with wide sweeping hyperbole regarding some facet of American Colonial life -much of it untrue. Boorstin's treatment of race and gender are . . .nonexistent. In one chapter entitled "How the Puritans resisted the temptation of Utopia," he writes:

"Perhaps because their basic theoretical questions had been settled, the Puritans were able to concentrate on human and practical problems." As you can imagine, he speaks of the Puritans with glowing reviews. He refers to Native Americans as "savages." You get the picture.

My advice to the reader considering picking up this tome is "Run!" (less)

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Mar 21, 2017Aaron Crofut rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, american-revolution

Boorstin's book is like going to a reenactment without having to leave your house. In this beautifully written work, he lays out the facts of colonial life as the average colonial would have understood it, and then draws out important conclusions about how those facts impacted the greater scheme of things. Most of the American identity was not created in the books of Enlightenment philosophes but in the pragmatic necessity of living in a wilderness far removed from civilization. It reminded me a great deal of Michael Oakeshott's idea that ideology is created by idealizing how things are done, rather than creating a working theory ex nihilo and then imposing it upon people.

I have pages of notes on this book; I could review the interesting differences between the hardline but pragmatic Puritans and the supposedly doctrine free but very doctrinaire Quakers, how Georgia was supposed to be built upon silk (?!), the particularly interesting blend of aristocracy and commercial spirit that created Virginia's upper class and our first breed of presidents, the details of the literate but not literary people who lived in colonial America, and the militia spirit that was so irksome of anyone trying to lead them into battle. But the one theme keeps rising up among all topics: pragmatism. Lacking the "knowing" upper classes of Europe, and not even really wanting them, Americans take to reading, science, geography, law, and religion by doing and reading practical guides rather than theoretical works. Governors become doctors, planters must have a basic understanding of legal principles (hence the rise of Blackstone), every man had to be able to defend his homestead against whatever might come out of the wilderness…they were jacks of all trades, masters of none but competent in all.

To the important question of any history book: why does this matter today? We obviously do not live in the wilderness of colonial America; our advanced economy could not function without a high degree of specialization. What worked for America in 1700 obviously is not the answer for the year 2017…or is it? No, we don't want country doctors instead of trained surgeons, and in court it helps to have a competent lawyer rather than pleading for oneself, but we have lost some important traits with this specialization, perhaps most importantly a sense of egalitarianism. That's not the same as equality of wealth; rather, I mean the sense that any man is competent and deserves respect for that very reason. We now have our own "knowing class" that is just as self-perpetuating as that of old time Europe.

Tradition and modernization are always in competition but never pulling exactly opposite of one another. Our way forward must remember, cherish, and preserve the values of our ancestors to keep the benefits they bestowed upon us, while fitting them into a world of new technology and specialization. Some of the old will have to go, but if we toss too much, we'll surely come to regret it. If nothing else, it is important to understand how the colonials understood their world in order to understand the documents they have passed on to us that impact ours. (less)

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Jul 27, 2016Godlarvae rated it really liked it

Shelves: history-colonial-america

I can add nothing that hasn't been already noted in other reviews. This a tour de force by Brother Boorstin that brings reality to those days so long ago when America was clearly a magnificent experiment. Our geography, our settlers, our national background is so entirely different from Western Europe that one wonders how it ever got off the ground except through HARD work, commitment, and the hope for better things to come. Well worth the read . . . (less)

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Jan 22, 2019Whiskey Tango rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

The American Colonies survived and thrived due to pragmatism. Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004), Librarian of Congress, was a great 20th Century historian who popularized intellectual history. “The Colonial Experience” is the first in his America Trilogy about American intellectual history; (he won the Bancroft History Prize for this first volume and the Pulitzer for his third volume in this series.) Boorstin also wrote about world intellectual history in his Knowledge Trilogy. (The Discovers; The Creators; and The Seekers.) I have read all six books in these twin trilogies.

In “The Colonial Experience,” Boorstin presents four themes relating to the role of pragmatism in America. (Boorstin is not quite as free as I am in using the word “pragmatism.”) Nonetheless, I restate his themes in my own words to be more succinct, direct and less academic.

