Rating: 
Summary: great book - no conclusion though
Review: The Discoverers is an extraordinarily erudite survey of some of the more important discoveries in the history of man. It does it all, from the invention of zero to the circumnavigation of the globe to the invention of paper money to biological categorization to the history of the discovery of ways to measure time. It is an easy read despite its length and would present no difficulties to the historical layman. I have one quibble, though: the book presents no conclusion, instead it sort of peeters out at the end. After spending a good week getting through the book it is kind of disappointing to be left with no clue as to what it all meant.The index is solid and the biobliographical notes very useful. There are no endnotes.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like history, you will love this book
Review: Have you ever looked at the world around you and wondered, why. Who decided on 12 hours in a day? Who said that a minute has to have 60 seconds? Why when we travel north we go up and we go down when we go south? This is a great book for people who are curious about the world around them. The book describes the great Discoveries throughout time and who made them. It gives the reader an appreciation from where many of the things that are common today came. It is a fascinating book that you will have a hard time putting down.
Rating:
Summary: See For Yourself
Review: The hero of this book, as made evident in the title, is Man the Discoverer. Not surprisingly, then, this book chronicles the saga of discoveries from times past to times present. I'm giving it five stars because only a few books that I've read document a ton of facts and, at the same time, correctly integrate them together naming what is common to them all. This, special reader, is one of those books. Boorstin identifies that each discovery was made by men who had the capacity to "view the world with new eyes." He shows that the only barrier to more and greater discoveries in the past was the denial of the efficacy of reason along with the acceptance of dogma. After reading this book my motto became "take nobody's word for it; see for yourself." As regards this review (and those belonging to others), I hope that you will do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Boorstin is one of the best
Review: Daniel Boorstin is one of the imminent historians of his generation. His three-volume work on the Americans is truly a classic. I found Dicoverers to be one of those rare jewels of a history book that intelligently reads between the lines of facts and figures and attempts to give the big picture. He also colors his narrative with sights and sounds that are not in the "textbooks." What a great book for high school and college world history classes, it will not collect dust. However I have always found Boorstin's criticism of Christians in general much too overt, and one of the few areas that he for some reason loses his precision and accuracy, and the Discoverers includes this pitfall as well. Some of the statements made in this book about Christians in general, and John Calvin in particular, are absolutely laughable as history. His apparent dislike for John Calvin spirals into name-calling, but his choice of names is absolutely bizarre. Calvin an anti-intellectual?! This is just stupid, and his treatment of the Michael Servetus affair is the typical regurgitated falsehoods put forth by those who do not like his theology, and not understanding it, choose to attack the man instead. I would not think a man like Boorstin would fall into this, but even the greatest historians forget how to do history every once in a while. Still, this misinformation notwithstanding, the book is recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The history of knowledge
Review: This is a hard book to write a synopsis of. It encompasses so much it's hard to say what it's about exactly. It is however very easy to recommend this book. The book leaves you in awe. Awe at man the discover (whom the author states is his hero). This is an uplifting history, man here is creative, brave, inspired and we see the story of ourselves as one of accomplishments and of achieving great things in arts, humanities, the social and physical sciences. The book literally covers the alphabet of knowledge from Astronomy to Zoology. It is the breadth of knowledge the book contains that leaves you in awe of Boorstin. How can one human being know so much?. Almost every second sentence reveals some nugget of knowledge, much of it new to me, even in subjects I thought myself familiar with. A unique aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the frequent interjections of word origins. While discussing a subject, if a particular word came up, Boorstin might stop and take a sentence or two two give the reader a brief history of the Latin or Greek origin of the word. Nice touch. Overall this is an immensely researched and lovingly crafted book. It is an enriching reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read
Review: This was fairly good reading, but there are a few problems. First, it seems dry and worded with little vigor. Second, the author tends to go on and on about small irrelevant details and misses some curious questions. A great topic and subject, but this book didnt live up to the expectations for me. For a truly great book of this nature one must see "A History of Knowledge" By Charles van Doren. Now that was a stunner!
Rating:
Summary: pOTENTIAL TEXTBOOK
Review: I sometimes wonder, after reading excellent books such as this, why school boards do not select history texts that are readable, enjoyable, and thought provoking. This book would function as an effective history textbook at the high school level - the completely entertaining and captivating style of the author might actually pry some of our teens away from the video games or the internet for an hour or two each day - but alas! We are facing very formidable opponents, and good decisions give way to expedience.
Rating:
Summary: Educational entertainment
Review: Having been in college for more years than I care to recall, I can safely say that I have read my fair share of books that are filled with useful information, but written in a way that makes that information hard to get to. This is not such a book; Boorstin, whose resume includes teaching positions at Harvard and Oxford, not to mention his post as Librarian of Congress. This book is filled with lots of Jeopardy! type information, and is written in a easy-to-read style that makes it a delight to read. Its size may be somewhat intimidating, but The Discoveres is a quick read, if that could ever be said about a 750 page book. If you like this book you may also enjoy Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris; another historical book that is fun and easy to read with bounds of good information.
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Summary: The facts alone are astounding.
Review: This book is incredible. With tremendous insight and peppered with awesome detail, the author goes into a history of man's search for knowledge of this world. Though this author is extremely prolific, how he manages to winnow fact from fiction in this intense essay of man's roots is beyond me. I learned more from this book than I ever learned in any history or geography or social studies class, and I also enjoyed the frank readability of the chapters. It's long, very long, and that perhaps is it's only drawback, but in the end it is woven together so neatly that I was glad I stuck it out and finished it without skipping any chapters. Definitely a recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, needed endnotes, references...
Review: This book is good simply because it does not read like a boring academic textbook. You feel like you are on a guided tour through history from the earliest days to the present. The organization and flow of the book is excellent which helps the reader not get lost. I would have like some endnotes, or a better bibliography so that I could learn more because this book motivated me to learn about things I didn't know about. Isn't that the sign of a great book? It moves you to learn beyond what the author is telling you.
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