The Seekers - Softcover

Daniel J. Boorstin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842122282 ISBN 13: 9781842122280

Publisher: Phoenix Press, 2001

Synopsis

In his previous bestsellers, The Discoverers and The Creators, Daniel Boorstin first told brilliantly how we 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 claims our Western culture has seen three epics of Seeking. First we had the heroic way of the prophets and philosophers - men like Moses and Job, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as well as the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation - seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each one of us. Then came the age of communal seeking with Thucydides, Thomas More, Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally there was the age of the social sciences when men seemed ruled by the forces of history. Here are the absorbing stories of exceptional men such as Marx, Spengler, Toynbee, Carlyle, Emerson, Malraux, Bergson and Einstein. A wonderfully stimulating book bursting with anecdotes and information relating to the eternal questions that have preoccupied the thinking human since the beginning of time.

About this title

Review:

Renowned historian Daniel J. Boorstin completes the trilogy he began with The Discoverers and The Creators. The first volume covered explorers, scientists, and historians in their quest for raw knowledge, while the second book describes writers, painters, and composers in their pursuit of inspiring art; The Seekers describes people searching for an understanding of human existence--"Man is the asking animal," notes Boorstin. It's a big, bold theme, and although The Seekers is the shortest work in the trilogy, it's still vintage Boorstin: incredibly learned, richly anecdotal, and casually profound. It begins with the prophets of the Holy Land and the philosophers of ancient Greece, continues through the Renaissance, and concludes with the modern era of the social sciences. "In this long quest [for understanding], Western culture has turned from seeking the end or purpose to seeking causes--from the Why to the How," writes Boorstin. That's a neat summary of Western intellectual development over several thousand years. What other author could put it so succinctly? Boorstin is generally stronger with material that is more recent and more secular, but this is an accomplished book and a worthy capstone to an outstanding three-volume effort. --John J. Miller

From the Inside Flap:

A "New York Times Notable Book of the Year
From the author of The Discoverers and The Creators, an incomparable history of man's essential questions: "Who are we?" and "Why are we here?"
Daniel J. Boorstin, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Americans, introduces us to some of the great pioneering seekers whose faith and thought have for centuries led man's search for meaning.
Moses sought truth in God above while Sophocles looked to reason. Thomas More and Machiavelli pursued truth through social change. And in the modern age, Marx and Einstein found meaning in the sciences. In this epic intellectual adventure story, Boorstin follows the great seekers from the heroic age of prophets and philosophers to the present age of skepticism as they grapple with the great questions that have always challenged man.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phoenix Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1842122282
• ISBN 13: 9781842122280
• Binding: Paperback