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The Americans #2
The Americans, Vol. 2: The National Experience
This second volume in "The Americans" trilogy deals with the crucial period of American history from the Revolution to the Civil War. Here we meet the people who shaped, and were shaped by, the American experience—the versatile New Englanders, the Transients and the Boosters. Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize.
517 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1967
About the author
Daniel J. Boorstin
154 books351 followersDaniel Joseph Boorstin was a historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until 1987.
He graduated from Tulsa's Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 15. He graduated with highest honors from Harvard, studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his PhD at Yale University. He was a lawyer and a university professor at the University of Chicago for 25 years. He also served as director of the National Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution.
His The Americans The Democratic Experience received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history.
Within the discipline of social theory, Boorstin’s 1961 book The Image A Guide to Pseudo-events in America is an early description of aspects of American life that were later termed hyperreality and postmodernity. In The Image, Boorstin describes shifts in American culture—mainly due to advertising—where the reproduction or simulation of an event becomes more important or "real" than the event itself. He goes on to coin the term pseudo-event which describes events or activities that serve little to no purpose other than to be reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. The idea of pseudo-events closely mirrors work later done by Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord. The work is still often used as a text in American sociology courses.
When President Gerald Ford nominated Boorstin to be Librarian of Congress, the nomination was supported by the Authors League of America but opposed by the American Library Association because Boorstin "was not a library administrator." The Senate confirmed the nomination without debate.
Boorstin died in 2004 in Washington, D.C.
He graduated from Tulsa's Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 15. He graduated with highest honors from Harvard, studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his PhD at Yale University. He was a lawyer and a university professor at the University of Chicago for 25 years. He also served as director of the National Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution.
His The Americans The Democratic Experience received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history.
Within the discipline of social theory, Boorstin’s 1961 book The Image A Guide to Pseudo-events in America is an early description of aspects of American life that were later termed hyperreality and postmodernity. In The Image, Boorstin describes shifts in American culture—mainly due to advertising—where the reproduction or simulation of an event becomes more important or "real" than the event itself. He goes on to coin the term pseudo-event which describes events or activities that serve little to no purpose other than to be reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. The idea of pseudo-events closely mirrors work later done by Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord. The work is still often used as a text in American sociology courses.
When President Gerald Ford nominated Boorstin to be Librarian of Congress, the nomination was supported by the Authors League of America but opposed by the American Library Association because Boorstin "was not a library administrator." The Senate confirmed the nomination without debate.
Boorstin died in 2004 in Washington, D.C.
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January 24, 2019
Pragmatic attitudes allowed Americans to thrive after the American Revolutionary War. Within a century, the bickering coastal colonies transformed themselves into “a continent nation.” This is the second book in the trilogy by Daniel J. Boorstin about the intellectual history of the United States. In his first volume, Boorstin focused on the role of pragmatism in allowing colonial America to thrive. In this second volume, which covers the time period from the American Revolution to the Civil War, Boorstin recounts how pragmatic concepts of community and unity allowed Americans, by continually rearranging themselves into new and temporary communities of self-interest, to forge a national community.
First Theme: Americans continually formed new communities that searched for prosperity rather than perfection. American growth was fueled by temporary communities of people searching for prosperity. They had the constant but fluid hope that something better might turn up. Americans rejected idealism and perfectionism to keep thinking, growing, moving, and making money.
Second theme: Americans forged a national community out of “a common vagueness.”
Other nations had been held together by common certainties, but Americans were united by a common vagueness. What does Boorstin mean by “vagueness?”
My Conclusion
Boorstin history reads as a celebration of pragmatism, compromise, and community. I find his explanation and evidence appealing and, despite the age of these three books (written in 1959; 1965; and 1975), there is much knowledge that could be applied to the current political dysfunction in the United States of 2013. In my reading of history, Americans have never been so divided since the beginning of the Civil War, so I end with this haunting and foreboding quotation of Boorstin:
First Theme: Americans continually formed new communities that searched for prosperity rather than perfection. American growth was fueled by temporary communities of people searching for prosperity. They had the constant but fluid hope that something better might turn up. Americans rejected idealism and perfectionism to keep thinking, growing, moving, and making money.
Example 1: New England Versatility.In the second half of the book, Boorstin enlarges his focus from smaller groups of community to the national community.
New Englanders “greatest resource was resourcefulness” as exemplified by their entrepreneurial success with cod fishing and factories. The lack of specialized workers was a blessing in disguise for America because it made room for the generalists who were willing to think outside the box. Important innovations were made because “Americans did not know any better.” The American genius was less for invention than for experiment. New England versatility shaped two tendencies in American civilization: 1) machines, not men, became specialized; 2) general intelligence and open minds were more valuable than trained hands.
Example 2: Pioneers.
American searched for new communities as they headed west to conquer a continent and they did not wait for government to prepare their way. However, the rugged individual is a myth. Communities formed before there were governments to care for public needs or to enforce public duties.
Example 3: Boosters.
“Boosters” are people who promoted new settlements and towns. Rather than building walls to keep strangers out, boosters attracted new citizens and enticed them to leave the comfortable East for the chance at Western community and prosperity.
Example: Southerners.
