The Americans: The Colonial
Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
Outstanding Intellectual And Cultural History
The first book in a trilogy--and in many respects the best of the bunch--
The Colonial Experience is an essential interpretation of how the habits of
people who lived more than two centuries ago shaped the lives of modern
Americans. Boorstin shows how an undiscovered continent shattered
long-standing traditions and utopian fantasies with the hard demands of
everyday life far from the sophisticated centers of European civilization:
Old categories were shaken up, and new situations revealed unsuspected
uses for old knowledge, writes Boorstin. He starts with a series of
penetrating essays on the Puritans of Massachusetts, the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, the philanthropists of Georgia, and the planters of Virginia,
then tackles a set of diffuse topics that range from astronomy to language
to medicine in fascinating vignettes. The Colonial Experience is must
reading for anybody interested in the development of the American
character. --John J. Miller

Personal Review: The Americans: The Colonial Experience by
Daniel J. Boorstin
I think "thescalpel" wrote a very useful and accurate review of this book, so
I won't say as much about it as I normally would other than to say that I
consider this book an outstanding example of intellectual and cultural
history. If you first read a book that covers the historical events of colonial
America, you'll find this book very interesting and enjoyable.
Unfortunately, I cannot yet whole-heartedly recommend a single book on
American colonial history. I read "American Colonies: The Settling of
North America" by Alan Taylor from 2002 and think it is a good book but do
not think it covers essential historical events within the original 13 colonies
fully enough; the problem is that Taylor gives too much space to
colonizations that occurred in other regions of North America such as
Mexico, the Pacific Coast, and Alaska. Everything he writes is interesting
but is not really relevant to understanding the history of the early United
States.
I searched Amazon today and found "Colonial America: A History, 1565 -
1776" by Richard Middleton. This appears to be a high school or college
textbook originally written in 1992 but currently in its third edition printed in
2002. Looking at the table of contents, it seems that this book might be
better focused on colonial U.S. history than Taylor's book; one thing that
appeals to me is that he provides some of the British political and
economic history which are important backgroud to understand why people
emmigrated to America and why the Americans ultimately declared
independence from Great Britain. On the other hand, the fact that his first
sentence refers to "the European invasion of North America" strikes me as
excessively politically correct; while the colonization of North America by
Europeans was ultimately tragic for the Native Americans, I find the word
"invasion" too strong. But I think I might actually buy his book and read it
anyway.
One last note: it appears that many of the negative reviews of this book are
by high school students who were forced to read it. If you discounted their
reviews, I think this book would have an average rating of 4.5 or 5 stars. I
have not yet read the two sequels by Boorstin but plan to do so.
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin 5 Star Customer Reviews
and Lowest Price!