The Seekers; The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World
New York: Random House, 1998. Third Printing [stated]. Hardcover. xiii, [3], 298, [8] pages. A personal Note to the Reader. Some Reference Notes. Index. Slight DJ wear. Inscribed by the author on the fep. The inscription reads For the Friends of the Dallas Public Library==fellow Seekers--with greetings from Daniel J. Boorstin May 12, 1999. This broad work addresses aspects of Moses, Isaiah, Job, Evil, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Common Sense, Fellowship, Faith, Universities, Erasmus, Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Machiavelli, John Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Hegel, Science, Karl Marx, Spengler, Toynbee, Revolution, Thomas Carlyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kierkegaard, Consciousness, William James, Diversity, Bewilderment, Lord Acton, Malraux, Bergson, and Einstein. Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004) was an American historian at the University of Chicago who wrote on many topics in American and world history. He was appointed the twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in 1975 and served until 1987. He was instrumental in the creation of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Boorstin became a political conservative and a prominent exponent of consensus history. He argued in The Genius of American Politics (1953) that ideology, propaganda, and political theory are foreign to America. His writings were often seen, along with those of historians such as Richard Hofstadter, Louis Hartz and Clinton Rossiter, as belonging to the "consensus school", which emphasized the unity of the American people and downplayed class and social conflict. Throughout history, from the time of Socrates to our own modern age, the human race has sought the answers to fundamental questions of life: Who are we? Why are we here? In his previous national bestsellers, The Discoverers and The Creators , Daniel J. Boorstin first told brilliantly how e discovered the reality of our world, and then he celebrated man's achievements in the arts. He now turns to the great figures in history who sought meaning and purpose in our existence. Boorstin says our Western culture has seen three grand epics of Seeking. First there was the heroic way of prophets and philosophers--men like Moses or Job or Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as those in the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation--seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each of us. Then came an age of communal seeking, with people like Thucydides and Thomas More and Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally, there was an age of the social sciences, when man seemed ruled by the forces of history. Here are the absorbing stories of exceptional men such as Marx, Spengler, and Toynbee, Carlyle and Emerson, and Malraux, Bergson, and Einstein. These great thinkers still have the power to speak to us, not always so much for their answers as for their way of asking the questions that never cease either to intrigue or to obsess us. In this impressive climax to a monumental trilogy, Daniel J. Boorstin once again shows that his ability to present challenging ideas, coupled with sharp portraits of great writers and thinkers, remains unparalleled. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Civilization, History, Philosophy, Religion, Moses, Isaiah, Job, Evil, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Common Sense, Fellowship, Faith, Universities, Erasmus, Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Machiavelli, John Locke, V
ISBN: 0679434453
[Book #89291]
Price: $115.00