In contrast to other fluid communities, the South, with its deep roots was like an island. “No other part of the nation became more conscious of its identity or more passionately asserted its homogeneity.” Belief in uniformity tended to create uniformity. The south became the most unreal, most powerful, and most disastrous oversimplification in American history.”
Second theme: Americans forged a national community out of “a common vagueness.”
Other nations had been held together by common certainties, but Americans were united by a common vagueness. What does Boorstin mean by “vagueness?”
Example 1. American Land was Vague.Compared to other nations that existed through a story of “unification,” the national history of the United States is one of “accretion.” Gradually, the government of the United States “reshaped to incorporate the needs, the motives, and the aspirations of the newly added units. As each new state was added, the whole political frame was slightly altered. This is one reason why there has never been a successful violent political revolution in the United States. Involution has made revolution superfluous.” That is until the Civil War, which is the starting point of the next volume.
Nothing did more to keep the American open to “happy accidents” than the seemingly endless amount of land. Never before had so populous a modern nation lived in so ill-defined a territory.
Example 2: American Language was Vague.
“The new riches of an American language were not found in the pages of an American Shakespeare or Milton but on the tongues of Western boatmen, town boosters, fur traders, explorers, Indian fighters, and sodbusters. America had no powerful literary aristocracy, no single cultural capital, no London. And the new nation gave the language back to the people.”
Example 3: American Symbols Were Vague.
America formed a nation before it had “a national spirit of the kind which elsewhere had created nations.” In the Old World, national symbols and popular heroes had commonly been “a byproduct of a long history of wars and of the struggle for nationhood.” Americans created their own symbols, and the first example was the mythologizing of George Washington, “who attained a stature in death which he had never attained in life.” Washington became all things to all Americans.
Example 4: American Governance was Vague.
American pragmatism ensured diffusion of administrative authority. In the federalist system, political unity was left to political parties, which focused practical energies and enthusiasms. Political parties thus became one of the most effective nationalizing influences in American life.
My Conclusion
Boorstin history reads as a celebration of pragmatism, compromise, and community. I find his explanation and evidence appealing and, despite the age of these three books (written in 1959; 1965; and 1975), there is much knowledge that could be applied to the current political dysfunction in the United States of 2013. In my reading of history, Americans have never been so divided since the beginning of the Civil War, so I end with this haunting and foreboding quotation of Boorstin:
The diffuseness of American life broke down dogmas and blurred distinctions. Ideology was displaced by organization. Sharp distinctions of thought and purpose were overshadowed by the need to get together on nearly self-defining common purposes. So long as problems of American political life remained compromisable, the political parties were the great arenas of compromise. When this ceased to be true, the nation itself would be on the brink of dissolution; and the political parties; like the nation itself, would have to be reconstructed.
October 5, 2012
A worthy follow-up to volume one of this three volume series on American History, where Boorstin takes us behind the scenes of the typical textbook names and dates during the time from the American Revolution to the Civil War. Organized by topic rather than chronologically, and through the telling of anecdotes, we learn, among many other facts, that George Washington wasn't always the hallowed legendary figure he is today, that New Englanders had a flourishing business selling ice to nations in the south and the east, and that towns and cities in the West were promoted before those places even had a population. Myths are deflated and the role of "boosterism" in the growth of the U.S. cannot be overstated. Fascinating look at the people, ideas, and places important to Americans in the 19th century. Highly recommended.
August 31, 2014
A. The Versatiles (New England)
1. The sea was very important. It was the first place where community began to form (on the ships coming over). Fishing became the main industry of Massachusetts Bay (like tobacco in Virginia and cotton in the South). After the Revolution the sea allowed an endless search for new markets for old commodities and vice versa. (Ex. Samuel Shaw the first American ship to China--ginsing exports began).
2. Resourcefulness: The great resource in NE was the resourcefulness of the people (they had no crop to raise).
a) Ice as a case study. Food spoiled very quickly in the hot American weather. The growth of cities put people farther away fresh food and there was a great increase and use of iceboxes. Boston’s Frederick Tudor became the “ice king.” In 1806 he began to harvest ice and export it to the Indies. He had to create a market for cold products and encouraged a taste for cold drinks. He solved the technical problems of building an icehouse. He experimented with insulating material in Havana. His exports reached as far as India.
b) Granite was another area of resourcefulness. This was called the “Greek revival” or stone age period on NE architecture. Granite was cut by drilling holes and making a cut between the holes for square granite. This was the key technique. The Bunker Hill monument was the first time these new techniques were used on a large scale.
3. The American factory: The American System of production born from ingenuity (resourcefulness), scarce labor, vast materials, abundant water power, growing markets.
a) The American factory organization was to bring together all of the processes of production under one roof. While the new processes were known in England they could not overcome the tradition bound ways of doing things (separate). In England each process in textile production was done by a separate producer (spinner, weaver, dyer, printer). All of this was done under one roof in America
b) The new factories also appeared because there was a lack of craft knowledge in America. The Lowell system dealt with a new way to house factory workers. The Lowell girls would spend a few years in the factory to earn a dowry. This was a key idea--”circulating current” of factory workers rather than a static factory class. The uniformity system allowed products to be produced without a great deal of specialized knowledge (firearms production). Government subsidy was essential to establishing the American System.
