The Seekers - (Knowledge) by Daniel J Boorstin (Paperback)

About the Book

In this epic, intellectual adventure story, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Moses, Sophocles, Thomas More, Machiavelli, Marx, Einstein, and others, as they grapple with the great questions that have always challenged humanity.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Impressive. . . . Boorstin reminds us what intellectual history on the grand scale looks like." --The New York Times Book Review

"Unexcelled. . . . [It] confirms Boorstin's rank as one of the giants of twentieth-century American scholarship." --George F. Will

"Delivered with . . . skill, unalloyed admiration, and a keen eye for detail." --Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"An admirable volume, thoroughly researched and beautifully arranged." --Washington Times

About the 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.