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Loading... Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpectedby Daniel Boorstin
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Wasn't what I was expecting from the blurb (hm, maybe I should have expected that...), this is a grouping of various talks and essays. More ranting than history - there's a sustained attack on politically correct language at one point, for example. I disagreed with some of Boorstin's main points - about science being collaborative and art being solitary, and discoverers being celebrated while inventors are not. The chapter I did enjoy was his memorial of his father, a lawyer in Tulsa in its early years. Otherwise, I found Boorstin's apparent belief that life the USA is the height of human progress rather short-sighted and unquestioning. For someone who had lived overseas, his view of life seemed remarkably parochial. ( ) no reviews | add a review
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Discoverers demonstrates the truth behind the aphorism that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the face of the world would have been changed. Boorstin goes on to uncover the elements of accident, improvisation and contradiction at the core of American institutions and beliefs. No library descriptions found. |
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