4. New Englanders developed an American system of law as distinctive as the American system of manufacturers. NE lawyers were imaginative importers, rather than bold or original inventors.
5. The improving spirit. A main feature of NE public life was its abundance of reform movements. Municipal (city) reform like street cleaning, water supplies, sewage system, Dorothy Dix reform of insane asylums. Education for blind and deaf. Social reforms like temperance. Union reform allowing workers to unionize.
B. The Transients (joiners): This was the new space-free man the joiner. The other type was the upstart or booster
1. On the continent ocean men moved in groups. The lone traveler is a myth. People needed community and traveled in groups. The settlers went together. The few explorers did go alone. The travelers needed others for protection to corral the wagons on the Sante Fe trail.
2. Organizers: These were the leaders of the traveling communities. They had to organize the various facets of a trip. These organizers often later moved into areas of politics.
3. Community before government: A kind of Mayflower Compact was made by each group traveling west. Laws were made quickly. There were only a few easily understood crimes. The key forces which shaped these governments were (1) majority rules. (2) functional community: governments were created for a specific purpose. (3) Blurred boundary between public and private, man v. State, individualism v. Collectivism, capitalism v. Socialism)
4. Natural law of transient communities (claim clubs and priority rule): How could Western claims be established? The claim clubs could establish residence before an actual surveyor came. These were mostly awarded on first arrival basis. This priority function caused men to hurry West. Vigilantism also grew in these communities without government. (49er mining camps)
5. The transients left many things behind in their past. The Westward movers had to travel light. Space and weight had to be conserved for food and water. Women were most commonly left behind. (The mining camps were mostly masculine).
6. A technology of haste developed. Wagons, steamboats, RR. John Fitch made the 1st US steamboat. Robert Fulton’s Clermont was a faster boat than any in Europe. The Watt and Boulton engine was also used by Oliver Evans for industrial work. A great number of steam boats had accidents on the Mississippi. Explosions were also common. The RR made a path of settlement. The RR was a technology of haste, of progress, Ex. The first transcontinental RR (each company was allowed to build as much east or west as they could until they met up and they were paid my the mile. This fast construction left little room for safety or comfort (accidents were frequent). This was like our auto accident rate in the 20th (not much public outcry). The American RR had to run on steep grades and sharp curves. Jarvis built the Bogie truck (4 small wheeled truck to support the forward end of the locomotive). English built for the future--strong and sturdy. Americans built for the present. Fast, week, and unstable.
7. The democracy of haste: Everyone traveled together. This erased the distinctions of class (no class cars in US RR’s)
C. The Upstarts: When the transients settled down they became upstarts or boosters.
1. The business man was a distinctive product of the New World. Seeking to interfuse public and private property. Ex. William Ogden the 1st mayor of Chicago was a great booster (public improvements like a drawbridge, canals, RR, water and sewage system, parks). The upstart cities in America were cites without a past.
2. The booster press: The first task of the printer was to bring into existence a community in which the newcomer could survive. They hoped to attract settlers and justify the cities claim as a separate region. 3 characteristics: great variety, freedom from government control and censorship, community centered and non-ideological emphasis.
3. Public places: Hotels were a distinctive American place. They were places of the public. New indoor bathrooms, lighting techniques, electricity. The reading rooms here predated the public library. The “American plan” was that the food was included in the price of the room. People ate in a large room with other people. This was a way of life for Americans, quick community.
4. Balloon-frame houses: Under pressure to build houses quickly with few skilled carpenters the upstarts invented new ways of building. Balloon Frame is the pejorative name because it was supposed to be too light to work. The technique was just the use of 2x4’s nailed into frames. It was dependent on the mass production of nails.
5. Booster college: This was one of the central institutions for the city. The early colleges were extensions of churches.
D. The Rooted and the Uprooted (Southern whites--rooted in their production system-- and blacks--uprooted from Africa)
1. How the planter lost his versatility: The planter was controlled by his “factor” who controlled the cotton on the market. The only was a planter could break free from his factor was to have such a good year that he could free himself from debt. This required more land and slaves. This was a very rigid system in which to do business. Thus, the planters lost their versatility.
2. Indelible immigrants: While the rest of the nation was seeking to integrate, the South wanted to separate its newcomers.
III. Nationality: The first task of Americans was to find out who they were, what they were capable of and build a sense of nationality.
A. The vagueness of land: Never before had so populous a nation lived in such an ill-defined territory.
1. The country was settled when it was only 1/2 explored. The 1st half of the 19th was a time of cartographic extravaganza. (Lewis and Clark). Search for a waterway to the Pacific, mapping the desert. The myth of the desolate desert was replaced by a new garden myth. The vagueness of the land allowed hoaxes like the “diamond hoax” to be pulled off.
2. In the East the West had to be packaged for sale. The area was squared off into rectangular parcels.
3. People believed that it was the task of the government to make the land available.
4. Uncertain boundaries (where was the North, South and Western boundaries)
B. American ways of talking: Speech was defined not from an American Shakespeare but from the common person.
1. An ungoverned vocabulary: The language grew with many unauthorized words (slang). Borrowed words from other languages, words introduced in new situations. The Lewis and Clark diaries are valuable because do many of their men kept journals and we can understand how they talked. Synonyms for the work drunk.
