The Americans: The Democratic Experience [Paperback]

Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0394710118 | ISBN-13: 978-0394710112 | Publication Date: July 12, 1974

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

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

Review

"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

"A huge, fascinating omnibus of a book ... an exhilarating adventure that carries us along the highways and byways of a national history like no other."

-- John K. Hutchens Book-of-the-Month-Club News

"I have learned a great deal about the USA from Professor Boorstin's new book. He knows this country of ours as few historians know it ... I read his book with delight and gratitude."

-- Saul Bellow


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (July 12, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394710118
• ISBN-13: 978-0394710112
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting things you probably just took for granted, November 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Americans: The Democratic Experience (Paperback)

Aside from the fact that Daniel Boorstin writes with real grace, which makes this final volume in his trilogy about American life a pleasure to read, it is filled with a consideration of subjects that you most likely never thought about as being part of "American history"--at least as it's taught in school--yet these are the events and the people who made the world we actually LIVE in: the businessmen and idea people who created the mail-order catalogue, the department store, the oil industry, and even the divorce industry, which played a surprising commercial role in the American west. Boorstin tells about people whose names have become household words (like Sears & Roebuck, or Dunn & Bradstreet)and how their ideas helped build the country and the life we know today; he tells about the cattle drives and the range wars; about inventions, and business, and how the democratization of shopping in the big department stores was a quintessentially American development. Every chapter has its fascination for the reader--at least for THIS reader. Ideas or practices that I simply accepted as "the way things are" prove often to be unique American inventions, and knowing this helps us know more about who we are, and why we are seen as different from the rest of the world (even as they start to copy us in so many ways).

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Acerbic Critic, January 17, 2003

By 

Mr. Eric W. Carlson "Eric" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Americans: The Democratic Experience (Paperback)

Many have described Boorstin's "The Americans" series as being right-wing. I do not concur. He writes about a period, in reality our age, as if it is still happening because it is. The third and final book in the series shows that he is unsure if the changes from the Civil War to the present day have not all been for the betterment of mankind. Although written three decades ago, I would say that this book is more relevant than ever. I think that everyone should read "The Americans" series. There is a bit more of Boorstin's curmugeony personality in this last book, but don't let that disuade you from enjoying a very complex perspective of America in the Twentieth Century and, very possibly, the Twenty-First Century.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A key idea about American civilization, December 9, 2004

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Americans: The Democratic Experience (Paperback)

There is one idea of Boorstin that seems to me to explain a tremendous amount about American civilization. He claims that it is by small improvements in life, by the power of invention which made life better bit by bit American civilization moved ahead. Emerson's ' better mousetrap which all beat their way to the inventor's door to get'is Boorstin's key to American greatness.
This work is filled with tremendous insight and knowledge into American reality.