Rating: 
Summary: One of the great big history books.
Review: Being a fan of history I can be very thankful to my friend for recommending this book for me. Here in 650 compact pages is basically the entire history of discovery. From the invention of time to the innovations in agriculture; from voyages of the Europeans to 'new worlds' to the fifteenth century Chinese voyages to Africa; from the discoveries of the mind and anatomy to the discoveries of political and economic thought (Adam Smith, Karl Marx, etc.) It is all in this book.Boorstin uses an exhaustive collection of research to tell the stories of discovery in a very lucid, almost novel-like, style that proves engaging to the very last page. His tellings of the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and Captain Cook are some of the best parts. But with this being the seventieth review of this book, I doubt there is much more I can offer in summary that has not already been alluded to; but there is one bit of insight I would like to point out. This book is apolitical. The one-hundred or so pages dedicated to the voyages of discovery conducted by Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries are told purely from a standpoint of facts and discoveries. For example: the innovations in map making; new sailing techniques; and the overall impact on social thinking in Europe. Readers looking for any input on the effects of discovery on the native populations of America and elsewhere will have to in turn look elsewhere. The same thinking applies to new political thoughts such as the French Revolution and Marxism: just the facts and the reasons. It is a fun to read factual primer. Read it with that in mind and it is one of the best books on history in recent memory.
Rating:
Summary: Intellectual History on a Grand Scale
Review: Boorstin surveys the development of many of the key aspects of modern life that are so easy to take for granted (time, anatomy, geography, etc.). His book is incredibly well researched and well-written. While some of his conclusions are controversial, I definitely learned many interesting things.
Rating:
Summary: Is it possible to give six stars???
Review: Boorstin, the former Librarian of Congress, seems to have distilled that entire collection into one book. This is the story of man's inquisitive mind, why some cultures are curious and why others are not. The variety of subjects covered are astonishing - exploration, science, art, politics. Boorstin reminds me of the historian Paul Johnson in that he combines a moving plot line of events with quirky, interesting biographies of the famous and not so famous. This is an epic story stretching from pre-history to the present. One is continually amazed and thrilled at what human beings have thought and accomplished. The author has been quoted as saying that his book was only a prelude to his next work, the Creators. I can hardly wait.
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