2. Tall talk: Language itself was overblown. The tall tale was a narrative of tall talk.
3. Booster talk (the language of anticipation): In America there was a linguistic confusion between the present and the future, fact and hope. Example is the 1st usage of the “United States of America.” We were neither of these things at that time (1787)
4. The naming of the nation was a giant task. (All the rivers, cities, roads, etc.)
5. The literature of the nation was tied to the spoken word. Famous orations were commonly published (lectures also became popular with the Lyceum movement).
C. Search for symbols (how would America make her own symbols or discover herself in an American history)
1. Heroes or clowns? The legends of Davy Crockett made him into a popular hero. A subliterate (writings or popular adventures) Other included Kit Carson. The comic and the heroic were mixed together.
2. The mythologizing of George Washington: He was an anti-Crockett. The problem was how to make him a historical figure.
3. The lesser demigods were made into national heroes. There were developed from local heroes like Patrick Henry who was the idol of the people of Virginia.
4. The quest for a national past: The studies of the American past were few in the 19th century (1st part). It began as a series of local stories. State historical societies formed. Other searchers for a national past turned to biography (Jared Sparks, Library of American Biography). Other interest in the past resulted in the reprinting of historical documents. George Bancroft went to Europe and learned the importance of sources and objectivity from Germans. He produced the first volume of his American history in 1834. This was a tremendous success probably due to his ability to rise above provincial loyalties. Bancroft became the high priest of American nationality.
5. Other national symbols: The flag and the national anthem. National holidays.
1. The sea was very important. It was the first place where community began to form (on the ships coming over). Fishing became the main industry of Massachusetts Bay (like tobacco in Virginia and cotton in the South). After the Revolution the sea allowed an endless search for new markets for old commodities and vice versa. (Ex. Samuel Shaw the first American ship to China--ginsing exports began).
2. Resourcefulness: The great resource in NE was the resourcefulness of the people (they had no crop to raise).
a) Ice as a case study. Food spoiled very quickly in the hot American weather. The growth of cities put people farther away fresh food and there was a great increase and use of iceboxes. Boston’s Frederick Tudor became the “ice king.” In 1806 he began to harvest ice and export it to the Indies. He had to create a market for cold products and encouraged a taste for cold drinks. He solved the technical problems of building an icehouse. He experimented with insulating material in Havana. His exports reached as far as India.
b) Granite was another area of resourcefulness. This was called the “Greek revival” or stone age period on NE architecture. Granite was cut by drilling holes and making a cut between the holes for square granite. This was the key technique. The Bunker Hill monument was the first time these new techniques were used on a large scale.
3. The American factory: The American System of production born from ingenuity (resourcefulness), scarce labor, vast materials, abundant water power, growing markets.
a) The American factory organization was to bring together all of the processes of production under one roof. While the new processes were known in England they could not overcome the tradition bound ways of doing things (separate). In England each process in textile production was done by a separate producer (spinner, weaver, dyer, printer). All of this was done under one roof in America
b) The new factories also appeared because there was a lack of craft knowledge in America. The Lowell system dealt with a new way to house factory workers. The Lowell girls would spend a few years in the factory to earn a dowry. This was a key idea--”circulating current” of factory workers rather than a static factory class. The uniformity system allowed products to be produced without a great deal of specialized knowledge (firearms production). Government subsidy was essential to establishing the American System.
4. New Englanders developed an American system of law as distinctive as the American system of manufacturers. NE lawyers were imaginative importers, rather than bold or original inventors.
5. The improving spirit. A main feature of NE public life was its abundance of reform movements. Municipal (city) reform like street cleaning, water supplies, sewage system, Dorothy Dix reform of insane asylums. Education for blind and deaf. Social reforms like temperance. Union reform allowing workers to unionize.
B. The Transients (joiners): This was the new space-free man the joiner. The other type was the upstart or booster
1. On the continent ocean men moved in groups. The lone traveler is a myth. People needed community and traveled in groups. The settlers went together. The few explorers did go alone. The travelers needed others for protection to corral the wagons on the Sante Fe trail.
2. Organizers: These were the leaders of the traveling communities. They had to organize the various facets of a trip. These organizers often later moved into areas of politics.
3. Community before government: A kind of Mayflower Compact was made by each group traveling west. Laws were made quickly. There were only a few easily understood crimes. The key forces which shaped these governments were (1) majority rules. (2) functional community: governments were created for a specific purpose. (3) Blurred boundary between public and private, man v. State, individualism v. Collectivism, capitalism v. Socialism)
4. Natural law of transient communities (claim clubs and priority rule): How could Western claims be established? The claim clubs could establish residence before an actual surveyor came. These were mostly awarded on first arrival basis. This priority function caused men to hurry West. Vigilantism also grew in these communities without government. (49er mining camps)
5. The transients left many things behind in their past. The Westward movers had to travel light. Space and weight had to be conserved for food and water. Women were most commonly left behind. (The mining camps were mostly masculine).