Theme I. UTOPIAS DO NOT WORK.
The colonies were “a disproving ground for utopias." The grandiose dreams of the Old World were “wrecked and transformed by the American reality.” Boorstin cites four separate colonial experiences of the 17th Century: Puritans of Massachusetts; Quakers of Pennsylvania; criminals and debtors of Georgia; and planters of Virginia to illustrate his belief that success or failure of the colonies depended on the degree to which they adopted pragmatism rather than adhering to abstract ideologies.

a) Massachusetts (Success). Pragmatic religion works. Despite the rhetoric (“We shall be as a City upon a Hill”), Puritans of Massachusetts were not utopians, rather they applied practical theology to everyday life. These community builders were stirred by sermons and town meetings to mark boundaries, fight for land titles, enforce laws, and fight Indians. Calvinistic pessimism about the nature of humans discouraged utopian daydreams, so the Puritans concentrated on practical problems: 1) selecting leaders; 2) limiting political power; and 3) devising a feasible federal organization.

b) Pennsylvania Quakers (Unsuccessful). Utopianism fails. Quakers don’t believe in creeds; they made a dogma of the absence of dogma. The lack of creed deprived the Quaker of the theological security which had enabled the Puritan to adapt Calvinism to American life. Quakers were nice people who believed in: equality; informality; simplicity; and tolerance, but they were undone by pacifism, a preoccupation with the purity of their own souls, and a rigidity of belief. Compromise with the world is a must. Instead Quakers turned away from the community and inward to themselves. “Neither the martyr nor the doctrinaire could flourish on American soil.”

c) Georgia (Unsuccessful). Philanthropic idealism fails as a governing philosophy. The idea seemed brilliant: take the England’s poor, ship them to Georgia, give them a plot of land and teach them to make silk. Georgia’s trustees, from the comfort of London, made detailed and rigid plans too far in advance and too far from the scene of the experiment. Georgians lacked the spontaneity and experimental spirit which were “the real spiritual wealth of America." " Philanthropists, like martyrs, missionaries, and apostles of the Good, are dogmatists who have never been noted for their experimental spirit; they are 'philanthropists' precisely because they know what is good and how to accomplish it."

d) Virginia (Successful). Transplantation worked. Unlike other colonies, Virginia sought to replicate England’s virtue rather than to escape its vice. Virginia became an aristocracy of enterprising planters who developed the habit of command and took their political duties seriously and ruled Virginia like a large plantation. Virginia was not founded by religious refugees seeking a passionate new Zion or City of Brotherly Love, but Virginians emphasized strengthening the fabric of society by ancient and durable thread of religion which emphasized institutions rather than doctrines.

Theme II. EXPERIENCE BEATS “TRUTH.”
Americans accepted only self-evident ideas that proved themselves in experience. American facts destroyed European theories. In Europe, rulers and priests controlled knowledge, but American culture was uncongenial to credentials of the special class. Americans did not believe the notion that every institution needed a grand foundation of systematic thought; nor that successful government had to be supported by political theory; nor that religion had to be supported by subtle theology. Questions were to be settled in the arena of experience and the marketplace. As examples, Boorstin cites how doctors, lawyers, ministers, farmers focused on being general practitioners and flexible to new what worked for new challenges.

Theme III. PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE IS DIFFUSED TO THE PUBLIC.
Books ceased to be the property of a literary class. Americans published practical knowledge in a wide variety of printed matter: newspapers; pamphlets; broadsides; almanacs; primers; sermons; tracts; practical guidebooks; dictionaries; and Biblical commentaries. This vast variety allowed Americans to develop a standardized American English, spoken by people spread over 3 million miles.

Theme IV. HOMESTEADERS OUTFIGHT PROFESSIONAL SOLIDERS.
In America, war was a task for armed citizens. Just as everybody in America was somewhat literate but none was greatly literary, everybody was a bit of a soldier but not completely so. In Europe, rulers were reluctant to put the means of revolt into the hands of their subjects, but in America the requirements for self-defense and food gathering had put firearms in the hands of nearly everyone. Because of the poor communications, the vast terrain, and the ways of Indian fighting, war could seldom be a centrally directed operation; instead it was a mass of scattered encounters by small groups and individuals acting on their own.

