How much of our political tradition can be absorbed and used by other peoples? Daniel Boorstin's answer to this question has been chosen by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for representation in "American Panorama" as one of the 350 books, old and new, most descriptive of life in the United States. He describes the uniqueness of American thought and explains, after a close look at the American past, why we have not produced and are not likely to produce grand political theories or successful propaganda. He also suggests what our attitudes must be toward ourselves and other countries if we...

In this classic work by one of America's most distinguished historians, Daniel Boorstin enters into Thomas Jefferson's world of ideas. By analysing writings of 'the Jeffersonian Circle, ' Boorstin explores concepts of God, nature, equality, toleration, education and government in order to illuminate their underlying world view. The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson demonstrates why on the 250th anniversary of his birth, this American leader's message has remained relevant to our national crises and grand concerns.
"The volume is too subtle, too rich in ideas for anyone to do justice...

Referred to as the "bible of American lawyers," Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England" shaped the principles of law in both England and America when its first volume appeared in 1765. For the next century that law remained what Blackstone made of it. Daniel J. Boorstin examines why "Commentaries" became the most essential knowledge that any lawyer needed to acquire. Set against the intellectual values of the eighteenth century-and the notions of Reason, Nature, and the Sublime "Commentaries" is at last fitted into its social setting. Boorstin has provided a concise intellectual...

This compact history of the war attempts to separate myth from reality. Professor Coles narrates the main operations on both land and sea of the three-year struggle. He examines the conflict from the British (and Canadian) as well as the American point of view, relating events in America to the larger war going on in Europe.
"A balanced analysis of tactics and strategy, this book also summarizes succinctly and clearly recent scholarship on causes and describes briefly the war's military, economic, and political consequences. Coles has surveyed thoroughly the existing literature but...

Here, grounded firmly in American history, is a skilled folklorist's survey of the entire field of America's folklore from colonization to mass culture.
Tracing the forms and content of American folklore, Mr. Dorson reveals the richness, pathos, and humor of genuine folklore, which he distinguishes from the "fakelore" of popularizers and chauvinists. At the same time, however, he shows what the creation of spurious folklore (the Paul Bunyan legends, for instance) discloses about our national character. Based upon authentic field collections and research, the examples cited include...

The Catholic Church remains one of the oldest institutions of Western civilization. It continues to withstand attack from without and defection from within. In his revision of "American Catholicism," Monsignor Ellis has added a new chapter on the history of the Church since 1956. Here he deals with developments in Catholic education, with the changing relations of the Church to its own members and to society in general, and especially with arguments for and against the ecumenical movement brought about by Vatican Council II.
The author gives an updated historical account of the part...

In this new edition, Samuel P. Hays expands the scope of his pioneering account of the ways in which Americans reacted to industrialism during its early years from 1885 to 1914. Hays now deepens his coverage of cultural transformations in a study well known for its concise treatment of political and economic movements.

Hays draws on the vast knowledge of America's urban and social history that has been developed over the last thirty-eight years to make the second edition an unusually well-rounded study. He enhances the original coverage of politics, labor, and business with new accounts...

Although the colonial wars consisted of almost continuous raids and skirmishes between the English and French colonists and their Indian allies and enemies, they can be separated into four major conflicts, corresponding to four European wars of which they were, in varying degrees, a part: King William's War (1689-97) (War of the League of Augsburg); Queen Anne's War (1702-13) (War of the Spanish Succession); King George's War (1744-48) (War of the Austrian Succession); and The French and Indian War (1755-62) (Seven Years' War).
Mr. Peckham chronicles the events of these wars, summarizing...

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?-
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...

Winner of the Bancroft Prize
In this brilliantly original book, written for the general reader, the American past becomes richly meaningful to the present.