Boorstin, Daniel J. (Daniel Joseph), 1914-2004.
New York : Random House, ©1994.
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Notes:
- Includes index.
- 1. Realms of discovery: The age of negative discovery — The cultures of pride and awe — An odd couple: discoverers and inventors — 2. Trials of conscience: The writer as conscience of the world — Our conscience-wracked nation — 3. New-world opportunities: Printing and the Constitution — Roles of the president’s house — The making of a capitol — An un-American capital — 4. The cautionary science: Tocqueville’s America — Custine’s Russia — 4. The fourth kingdom: Darwinian expectations — Statistical expectations — Artificial selection — The great separation — 6. A personal postscript: My father, lawyer Sam Boorstin — Land of the unexpected.
- Also issued online.
- This provocative new collection of essays by a Pulitzer Prize winner deals with the challenging themes of discovery and surprise in history. Cleopatra’s Nose is not a miscellany but rather a selection of recent essays illustrating specific subjects that have preoccupied Boorstin for several decades. Tantalizing themes all: How sometimes discovery only increases our ignorance. What were the specific historical opportunities in the New World? How has the fourth kingdom – the kingdom of machines – contradicted Darwinian expectations, contributed to a confusion of statistics, created the need for the unnecessary, and highlighted the paradoxes of science and the politics of common sense? In a personal postscript, Boorstin gives us a memorable and affectionate portrait of his father and optimistically celebrates the United States as the Land of the Unexpected.
Subjects:
- Civilization, Modern — History.
- Science — History.
- Science and civilization.
- History. fast (OCoLC)fst01411628
Requested by McCaa, R