The Americans: The Colonial Experience

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Winner of the Bancroft Prize

"A superb panorama of life in America from the first settlements on through the white-hot days of the Revolution...an amazingly stimulating and brilliant study of America's past in which its present may be recognized and its future envisioned."--Saturday Review

Also available from Vintage: Americans: The National Experience and Americans: The Democratic Experience.  
Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience, The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004. View titles by Daniel J. Boorstin
  • WINNER | 1959
    Bancroft Prize
"What made the Americans Americans? This is the question posed by Daniel J. Boorstin in a thoughtful, readable and often provocative book." —Wesley Frank Craven, The New York Times

"This is an ambitious book, well-documented throughout, with many stimulating ideas. . . . Mr. Boorstin is searching for the the grandiose motives, probing the words and actions of the colonists for contemporary meaning."  —Hebert Mitgang, The New York Times

"Mr. Boorstin's focus in this impressive essay in intellectual history is the interplay between ideas and institution.  Using this as his perspective, he offers a fresh and arresting reading of the colonial mind."  —Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

"A superb panorama of life in America from the first settlements on through the white hot days of the Revolution." - Bruce Lancaster, Saturday Review

About

Winner of the Bancroft Prize

"A superb panorama of life in America from the first settlements on through the white-hot days of the Revolution...an amazingly stimulating and brilliant study of America's past in which its present may be recognized and its future envisioned."--Saturday Review

Also available from Vintage: Americans: The National Experience and Americans: The Democratic Experience.  

Author

Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience, The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004. View titles by Daniel J. Boorstin

Awards

  • WINNER | 1959
    Bancroft Prize

Praise

"What made the Americans Americans? This is the question posed by Daniel J. Boorstin in a thoughtful, readable and often provocative book." —Wesley Frank Craven, The New York Times

"This is an ambitious book, well-documented throughout, with many stimulating ideas. . . . Mr. Boorstin is searching for the the grandiose motives, probing the words and actions of the colonists for contemporary meaning."  —Hebert Mitgang, The New York Times

"Mr. Boorstin's focus in this impressive essay in intellectual history is the interplay between ideas and institution.  Using this as his perspective, he offers a fresh and arresting reading of the colonial mind."  —Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

"A superb panorama of life in America from the first settlements on through the white hot days of the Revolution." - Bruce Lancaster, Saturday Review

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