Volume 21, Number 14 · September 19, 1974
From Jamestown to San Clemente
By Sheldon S. Wolin
The Americans: The Colonial Experience
by Daniel J. Boorstin
Random House, 434 pp., $3.45 (paper)
The Americans: The National Experience
by Daniel J. Boorstin
Random House, 517 pp., $2.45 (paper)
The Americans: The Democratic Experience
by Daniel J. Boorstin
Random House, 717 pp., $3.45 (paper)
Democracy and Its Discontents: Reflections on Everyday America
by Daniel J. Boorstin
Random House, 136 pp., $5.95
'How in the world did we get from the Federalist Papers to the edited transcripts?' This question by a member of the House Judiciary Committee is both improper and proper to consideration of these volumes by Daniel Boorstin. Improper because he has not been concerned with the aspects of the American past which might bear on the question; and proper because he has composed a history of 'the' American experience in which these aspects are omitted on grounds of principle rather than of mere selectivity.
Review, 3873 words
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