The Americans: The Democratic Experience

By Daniel J. Boorstin

This book, written in 1974, is the third in a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy about “The Americans”.  Although the author does not specifically address historical facts relating to the history covered by the Homestead tours, he gives valuable lessons on how we may interpret history.  His main theme is how the American experience, unlike the Old World experience, helps to democratize the people of America, both long-time residents and newly arrived immigrants.

The author describes how these widely diversified Americans became one through shared experiences, such as ordering products via the Sears catalog (and also using the pages for toilet paper).  These shared experiences allowed millions of citizens spread over thousands of miles to have a common culture and purpose, attributes that have allowed new arrivals to assimilate quickly in the mainstream of American society.  The American society promotes individuals from even the poorest background to develop inventions and processes that helped all of society.  There were very few barriers to new ideas and innovation.

This book should assist any Homestead Museum docent who would like to sharpen his analytical skills.  For example, the system of bartering, prevalent in the rancho period of the 1840’s, gave way to gold-based monetary exchanges in the 1870’s and, finally, to the Federal Reserve controlled monetary system of the 1920’s.  Each system had its strengths and flaws and each system must deal with the human element, which often confounds central planners.