Americans Series

Winner of the Bancroft Prize

In this brilliantly original book, written for the general reader, the American past becomes richly meaningful to the present."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
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.