Professional soldiers killed in distant lands and for reasons not understood, whereas the colonial American defended his home and refused to serve as a pawn in a monarch’s grand strategy. Americans did not think of men marching off to battle, but of a man standing beside his neighbors to fend off the enemy attacking his village.

Boorstin provides a scholarly yet readable intellectual history of colonial America and presents evidence about the benefits of pragmatism in successful governance. He continues this theme in subsequent volumes in the Americans Trilogy. Pragmatism is part of American cultural DNA. Having a consistent, systematic philosophy may be appealing to some on an abstract intellectual level, but Boorstin had his doubts that there is one grand unifying theory governing human experience. If it exists at all, we will stumble into by trial and error (as Boorstin will continue to explain in coming volumes.)

I have read and reviewed all three books in Boorstin’s American Trilogy:

Volume 1: The Colonial Experience
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
(Pragmatism and pursuit of self-interest form successful colonies from the wilderness to the American Revolution.) Winner of the Bancroft Prize for History;

Volume 2: The National Experience
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
(Pragmatism and pursuit of self-interest form a nation from the American Revolutionary War from to the Civil War.) Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize for History;

Volume 3: The Democratic Experience
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
(Pragmatism and self-interest form a Democratic Superpower from the Civil War to the publication of the book in 1974.) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History. (less)

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Aug 16, 2017Trish rated it liked it

This book is rather dry and, I believe, was intended to be a text book. I waded through and parts were rather interesting. The author explains why the conditions unique to the United States shaped who and what the U.S. Is today.

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Jul 04, 2015Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, religion, law, colonial-america

Daniel Boorstin’s The Americans delivers a cultural history of the American colonies, beginning first with profiles on the disparate groups that settled on the eastern seaboard (Puritans, Quakers, and Cavaliers), and then following the growth of American religion, law, and education in the new world. Though appearing weighty, being five hundred pages or so, the expanse flies by in a multitude of comparatively short chapters, divided (appropriately enough) into thirteen sections. This is an inbetween America, neither raw nor finished. For students of American history, this is deftly written, and gives a feel for how truly distinct the settling populations were, both in their origins and in their evolution. While the Pennsylvania Quakers and New England Puritans set out to create utopias on a fresh plain, for instance, Virginia’s settlers knew perfectly well that the utopian mark already existed in England, and their intention was to re-create its social institutions. Despite the wide variety of these cultures, constant resettlement from one area to another in the pursue of fresh land ensured a mix of experience, and prevented rabid clannishness. Despite being mostly agrarian, agriculture would be the nascent American civilization’s weak point: flush with land, no one had any interest in putting a great deal of imagination or work into improving their lot. Once tobacco or cotton had drained the soil, they could simply move on. Otherwise, the abounding energy and optimism of the Americas, so distant from the institutions of Europe, allowed for enthusiastic questioning that led to early triumphs in technological and scientific innovation. For Americans interested in the lives of the founders, this provides an enormous amount of storied context. (less)

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Oct 22, 2015Kyle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Colonial Experience provides interesting perspectives on the period. Boorstin posits that the challenges of frontier life and physical distance from Europe created a unique incubator for a new society. His topical approach deals with political/religious institutions, intellectual development, the impact of language and the press, and briefly with the early roots of foreign policy.

Boorstin's work is clearly well researched. Although his writing style feels a bit stiff and formulaic at times, it is largely effective. His patriotism is also quite apparent. When discussing Native Amercan relations it can border on something stronger than patriotism, although in most other instances his biases are less problematic.

The high points are nuanced comparisons between the new and old worlds. In one example, colonial scientific pursuits are shown to lack rigor - new world scientists are largely seen as indiscriminate data gathers and tinkerers - whereas Europeans are presented as more apt to draw unified conclusions from data sets collected by colonials. However, the new world's freer attitudes allowed for intuitive leaps, such as Franklin's experiments with electricity, that were precluded by theoretical dogma across the pond.

Ultimately the text is worth reading. It is interesting and, for the most part, thoughtful. It is not an introduction to American history. It assumes familiarity with the major events and people - look elsewhere if you want a factual primer. (less)
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The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World Knowledge Trilogy (3) Paperback – October 26, 1999

by Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)

4.7 out of 5 stars 114 ratings

From the author of The Discoverers and The Creators, an incomparable history of man's essential questions: "Who are we?" and "Why are we here?"

