The Americans: The Democratic Experience

by BOORSTIN, DANIEL J.

• ISBN13: 9780394710112
• ISBN10: 0394710118
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1974-07-12
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A study of the last 100 years of American history.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Changes	ix
BOOK ONE EVERYWHERE COMMUNITIES	3	(304)
PART ONE The Go-Getters	3	(86)
1. "Gold from the Grass Roots Up"	5	(13)
2. Rituals of the Open Range	18	(8)
3. Private Wars for the Public Domain	26	(8)
4. Lawless Sheriffs and Honest Desperadoes	34	(7)
5. Rounding Up Rock Oil	41	(12)
6. Generalized Go-Getters: Lawyers	53	(11)
7. Exploiting the Federal Commodity: Divorce and Gambling	64	(13)
8. Crime As a Service Institution	77	(12)
PART TWO Consumption Communities	89	(76)
9. A Democracy of Clothing	91	(10)
10. Consumer's Palaces	101	(8)
11. Nationwide Customers	109	(4)
12. Goods Sell Themselves	113	(5)
13. How Farmers Joined Consumption Communities	118	(12)
14. Citifying the Country	130	(7)
15. A New Freedom for Advertisers: Breaking the Agate Rule	137	(8)
16. Building Loyalty to Consumption Communities	145	(3)
17. "The Consumer Is King"	148	(9)
18. Christmas and Other Festivals of Consumption	157	(8)
PART THREE Statistical Communities	165	(80)
19. A Numerical Science of Community: The Rise of the Average Man	167	(6)
20. Communities of Risk	173	(15)
21. Statistical Expectations: What's Your Size?	188	(5)
22. Making Things No Better Than They Need to Be	193	(7)
23. "The Incorruptible Cashier"	200	(5)
24. Income Consciousness	205	(9)
25. The Rediscovery of Poverty	214	(5)
26. Measuring the Mind	219	(8)
27. From "Naughtiness" to "Behavior Deviation"	227	(11)
28. Statistical Morality	238	(7)
PART FOUR The Urban Quest for Place	245	(62)
29. An American Diaspora	247	(5)
30. Politics for City Immigrants	252	(9)
31. Stretching the City: The Decline of Main Street	261	(12)
32. Booming the Real Estate Frontier	273	(8)
33. Antidotes for the City: Utopia, Renewal, Suburbia	281	(10)
34. Cities within Cities: The Urban Blues	291	(16)
BOOK TWO THE DECLINE OF THE MIRACULOUS	307	(104)
PART FIVE Leveling Times and Places	307	(52)
35. Condense! Making Food Portable through Time	309	(7)
36. Meat for the Cities	316	(6)
37. Varying the Everyday Menu	322	(10)
38. People's Palaces on Wheels	332	(4)
39. Walls Become Windows	336	(10)
40. Homogenizing Space	346	(13)
PART SIX Mass-Producing the Moment	359	(52)
41. Time Becomes Fungible: Packaging the Unit of Work	361	(9)
42. Making Experience Repeatable	370	(20)
43. Extending Experience: The New Segregation	390	(7)
44. The Decline of the Unique and the Secret	397	(5)
45. In Search of the Spontaneous	402	(9)
BOOK THREE A POPULAR CULTURE	411	(114)
PART SEVEN The Thinner Life of Things	411	(38)
46. Endless Streams of Ownership	413	(9)
47. New Penumbras of Property	422	(6)
48. The Semi-Independent Businessman	428	(6)
49. From Packing to Packaging: The New Strategy of Desire	434	(15)
PART EIGHT Language, Knowledge, and the Arts	449	(76)
50. The Decline of Grammar: The Colloquial Conquers the Classroom	451	(11)
51. From Oratory to Public Speaking: Fireside Politics	462	(16)
52. A Higher Learning for All	478	(12)
53. Educating "the Great Army of Incapables"	490	(12)
54. Art Becomes Enigma	502	(12)
55. The Exotic Becomes Commonplace	514	(11)
BOOK FOUR THE FUTURE ON SCHEDULE	525	(74)
PART NINE Search for Novelty	525	(32)
56. The Social Inventor: Inventing for the Market	527	(10)
57. Communities of Inventors: Solutions in Search of Problems	537	(9)
58. Flow Technology: The Road to the Annual Model	546	(11)
PART TEN Mission and Momentum	557	(42)
59. Prologue to Foreign Aid	559	(9)
60. Samaritan Diplomacy	568	(11)
61. Not Whether but When: The New Momentum	579	(20)
Epilogue: Unknown Coasts	599	(2)
Acknowledgments	601	(4)
Bibliographical Notes	605	(78)
Index	683