Daniel J. Boorstin "The Americans: The Colonial Experience."
Mr. Boorstin's focus in this impressive essay on intellectual history; is the interplay between ideas and institution. Using this as his perspective, he offers a fresh and arresting reading of the colonial mind.
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.
Vintage; 1st Vintage edition. 1964.
Paperback.
Used book. Book in very good visual and technical condition.