Books like The Americans, Vol. 1: The Colonial Experience

What a difference just one book can make in your knowledge and understanding of something. This one definitely did it for me and American history. Funny thing is this was just the first of three books in The Americans trilogy written by Daniel J. Boorstin. On that note, what a difference an author can make! Boorstin reminds me of Carl Sagan in that he tended to romanticize his subject matter, subject matter considered tedious to most people, and to break it down in a way that most could appreciate. Click (view spoiler)[Boorstin’s credentials included (per Wikipedia) graduating with highest honors from Harvard and earning his PhD at Yale. He was a lawyer and a university professor at the University of Chicago for 25 years and was the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge in 1964. He was visiting professor of American History at the University of Rome and at Kyoto University. He was the first incumbent of the chair of American History at the Sorbonne. He also served as director of the National Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution. He wrote more than 20 books and won the Pulitzer for the final book in this trilogy, The Democratic Experience. (hide spoiler)]