6. A technology of haste developed. Wagons, steamboats, RR. John Fitch made the 1st US steamboat. Robert Fulton’s Clermont was a faster boat than any in Europe. The Watt and Boulton engine was also used by Oliver Evans for industrial work. A great number of steam boats had accidents on the Mississippi. Explosions were also common. The RR made a path of settlement. The RR was a technology of haste, of progress, Ex. The first transcontinental RR (each company was allowed to build as much east or west as they could until they met up and they were paid my the mile. This fast construction left little room for safety or comfort (accidents were frequent). This was like our auto accident rate in the 20th (not much public outcry). The American RR had to run on steep grades and sharp curves. Jarvis built the Bogie truck (4 small wheeled truck to support the forward end of the locomotive). English built for the future--strong and sturdy. Americans built for the present. Fast, week, and unstable.
7. The democracy of haste: Everyone traveled together. This erased the distinctions of class (no class cars in US RR’s)
C. The Upstarts: When the transients settled down they became upstarts or boosters.
1. The business man was a distinctive product of the New World. Seeking to interfuse public and private property. Ex. William Ogden the 1st mayor of Chicago was a great booster (public improvements like a drawbridge, canals, RR, water and sewage system, parks). The upstart cities in America were cites without a past.
2. The booster press: The first task of the printer was to bring into existence a community in which the newcomer could survive. They hoped to attract settlers and justify the cities claim as a separate region. 3 characteristics: great variety, freedom from government control and censorship, community centered and non-ideological emphasis.
3. Public places: Hotels were a distinctive American place. They were places of the public. New indoor bathrooms, lighting techniques, electricity. The reading rooms here predated the public library. The “American plan” was that the food was included in the price of the room. People ate in a large room with other people. This was a way of life for Americans, quick community.
4. Balloon-frame houses: Under pressure to build houses quickly with few skilled carpenters the upstarts invented new ways of building. Balloon Frame is the pejorative name because it was supposed to be too light to work. The technique was just the use of 2x4’s nailed into frames. It was dependent on the mass production of nails.
5. Booster college: This was one of the central institutions for the city. The early colleges were extensions of churches.
D. The Rooted and the Uprooted (Southern whites--rooted in their production system-- and blacks--uprooted from Africa)
1. How the planter lost his versatility: The planter was controlled by his “factor” who controlled the cotton on the market. The only was a planter could break free from his factor was to have such a good year that he could free himself from debt. This required more land and slaves. This was a very rigid system in which to do business. Thus, the planters lost their versatility.
2. Indelible immigrants: While the rest of the nation was seeking to integrate, the South wanted to separate its newcomers.
III. Nationality: The first task of Americans was to find out who they were, what they were capable of and build a sense of nationality.
A. The vagueness of land: Never before had so populous a nation lived in such an ill-defined territory.
1. The country was settled when it was only 1/2 explored. The 1st half of the 19th was a time of cartographic extravaganza. (Lewis and Clark). Search for a waterway to the Pacific, mapping the desert. The myth of the desolate desert was replaced by a new garden myth. The vagueness of the land allowed hoaxes like the “diamond hoax” to be pulled off.
2. In the East the West had to be packaged for sale. The area was squared off into rectangular parcels.
3. People believed that it was the task of the government to make the land available.
4. Uncertain boundaries (where was the North, South and Western boundaries)
B. American ways of talking: Speech was defined not from an American Shakespeare but from the common person.
1. An ungoverned vocabulary: The language grew with many unauthorized words (slang). Borrowed words from other languages, words introduced in new situations. The Lewis and Clark diaries are valuable because do many of their men kept journals and we can understand how they talked. Synonyms for the work drunk.
2. Tall talk: Language itself was overblown. The tall tale was a narrative of tall talk.
3. Booster talk (the language of anticipation): In America there was a linguistic confusion between the present and the future, fact and hope. Example is the 1st usage of the “United States of America.” We were neither of these things at that time (1787)
4. The naming of the nation was a giant task. (All the rivers, cities, roads, etc.)
5. The literature of the nation was tied to the spoken word. Famous orations were commonly published (lectures also became popular with the Lyceum movement).
C. Search for symbols (how would America make her own symbols or discover herself in an American history)
1. Heroes or clowns? The legends of Davy Crockett made him into a popular hero. A subliterate (writings or popular adventures) Other included Kit Carson. The comic and the heroic were mixed together.
2. The mythologizing of George Washington: He was an anti-Crockett. The problem was how to make him a historical figure.
3. The lesser demigods were made into national heroes. There were developed from local heroes like Patrick Henry who was the idol of the people of Virginia.
4. The quest for a national past: The studies of the American past were few in the 19th century (1st part). It began as a series of local stories. State historical societies formed. Other searchers for a national past turned to biography (Jared Sparks, Library of American Biography). Other interest in the past resulted in the reprinting of historical documents. George Bancroft went to Europe and learned the importance of sources and objectivity from Germans. He produced the first volume of his American history in 1834. This was a tremendous success probably due to his ability to rise above provincial loyalties. Bancroft became the high priest of American nationality.
