Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre in contrast with other's covering the same work
Review: For contrast, try Kenneth Rexroth's book "Classics Revisited". Rexroth was "the father of the beatniks" and steeped in a much more humane understanding of the classics. Rexroth's book discusses sixty volumes, most of which also appear in "The Creators". (Examples pro and con: Illiad & Odyssey, Beowolf, Njal's Saga, Job, Mahabarata, Kalevala, Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Plato, Livy, and so on, through Mark Twain and Chekhov. A second volume contains similar sweep across different authors/works.) And the contrast is astounding, even when Rexroth veers close to Boorstin and says these classic texts are "basic document in the history of the imagination".A review of Rexroth's book in the Villlage Voice, written three decades ago, says that "The talk is expansive, linking the archaic and the immediate, finding in Euripides 'the first psychedlic system of values, a middle-class substitute for mystical vision,' or noting how in Caesar's _Gallic War_ 'the simple nouns and verbs carom off each other like billiard balls... The rapid and complex movement of simple elements deploys on the page exactly like the battle it describes.'...The books he loved he saw as emanations of living feeling, lines of communication miraculously kept open." Or, to quote from Rexroth himself: "Life may not be optimistic, but it certainly is comic, and the greatest literature present man wearing the two conventional masks; the grinning and the weeping faces that decorate theatre prosceniums. What is the face behind the mask? Just a human face -- yours or mine. That is the irony of it all -- the irony that distinguishes great literature -- it is all so ordinary." Without denigrating the non-Western tradition as Boorstin does -- in fact, by including essays about non-Western classics -- and without paying homage via knee jerks, Rexroth succeeds better.
Rating:
Summary: Voyage to Western Civilization
Review: Here comes a guy who really enjoys books and mankind. With infinite patience he manages to accomplish a tour-de-force of western greates legacy: art through its varios manifestations.
If you have just heard of Aeschylus, Dante, Michelangelo and Bach I think it's time to get to know your cultural heritage better. It's a pretty long book albeit very amusing. Keep it beside your bed and have a nice trip!
Rating:
Summary: It is about the individual as a creator
Review: I am totally dissatisfied with most reviews of this book. I think most of that people did not understand what the book is all about. Boorstin traces, wonderfully, in my opinion, the history of the individual as a creator of original and personal ways to see and interpret the world. Of course, he had to focus on the Western culture. I am amazed to read politically correct people enraged about Boorstin's supposed "trashing" of non-Western cultures, something I definitely didn't find in the book. He describes exactly why it was the Western culture the one that allowed the individual to become a real creator, not just a fine artisan. He never says Western culture is "better", only different in that it produced the only way to be an artist: be an individual (for good and bad). And he is right. The book is fascinating in the way it describes the rise of the individual. Of course, the path he chose could have been different. But it's very illustrative. The book can not be boring. It shows exactly the kind of geniuses that created art. Most of them, by the way, lived difficult and often tragic lives. I recommend it to every one interested in finding out how and why modern art was born and developed. Besides, it is full of interesting, even funny, anecdotes about the lives of the creators. If you read it, it will be the best stimulus to see, read, and listen to some of the most important creations of humankind.
Rating: 
Summary: Boorstin's shallow narrative on the history of 'the creator'
Review: I found 'The creators', as a narrative piece, to lack the in-depth analytical reasoning that the subject demands. Boorstin builds a mosaic of his subject from specific characters and creative 'advances' throughout history, and whilst he succeeds in opening the door to a piecemeal understanding of creative progression, we do not gain insight into the ebb and flow of creativity from one era to the next. In effect, we are viewing the outcomes rather than the underlying driving forces behind creativity. I enjoyed this book for its short and succinct precis on individual heroes and their life's work, but ultimately yearned to know more about the zeitgeist from which they sprang - or ultimately created.
