Hidden History: Exploring Our Secret Past [Paperback]

Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vintage | Publication Date: May 14, 1989

In this provocative new collection, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel J. Boorstin explores the essential "hidden history" of the American experience that is overlooked by most historians. In twenty-four essays -- divided into five sections, "The Quest for History," "A By-Product Nation," "The Rhetoric of Democracy," "Unsung Experiments," and "The Momentum of Technology" -- Daniel J. Boorstin examines significant rhythms, patterns, and institutions of everyday American life: from his intimate portraits of such legendary figures as Paul Revere, Abigail Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, to more expansive discussions of historical phenomena, such as the Therapy of Distance and the Law of Survival of the Unread.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his 70s, Boorstin recently retired as Librarian of Congress, a position that he had held since 1975 that capped his career as one of America's eminent historians. In this collection of essays the author of The Discovers and the trilogy The Americans writes with the breadth and vitality that mark all his books. His title has deliberate meaning: Boorstin implies the historian's need to probe socio-political patterns from philosophical and uncliched angles. Here he recaptures his "historical adventures," ranging from a study of the historian's discipline (his insight into Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as an "intimate" work is rich and subtle) through a look at America as a "By-Product Nation" not greatly driven by theories, but rather formed by action under stress (he sees FDR's four-term presidency as an example). And finally, a series of segments from his writingspresent his views of America's "unsung" political experiments. Boorstin's closing emphasis on our unacknowledged dominance by the "kingdom of the Machine" leads readers to hope for his further expansion of this theme.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"His flair for the vivid anecdote, fresh points of view and understanding of the dramatic relationship of ideas have made him the most readable of our eminent historians." -- Clifton Fadiman

"I have learned a great deal about the USA from Professor Boorstin.... He knows this country of ours as few historians know it."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (May 14, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679722238
• ISBN-13: 978-0679722236
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of print..no,no, no. Say it isn't so. Bring it back., July 6, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hidden History : Exploring Our Secret Past (Hardcover)

Daniel Boorstin is one of the men I'd like to invite to dinner along with Justice Renquist and Thomas Jefferson. He's a historian par excellence. In HIDDEN HISTORY he publishes a series of essays that explore the more unfamiliar aspects of familiar events.

HIDDEN HISTORY helps us to see our forefathers in unexpected roles and learn to see our society from new perspectives.

"...the prize for which Europeans would have to shed blood would seem the free native birthright of Americans," he writes. "The history of the United States has thus had a unity and coherence unknown in Europe. Many factors -- our geographical isolation, our special opportunities for expansion and exploitation within our own borders and our remoteness from Europe have, of course, contributed...but, whatever the causes, the winds of dogma and the gusts of revolution which during the last two centuries have blown violently over Western Europe...have not ruffled our intellectual climate."

Boorstin says that the American Revolution was hardly a revolution at all, at least not in the sense of the modern European understanding of evolution. He quotes Alexis de Tocqueville, "the social condition and the Constitution of the Americans are democratic, but they have not had a democratic revolution." Boorstin says this fact "is surely one of the most important of our history."

Boorstin's theories, his arguments, the pictures he presents of events and people who shaped our nation's history -- all jolt the reader's awareness and awaken to higher interest and sensibilities. They fan the flicker of patriotism that hides in complacency.

HIDDEN HISTORY is scholarly but it is far from dull. It challenges our perceptions of our own history and our role in the world; it whets the appetite for understanding. It should NEVER go out of print.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Insights into Historical Method, November 13, 2007

By 

Ben Bartlett "Polymath" (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden History: Exploring Our Secret Past (Paperback)

Boorstin's collection of essays in Hidden History are designed to highlight one important fact- often history does not tell us the whole story (or as Paul Harvey might say, "the REST of the story.")

He points out that in much of American History, the most influential book by far was the New England Primer, which taught children things like Scripture, poetry, and the like. It was the basis of education for nearly the entire nation. However, there were so many of them that nobody thought to preserve them, and as a result almost no copies exist today. However, collected sermons of various pastors from that time CAN be found, because of course there was almost zero demand for them. So, Boorstin asks, which one was the more influential? And which, then, is more important to a historian's understanding of history? Unfortunatly, though, much of the time this history is harder to get at then simply picking up a sermon collection and (mis)characterizing the people of that time.

The book is excellent on its own, but I especially recommend that you read it right before reading Boorstin's other work... the Creators, the Discoverers, the Seekers, and The American Experience (Colonial, National, Democratic). Enjoy!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent fresh ideas, needed better notes, sources., June 29, 2000

By 

L. Troy Beals (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hidden History (Hardcover)

This book is a wonderful collection of essays that give a fresh perspective on some well known historical events. Although you might think you know the history, Boorstin is like Paul Harvey, he tells you "the rest of the story". I would have liked to know his sources and other works about his topics so I could learn more.