“The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself”, by Daniel J. Boorstin

763 pages, Random House, ISBN-13: 978-0394402291

The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself by Daniel J. Boorstin – the late American historian at the University of Chicago and twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress – is the history of human discovery in all its many forms: exploration, scientific, medical, mathematical, and the more theoretical ones such as time, evolution, plate tectonics and relativity. He praises the inventive, human mind and its eternal quest to discover the universe and our place within (it is also the first in the “Knowledge Trilogy” that includes The Creators and The Seekers). In this book the author takes the reader through the moments in history where the great leaps forward took place. Many were the product of individual people, such as Prince Henry the Navigator who insisted that vessels of exploration continue past a particularly featureless section of the West African coast despite sailors’ fears that it was the beginning of the end of the world. Boorstin introduces the human aspect of each drama of discovery, including illuminating and frequently petty concerns that sometimes animated the great thinkers and doers of the ages.

Boorstin blended two distinct historical approaches in order to better show the history of human knowledge: the study of ideas and how they influence Man; and the study of modern science as part of this overall trend. In some ways the book is subtly subversive as much of the history of discovery turns out to be the history of “unlearning”: many of the great moments of advancement were those when a person, group or culture managed to escape the constraints of mysticism, religion, racism and dogma in order to discern actual truths. The roughly 1000 years during which Europe collectively rejected knowledge and thought in favor of religious cosmology is treated for what it is: a colossal waste of lives and human potential. In many cases, too, even though the seemingly great discovery of the moment was totally, factually wrong, the real discovery was not the answer to a question, but that the question was asked at all. The story of human progress could be terribly frustrating, but Boorstin’s focus on the positive moments of rising above the muck of ignorance invites the reader to focus on the hope that humanity can continue on this path.