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Title: Americans: The National Experience by Daniel Joseph Boorstin ISBN: 0-394-70358-8 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 February, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: incoherent, but fun
Comment: As I said in my review of the Colonial Experience volume, this is not a history that is cogently and logically argued. Instead, it is a disjointed series of well researched stories and anecdotes - there is no attempt at analysis or to relate them to trends that contributed to the present state of America. Absolutely none, when the stories beg for them and could have been analysed with a little more effort.
Moreover, I read the book on travel and while I enjoyed it on a long train ride, I remember virtually nothing now - that is a sure mark for me of the fact that this is more fluff than real historical writing. This is one of my tests for meatiness: if I remember a lot and feel like I need to learn much more, I feel the book is a success. Well, this one fails on both counts.
Recommended as throwaway entertainment. If you want real history, look elsewhere.
Rating: 5
Summary: Quest for Community
Comment: Volume Two of The Americans trilogy covers the period between the Revolution and the Civil War when America was shaping a national identity with boundless faith in the future. Like the young Mark Twain in Roughing It, many Americans felt that westward movement alone would give them purpose and that the future would somehow take care of itself.
History books which have bored me have relied excessively on the indiscriminate accumulation of detail. While this obsessive desire to be thorough might be necessary for the education of students, quantity of detail alone fails to give the complete, balanced view of reality that I look for in all kinds of reading. One reason I like Boorstin is that he writes narrative history, favoring theme over chronology, thus allowing the continuities and significance of history to emerge. His American story comprises many smaller stories. What I thought were signs of the times often turned out to be peculiarly American characteristics.
Boorstin writes, for example, that government paid for railroads and colleges in order to serve the growing community. Spencer's dichotomy of "The Man Versus the State" in 19th century Europe was meaningless in 19th Century America because distinctions such as public and private were often blurred. It is fitting that Boorstin divided his book into "Community" and "Nationality" because community preceded government. Contrary to the myth of the rugged individual explorer, Americans traveled in groups. Settlers who headed west, regardless of motive, wrote their own Mayflower Compact before loading the wagons. Venturing into lawless areas, they formed laws for their protection. Even vigilantism was a way of maintaining order rather than flaunting it.
The second half of the book examines vagueness as a source of strength. The country grew and prospered before its geographical boundaries had been explored. Here are also passages on American ways of talking, the creation of myths and legends, the establishment of the national holiday, and the importance of political parties.
Nearly every page of Boorstin's history contains some nugget of Americana which in isolation appears to be trivial but in historical context emerges to reveal something profound about American life.
Rating: 5
Summary: Enlightening and enjoyable history
Comment: Both this book and its counterpart, The Democratic Experience, offer an anecdotal and entertaining approach to American history. In The National Experience, Boorstin focuses on the development of a national character and national customs. Rather than trying to force history to fit into a deterministic and logical mold, Boorstin shows just how the disconnectedness of American history has contributed to American development.
I find Boorstin's works very readable, and the style enjoyable. My only concern is that sometimes it seems that some complexities are ignored in favor of developing an overall theme. However, this remains one of very few histories I pick up for fun to read a few chapters.
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Title: The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0375704752 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself by Daniel Boorstin ISBN: 0394726251 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 February, 1985 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0679743758 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Hidden History by Daniel J. Boorstin, Ruth F. Boorstin, Daniel J. Boorstin Collection ISBN: 0679722238 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel Joseph Boorstin ISBN: 0679741801 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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