5. Other national symbols: The flag and the national anthem. National holidays.
May 25, 2022
After his Colonial Experience of volume one, this second of Boorstin’s trilogy is most revealing for the trajectory we see created for those who colonized Native American lands. Here, we see how we Americans became what we are: risk-takers, speculators, dreamers, bull shitters, innovators, workaholics, wasteful, reckless, disconnected, parochial, anti-intellectual doers and reformers with a religiousness that would appear to end up as irreligious.
In volume one, the Americans are not yet Americans, but each a member of some new experiment in social engineering: colonies of isolated religious, corporate, or welfare emphasis. Each, even after the Revolution, seen as one’s own country, not a subset of states inferior to a larger nation. Though there is much overlap with the late 1700’s in this book, most of its concern is the first two-thirds of the pre-Civil War 1800s; an era of make-it-up-as-you-go. Compared to Europe, the American continent was seemingly uninhabited, vast, “ruleless,” without governance, a great unknown wilderness full of riches that didn’t exist and some that did, deserts and oceans that weren’t there, myths, and promise, and hope. Ideal settings for the fertile imaginations of human beings. Great cities were waiting to be founded in the wild, great fortunes to be made, great heroism to be told about. Every endeavor from chopping ice from winter lakes, shipped to the hot and humid West Indies, birthing an industry and ice cream, to each expedition and wagon train to follow, was an unguided experiment. As Boorstin opens the book, “The young nation flourished not in discovery but in search. It prospered not from the perfection of its ways but from their fluidity. It lived in the constant belief that something else or something better might turn up… Americans were glad enough to keep things growing and moving. When before had men put so much faith in the unexpected?”
In Europe land, laws, language, manners, trade, skills, and production were concrete, written about, argued about, philosophized about. In America, natural environments, circumstances, problems, and potentials were different, wide open, and many never before seen by western civilization. This made the people different from what they had been. “On that April day in 1889 when nearly one hundred thousand men and women—on foot, on horseback, in wagons, and with pushcarts—lined up on the border of Indian territory, waiting for the starting guns to be fired by army officers. Within a few hours the 1,920,000 acres of the Oklahoma District had been taken.” When was the last time this happened on the island of Great Britain? While most nations came to be by force of a strong province or invader, the U.S. “became a nation spontaneously, strengthened by the very forces of diffusion.”
All these innovations in productivity led to innovations in law. But there was as yet no body of case law with precedents; legal ambiguity ruled. “Eminent domain,” “public utility,” and “public transport” were invented. In the cities, reform was everywhere. “Almost any idea for bettering the community or some part of it soon begat a group competing in the marketplace for enthusiasm, money, and members. Every such movement attested to someone’s vision of a disparity between what the community was and what it might be.” Know-how was the coin of the realm, not expertise. Action, not philosophy.
A good book that goes far in explaining why we are the way we are.
In volume one, the Americans are not yet Americans, but each a member of some new experiment in social engineering: colonies of isolated religious, corporate, or welfare emphasis. Each, even after the Revolution, seen as one’s own country, not a subset of states inferior to a larger nation. Though there is much overlap with the late 1700’s in this book, most of its concern is the first two-thirds of the pre-Civil War 1800s; an era of make-it-up-as-you-go. Compared to Europe, the American continent was seemingly uninhabited, vast, “ruleless,” without governance, a great unknown wilderness full of riches that didn’t exist and some that did, deserts and oceans that weren’t there, myths, and promise, and hope. Ideal settings for the fertile imaginations of human beings. Great cities were waiting to be founded in the wild, great fortunes to be made, great heroism to be told about. Every endeavor from chopping ice from winter lakes, shipped to the hot and humid West Indies, birthing an industry and ice cream, to each expedition and wagon train to follow, was an unguided experiment. As Boorstin opens the book, “The young nation flourished not in discovery but in search. It prospered not from the perfection of its ways but from their fluidity. It lived in the constant belief that something else or something better might turn up… Americans were glad enough to keep things growing and moving. When before had men put so much faith in the unexpected?”
In Europe land, laws, language, manners, trade, skills, and production were concrete, written about, argued about, philosophized about. In America, natural environments, circumstances, problems, and potentials were different, wide open, and many never before seen by western civilization. This made the people different from what they had been. “On that April day in 1889 when nearly one hundred thousand men and women—on foot, on horseback, in wagons, and with pushcarts—lined up on the border of Indian territory, waiting for the starting guns to be fired by army officers. Within a few hours the 1,920,000 acres of the Oklahoma District had been taken.” When was the last time this happened on the island of Great Britain? While most nations came to be by force of a strong province or invader, the U.S. “became a nation spontaneously, strengthened by the very forces of diffusion.”
All these innovations in productivity led to innovations in law. But there was as yet no body of case law with precedents; legal ambiguity ruled. “Eminent domain,” “public utility,” and “public transport” were invented. In the cities, reform was everywhere. “Almost any idea for bettering the community or some part of it soon begat a group competing in the marketplace for enthusiasm, money, and members. Every such movement attested to someone’s vision of a disparity between what the community was and what it might be.” Know-how was the coin of the realm, not expertise. Action, not philosophy.
A good book that goes far in explaining why we are the way we are.
