Rating: 
Summary: The whole is not the sum of the parts
Review: This is the final book in the "trilogy" of Boorstin's that started with The Discoverers and continued with The Creators. It is easily the shortest of the three, which is perhaps good, because it also easily the weakest.Like the other two books, this volume is essentially a collection of short biographies. This time, the people being written about are primarily philosophers. The problem is that the common theme that ties all these people together is elusive; at the end of the book, I was still unclear what the whole book was about; in parts, it is okay, but as a whole, it is not. It is like connecting the dots when the dots are misnumbered or some are missing: either way, you aren't going to get the right picture. The other problem is that some portions of the book are tedious to read. I think this ties into my first problem; since I had only vague hints at Boorstin's intention with this book, I found it harder to get through. This isn't a mystery novel; the meaning should not be something that is guessed at. For those who have read the other books in this trilogy, this book will come as a disappointment. I do give it a weak three stars, however, as there are some chapters that are at least interesting and informative. Overall, however, this book is below average.
Rating: 
Summary: Fuel for an already burning desire to know
Review: This unabridged audio tape took about 12 hours to listen to. Which no one would actually take the time to do if they weren't already "seekers" themselves. So if you not only seek to know, but also to know what other philosophical giants of Western civilization have sought to know and have therefore probably influenced your thought processes without the slightest awareness of their influence on your part, you would do well to listen to these tapes. It's a dryer read on paper than it is to listen, but the book would be a nice reference source once you've gotten through it. Other than a few early references to Biblical prophets, belief systems of India, and an extremely glossed over take on Chinese contributions, the work is entirely Western focused, from Greece to Rome to Medieval Europe to the Rennaissance to the (mostly French and a little English) Enlightenment, up through the German and Northern Europeans, Americans, and finally, 20th century figures. If nothing else (but there is much else), you get useful as well as entertaining background on what we have come to think of as cliche or innate knowledge and sayings. Amazing that so many hours of listening, interlaced with many additional hours of contemplation, can leave one feeling like he/she knows so little compared to what they thought they knew before devouring Boorstin's fine work.
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