Daniel J. Boorstin, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Americans, introduces us to some of the great pioneering seekers whose faith and thought have for centuries led man's search for meaning.

Moses sought truth in God above while Sophocles looked to reason. Thomas More and Machiavelli pursued truth through social change. And in the modern age, Marx and Einstein found meaning in the sciences. In this epic intellectual adventure story, Boorstin follows the great seekers from the heroic age of prophets and philosophers to the present age of skepticism as they grapple with the great questions that have always challenged man.

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Print length 351 pages

The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World Knowledge Trilogy (3)+The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination+The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Impressive. . . . Boorstin reminds us what intellectual history on the grand scale looks like." —The New York Times Book Review

"Unexcelled. . . . [It] confirms Boorstin's rank as one of the giants of twentieth-century American scholarship." —George F. Will

"Delivered with . . . skill, unalloyed admiration, and a keen eye for detail." —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"An admirable volume, thoroughly researched and beautifully arranged." —Washington Times

From the Back Cover

A "New York Times Notable Book of the Year

From the author of The Discoverers and The Creators, an incomparable history of man's essential questions: "Who are we?" and "Why are we here?"

About the Author

Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience; The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004.

AN ANCIENT HERITAGE

We have a common sky. A common firmament encompasses us. What matters it by what kind of learned theory each man looketh for the truth? There is no one way that will take us to so mighty a secret.

--Symmachus, on replacing the statue of victory in the roman forum, a.d. 384

Great Seekers never become obsolete. Their answers may be displaced, but the questions they posed remain. We inherit and are enriched by their ways of asking. The Hebrew prophets and the ancient Greek philosophers remain alive to challenge us. Their voices resound across the millennia with a power far out of proportion to their brief lives or the small communities where they lived. Christianity brought together their appeal to the God above and the reason within--into churches, monasteries, and universities that long survived their founders. These would guide, solace, and confine Seekers for the Western centuries.

PART ONE

THE WAY OF PROPHETS:

A HIGHER AUTHORITY

When we do science, we are pantheists;

when we do poetry, we are polytheists;

when we moralize we are monotheists.

--Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

From Seer to Prophet: Moses' Test of Obedience

The future has always been the great treasure-house of meaning. People everywhere, dissatisfied with naked experience, have clothed the present with signs of things to come. They have found clues in the lives of

sacrificial animals, in the flight of birds, in the movements of the planets, in their own dreams and sneezes. The saga of the prophets records efforts to cease being the victim of the gods' whims by deciphering divine

intentions in advance, toward becoming an independent self-conscious self, freely choosing beliefs.

The Mesopotamians experimented with ways to force from the present the secrets of the future. Diviners watched smoke curling up from burning incense, they interpreted the figures on clay dice to give a name to the

coming year. They answered questions about the future by pouring oil into a bowl of water held on their lap and noting its movement on the surface or toward the rim.

The Hebrew scriptures leave traces of how they too sensed the divine intention, and gave today's experience the iridescence of tomorrow. Jacob "dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it

reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, 'I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.' " And the chief priest used the Urim and Thummim, sacred stones carried in his breastplate. These gave the divine answer, by whether the "yes" or the "no" stone was first drawn out.

David consulted just such an oracle, manipulated by the priest Abiathar, before going into battle against Saul. When the "yes" stone appeared, forecasting his victory over the Philistines, he advanced in battle.

"A man who is now called a 'prophet' (nabi)," we read in the Book of Samuel, "was formerly called a 'seer.' " The "seer" was one who saw the future, and his influence came from his power to predict. The priest-predictor who admitted his clients into the intentions of the gods was held in awe when his predictions came true. The prophet had a different kind of power. He was a nabi ("proclaimer" or "announcer") and spoke with the awesome authority of God himself. So, the ancient Hebrew prophets opened the way to belief. "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, . . ." declared the Lord, "and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deuteronomy 18:18). They used the words "mouth" and "nabi" interchangeably. Our English "prophet" (from the Greek: a speaker before, or for) carries the same message.

