Americans : The National Exprience

"The third volume in Daniel Boorstin4s award-winning trilogy, The Americans: The National Experience, continues the ongoing story of the formation of the American character from the Revolution through the Civil War. Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, The National Experience is not a history of singular, world-shaping men. Indeed, names like Jefferson, Adams and Grant appear infrequently in this book. Rather, this is a history of social configurations, of how institutions, customs and ways of understanding the world were shaped by the confluence of European ideas and traditions and the experience of living in a New World. By this volume, the European influence is growing noticeably less pronounced as settlers begin to move Westward and find themselves separated from the Old World by time, space, and the new demands an unexplored land makes upon the individual and the community. Boorstin is interested in the role geography and space play in the formation of the national character. He is particularly interested in how the realities of place spur the creation of new technologies and how those technologies, in turn, influence the values,Boorstin, Daniel J. is the author of 'Americans : The National Exprience', published 2002 under ISBN 9780795305900 and ISBN 0795305907.