September 19, 2023
This book was Boring! I think he tried to cover too many topics over a large stretch of American history. I had a difficult time getting through it. By the end of the book, I found myself with some interesting thoughts and takeaways about the explanations of American history, but boy this was a tough read.
August 12, 2018
I bought this book because I loved Daniel Boorstin's three-part series, The Creators, The Discoverers and The Seekers. He's a history scholar whose writing is accessible by those of us who tried our best to skip high school history class (and therefore got the teacher talking about football because he was really there more to coach than to teach :P).
But the real reason I bought it was because I wanted to know how the Founding Fathers envisioned American democracy - - to get a perspective on how we got to this point in our country. Of course, this is only one perspective, but it suited my purpose in understanding early America (and I have no intention of reading other perspectives because it would take a lifetime and there are too many other books on my To Read list).
I seldom read paper books anymore, preferring to "get stuff done" while I listen, but I'm a margin-writer and put plenty of notes in the margins on this copy. I found it immensely interesting to learn about the helter-skelter way in which America evolved. Maybe because I feel we are still pretty helter-skelter?
But the real reason I bought it was because I wanted to know how the Founding Fathers envisioned American democracy - - to get a perspective on how we got to this point in our country. Of course, this is only one perspective, but it suited my purpose in understanding early America (and I have no intention of reading other perspectives because it would take a lifetime and there are too many other books on my To Read list).
I seldom read paper books anymore, preferring to "get stuff done" while I listen, but I'm a margin-writer and put plenty of notes in the margins on this copy. I found it immensely interesting to learn about the helter-skelter way in which America evolved. Maybe because I feel we are still pretty helter-skelter?
May 25, 2012
This unusual book is of something between history and philosophy of history. The author does more analysis and theorization than laying out out events or facts. There is no chronological order of events; also very atypically, war and major political events only occupy less than 1/10 of the book, as the humblest last part.
The author is completely free of the shackle of "political correctness". Under his pen, anyone or anything, even including those deemed as demigods, heroes, idols, sacred doctrines by the common views or traditions, can be dissected, demystified, criticized, ridiculed, without mercy.
The comments are somewhat on the cynic side and occasionally overstated, but the book is certainly very thoughtful and thought-provoking.
The author is completely free of the shackle of "political correctness". Under his pen, anyone or anything, even including those deemed as demigods, heroes, idols, sacred doctrines by the common views or traditions, can be dissected, demystified, criticized, ridiculed, without mercy.
The comments are somewhat on the cynic side and occasionally overstated, but the book is certainly very thoughtful and thought-provoking.
September 6, 2020
Very good read. American history through the lens of innovation and ideas. No politics, leaders, or wars involved. The best of the trilogy.
January 10, 2011
Since it was well known "New England produces nothing but granite and ice" then that is what they had to export. Ice to the Major cities of America and even the Caribbean to keep food from spoiling in an Ice Box.
They sold ice by marketing sanitation, nutrition & refreshment of the body with cooling drinks. Frederic Tudor of Boston, who came to be known as the "Ice King".
Granite was exported for the American architecture
Then came the "American System of Manufacturing", notably producing guns, textiles or anything from beginning to end. The one site assembly coordinated what had once been separate specialized occupations for each stage of manufacturing. Machines, not men, became specialized, permitting a worker to to turn easily from one task to another. This required his machines to possess the detailed competence to complete the job.
This American Manufacturing Revolution produced a new way, not only of making things, but of making the machines that make things.
They sold ice by marketing sanitation, nutrition & refreshment of the body with cooling drinks. Frederic Tudor of Boston, who came to be known as the "Ice King".
Granite was exported for the American architecture
Then came the "American System of Manufacturing", notably producing guns, textiles or anything from beginning to end. The one site assembly coordinated what had once been separate specialized occupations for each stage of manufacturing. Machines, not men, became specialized, permitting a worker to to turn easily from one task to another. This required his machines to possess the detailed competence to complete the job.
This American Manufacturing Revolution produced a new way, not only of making things, but of making the machines that make things.
December 17, 2014
Another great book in Daniel J. Boorstin's "The Americans" series. Theme of book is following American's wanderlust which brought our forebearers here, and once here, drove them from sea to shining sea.
July 1, 2020
Always favorite. I miss sharing books with the most Special Person to me.
So much to talk about with this book.
So much to talk about with this book.
December 26, 2017
In his second volume of The Americans, Boorstin explores the unique character of the United States. Our nation is rather unlike those of Europe, despite most Americans being ethnically European, and a large part of this is due to the newness of the nation. Communities were created before government, creating a type of citizen whose public and private roles were blended in ways unthinkable to contemporary European visitors. America had to create everything and in a hurry. Towns, counties, states, had to be formed, defined, and named; people had to be induced to populate towns after they were established; America, lacking the glory of historical examples, needed a national purpose. Boorstin convincingly shows that geography replaced the role of history in the American imagination. Rather than picturing kings whose outlines were blurred by the distance of history, Americans picked up heroes whose true outlines were lost by the sheer size of distance such stories had to travel.
