Customer Reviews

Hidden History: Exploring Our Secret Past

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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.

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!

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.

Boorstin is a master storyteller of the rich history of the founding of American and its continuing story. Here are interesting chapters each dealing with the often overlooked aspects of daily history and events. This is one of my favorite history books. A wonderful book to curl up with.

To read this book is like selecting the best articles from a favorite magazine and having them all in one place. Boorstin has offered a behind the scenes look at familar topics in American history, such as Paul Revere. He adds excellent biographical summaries and places the subjects in an American history chronology. This is clearly the result of long years of writing American history, including a textbook and multivolume overview.

The Amazon reviews that preceded mine are excellent and I strongly agree with each reviewer.