While the seer forecast how events would turn out, the prophet prescribed what men should believe, and how they should behave. In ancient Israel the two roles at first were not always easily distinguished. But seers, mere forecasters, came to be displaced by prophets, touched by the divinity for whom they spoke.

It was this transformed role that opened the way to the discovery of belief, toward the self-consciousness that awakened people to their freedom to choose, and their responsibilities for choice. The history of ancient

Hebrew prophecy is a saga of this unfolding self. The seers, adept at interpreting signs and omens, sometimes drew on their own dreams and visions of ghosts and spirits for sights of the future. The seer could see things on earth that others could not see. But the prophet carried messages from another world. It is not surprising, then, that this "Man of the Spirit" heard his message in ecstasy and so seemed "touched" with madness.

His ecstasy was commonly a group phenomenon, sometimes expressed in song. This view of the prophet as messenger of God is distinctively biblical. With it came distrust of the techniques and tricks of the seer-the ways of the pagan Canaanite.

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don't follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there. Don't sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don't let your

people practice divination or look for omens or use spells or charms, and don't let them consult the spirits of the dead. . . . In the land you are about to occupy, people follow the advice of those who practice divination

and look for omens, but the Lord your God does not allow you to do this.

Instead, he will send you a prophet like me [Moses] from among your own people, and you are to obey him. (Deuteronomy 18:9-22)

When the founding prophet, Moses, spoke to the Pharaoh he spoke for God:

"Thus said Yahweh." And it was through the prophets that God governed His people. What proved crucial for the future of belief in the West was the Hebraic ideology that came with the Mosaic religion. The single all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent God would impose on mankind the obligation of belief-and eventually of choice. This "ethical monotheism" would create its own conundrums.

When the prophet brought no mere blueprint of the future but the commandments of God, he offered a new test of the believer, the Test of Obedience. Moses, who had seen God face-to-face, brought the Ten Commandments direct from God on Sinai. The first five commandments-prohibiting the worship of alien gods, forbidding idolatry and blasphemy, commanding observance of the Sabbath and honor to parents-affirmed the traditions of their society. But the remaining five commandments, all cast in the negative-prohibiting murder, adultery, theft, false testifying, and the coveting of neighbors' goods-emphasize the freedom of the hearer to choose a way of right belief and so avoid sin. The Ten Commandments thus made obedience the mark of the believer. This idea would become, millennia later, the very heart of Islam (from Arabic, for "resignation," surrendering to God's will).

But another distinctive element of the Mosaic religion would open the gateways of belief. The intimate God of Moses had mysteriously shared powers with his creatures. He even treated his people as his equals by covenanting with them. The supreme paradox was that this all-powerful Creator-God sought a voluntary relation with his creatures. And the relation between God and his chosen people, the Children of Israel, was to be freely chosen on both sides. "If you listen to these commands and obey them faithfully, then the Lord your God will continue to keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors." This peculiar covenant relationship between God and his creatures proclaimed God's preference for a freely given obedience. This signaled the divine intention that man's life should be ruled by his choices and was the historic Hebrew affirmation of free will. As the ancient Hebrews were His chosen people, so He was their chosen God.

About the eighth century b.c. the oracles of the Hebrew prophets were written down by the prophets or their scribes. Then the prophets assumed a role beyond the community where they lived to whom God had first addressed

His message. The prophet's oracles now addressed all who would know his words-even far beyond his own time and place. So the utterances of prophets became an enduring prophetic literature. And the words of the prophets

became a body of divine teachings valid for people everywhere. Thus writing expanded tribal revelations into a world religion. Such a transformation had occurred before when the utterances of Zarathustra (late second

millennium b.c.) became the foundations of Zoroastrianism. It would occur later, too, with the recording of the words of Jesus, and then with the utterances of Mohammed in the seventh century.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; First Vintage edition (October 26, 1999)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 351 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0375704752

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375704758

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #429,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#468 in Social Philosophy

#725 in Philosophy History & Survey

#938 in Religious Philosophy (Books)

Customer Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars 114 ratings

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The Americans: The Democratic Experience: Boorstin, Daniel J.

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