Rating:
Summary: The "Cliff Notes" of 2000 years of Western Art History
Review: I have completed "The Creators" Heros of the Imagination by Daniel Boorstein. One of the three in a series. The other two are, "The Discoverers" and "The Seekers" Though my copy is beaten up and falling apart, I recommend this book to any inquisitive mind who thinks that they lost out on a classical education. My reading of the book took well over a year, in little reads here and there, when I could. Absolutely jam packed with useful information about the stuff that I didn't learn in my US public schooling. Well written for covering over 2000 years of history and the creative artists, writers, musicians, etc. and other influential people of the period. Sometimes I had to set with a dictionary open and ready, just to get through the sections, especially the part on Greek temple construction. The reading of this book helped me to appreciate more of what I've seen in Rome, Italy and elsewhere on my trips. The sections on Dante, Giotto, Shakespeare, Goethe, Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Voltaire, Dickens, Sartre, Kafka and others were very revealing and stuff that I had never been made aware of. Everything in the US has been tremendously influenced by Europe and before that by the Greeks and the Romans. Nothing is new, the Romans made concrete 2000 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: The "Cliff Notes" of 2000 years of Western Art History
Review: I have completed "The Creators" Heros of the Imagination by Daniel Boorstein. One of the three in a series. The other two are, "The Discoverers" and "The Seekers" Though my copy is beaten up and falling apart, I recommend this book to any inquisitive mind who thinks that they lost out on a classical education. My reading of the book took well over a year, in little reads here and there, when I could. Absolutely jam packed with useful information about the stuff that I didn't learn in my US public schooling. Well written for covering over 2000 years of history and the creative artists, writers, musicians, etc. and other influential people of the period. Sometimes I had to set with a dictionary open and ready, just to get through the sections, especially the part on Greek temple construction. The reading of this book helped me to appreciate more of what I've seen in Rome, Italy and elsewhere on my trips. The sections on Dante, Giotto, Shakespeare, Goethe, Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Voltaire, Dickens, Sartre, Kafka and others were very revealing and stuff that I had never been made aware of. Everything in the US has been tremendously influenced by Europe and before that by the Greeks and the Romans. Nothing is new, the Romans made concrete 2000 years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Creating an average read
Review: I think I was looking and hoping for stories behind the great works of art Boorstin researched. What I got in most cases was a description of the work. Since I'm familiar with most subjects covered in this book, I kept wondering why I wasn't reading or appreciating the work itself. At times this book is too detailed, recalling too many passages from particular works or focusing too much on one work and too little on others. I suppose the last statement is a judgement call, but this is a source for my dislike of this book.
Rating:
Summary: The "Cliff Notes" of 2000 years of Western Art History
Review: I will first say that I love ancient history and especially early works of art and why they were made. So I went into this book thinking I would love it as well. Unfortunately, that was not the case. While the book does present the factual evidence very clearly, it fails to capture the interest of the reader. Boorstin's writing is very dry, and while I realize he was not writing stories here, he could have done something that would make readers want to keep going. The material is fascinating, but certainly not the way it is presented. I believe when I started reading about exactly how long it would take concrete to dry in ancient Rome I decided that watching my fingernails grow would be more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't make you want to keep reading...
Review: I will first say that I love ancient history and especially early works of art and why they were made. So I went into this book thinking I would love it as well. Unfortunately, that was not the case. While the book does present the factual evidence very clearly, it fails to capture the interest of the reader. Boorstin's writing is very dry, and while I realize he was not writing stories here, he could have done something that would make readers want to keep going. The material is fascinating, but certainly not the way it is presented. I believe when I started reading about exactly how long it would take concrete to dry in ancient Rome I decided that watching my fingernails grow would be more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Know more
Review: I've recently completed the audio book of The Creators, from Books on Tape. The 747 pages of copy takes a little over 40 hours to hear. Boorstin's work, while not exhaustive, provides a relatively easy way to become acquainted with much of the art, especially Western art, of mankind. Even anyone steeped in history will find something new in this work, something that may have escaped notice in other efforts. While some regard history as a dry rehearsal of facts, Boorstin seems to put things into a perspective of freshness, one in which a reader can walk anew in the steps of those grand figures of years past. There may be no practical value in knowing all these things but knowing will add to a person's appreciation for things, like music, painting, literature and the rest. This effort, like the others from Boorstin's pen, is worthwhile and will long benefit the reading public.
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