While a bit meandering and at types a bit repetitive, I would very much recommend it for its convincing explanation of our national character. Economically, socially, and politically, we were a pragmatic nation, fudging theory to match pragmatic practices instead of trying to change practices to mind the theory; we were a booster nation, blurring the line between fact and desire in our literature and language; and we were a national country of strong local flavors.
While a bit meandering and at types a bit repetitive, I would very much recommend it for its convincing explanation of our national character. Economically, socially, and politically, we were a pragmatic nation, fudging theory to match pragmatic practices instead of trying to change practices to mind the theory; we were a booster nation, blurring the line between fact and desire in our literature and language; and we were a national country of strong local flavors.
December 1, 2023
3.25 Stars
I found this volume 2 of a trilogy slightly more interesting than volume 1.
It focuses on the period from roughly 1790-1870, when the enormous western migration past the Alleghenies occurred.
Boorstin organizes his narrative into unexpected themes and then personalizes them with specifics: for example, he describes how these emigrants formed ‘communities’ for safety and organization during their journeys and then villages, towns, and cities for settlement before formal government structure. And he shows how newspapers and hotels even promoted these new towns and fostered competition for new residents. Then he contrasts this with the insularity of the South.
The best section is the one on slavery. Rather than simply list all the normal horrors of this ‘peculiar institution’, Boorstin weaves his community theme into it. Black families were broken apart through sales of spouse’s & children; slaves were prohibited from education or forming any form of community organization except for a few churches. They couldn’t own property so they had no ties to the physical community. “ The African immigrant was a man without a family”.
The second part of the book deals with the ‘vagueness’ of the Western land: the boundaries were ill defined in 1800 as geological surveys were quickly done to facilitate the sale of this federal land for revenue purposes. What was the nature of Indian rights? Was it Constitutional to annex these lands?
I found this volume 2 of a trilogy slightly more interesting than volume 1.
It focuses on the period from roughly 1790-1870, when the enormous western migration past the Alleghenies occurred.
Boorstin organizes his narrative into unexpected themes and then personalizes them with specifics: for example, he describes how these emigrants formed ‘communities’ for safety and organization during their journeys and then villages, towns, and cities for settlement before formal government structure. And he shows how newspapers and hotels even promoted these new towns and fostered competition for new residents. Then he contrasts this with the insularity of the South.
The best section is the one on slavery. Rather than simply list all the normal horrors of this ‘peculiar institution’, Boorstin weaves his community theme into it. Black families were broken apart through sales of spouse’s & children; slaves were prohibited from education or forming any form of community organization except for a few churches. They couldn’t own property so they had no ties to the physical community. “ The African immigrant was a man without a family”.
The second part of the book deals with the ‘vagueness’ of the Western land: the boundaries were ill defined in 1800 as geological surveys were quickly done to facilitate the sale of this federal land for revenue purposes. What was the nature of Indian rights? Was it Constitutional to annex these lands?
March 2, 2023
I really like Boorstin's books. They're history, but not in the mold of most books. Topics are not organized chronologically but by subject.
This book roughly covers the period between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Subjects include New England's export of ice and granite, improvements to manufacturing, how American literature of the time differed from other literatures, the creation of national heroes, and how new states were added to the union, among many others.
Some time ago, I watched a semester's worth of lectures by a Yale professor. The recurring theme of these lectures was that, quite often, people define themselves not by who they are, but by who they aren't. A similar theme is present here: almost the entirety of the American character is defined by the methods of the creation of the United States of America. The USA was not created like the older European states. And those differences made us who we are.
This book roughly covers the period between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Subjects include New England's export of ice and granite, improvements to manufacturing, how American literature of the time differed from other literatures, the creation of national heroes, and how new states were added to the union, among many others.
Some time ago, I watched a semester's worth of lectures by a Yale professor. The recurring theme of these lectures was that, quite often, people define themselves not by who they are, but by who they aren't. A similar theme is present here: almost the entirety of the American character is defined by the methods of the creation of the United States of America. The USA was not created like the older European states. And those differences made us who we are.
March 28, 2022
This is a very good book but certainly not a page-turner. History buffs will find it fascinating; the casual reader will probably consider it a bit too pedantic. The central thesis of the book is that the thirteen former British colonies became the not so united states of America but began a process of becoming a nation during the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. The chapters on the "peculiar institution" and the differences between New England and the South were of particular interest to me. They included information and insights I had not seen elsewhere.
January 22, 2021
Not as captivating as Volume 1 in the trilogy. Bit of a bias in describing the New England and Western expansion drivers in the period, with little on developments in the mid-Atlantic states or South, and how they contributed.
November 17, 2020
“美国这个国家是在一个证明自己存在的正当理由的行动中诞生的。独立宣言首先是面向整个世界发表的，而不仅仅是向美国人发表的。这个国家从一开始就给自己规定了要继续表明它负有世界使命和向全世界证明它的使命是正当的义务。”
August 22, 2021
Classic Boorstin. Detailed and slow reading. A treasure of insight.
January 24, 2022
Great book. A little dated but a wonderful review.
March 13, 2011
{Francis Parkman Prize Edition (prize awarded 1966)--Foreword by Sean Wilentz, February 2002}
February 7, 2014
So many little bits on info came together in a really readable way.
July 30, 2015
read in Bordeaux while preparing my thesis
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