The Discoverers

A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself

By: Daniel J. Boorstin

Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Daniel J. Boorstin, former librarian of the Library of Congress, gives a fascinating history of world civilization. From astronomical development, microscopes, telescopes, medicine, vaccines, genetics and map-making, the author delves into the discoveries of our world and the freedoms those discoveries bestowed. With the breadth and depth of this study, Boorstin relieves the world of its fictitious beliefs and encourages a more modern and scientific approach to the world around us. Discovery is not the main event: convincing people to accept the facts as a new way of life is the key to the growth of mankind.

©1985 Daniel J. Boorstin (P)2003 Phoenix

This One has Good Audio

I don't know why Audible has two versions of this book on its site, but this version has good audio, while the other version does not. (Just try listening to the samples and you can easily tell the difference.) As for the book content itself: I read this book almost 20 years ago and thought it was time for another try. At that time I found it both enlightening and frustrating, and I think that sums it up still. Boorstin's insights are illuminating and sometimes profound, but his nonlinear writing style, jumping from concept to concept and sometimes century to century, makes it difficult at times to understand his argument.

Warning! Abridged version.

The reader is good but this is an abridged version. If you want it as a textbook do not buy this. I double check the information before I purchased and did not see anywhere that it was abridged.

Dreary

I remember reading this book years ago and rather liking it. Listening is another matter. Seems to jump around a lot, no full telling of any story. Maybe its best to just remember how nice something was in the past and enjoy nostalgia and save credits!

Good book, didn't realize it was abridged...

Very interesting thought provoking book. I bought the audio version to listen along while I read, but didn't realize that it was an abridged audiobook (it only says "abridged" in the extra details)... Very disappointed that I can't read along while I listen without trying to figure out where I am in the book.

A Good Read Spoiled

I read this for the first time way back when it was first released in trade paperback format and was enthralled. I devoured it almost in one bite and it left me with a hunger for more from Daniel Boorstin. I was so excited to see it on Audible.com and so downloaded it with last month's credit. I held off on listening until I finished the one that I was listening to at that time. (I love putting buds in my ears and listening as a drift into sleep - great entertainment with the bonus of keeping outside noise from rudely waking me too early!) I had to quit listening to this one because of the repeatedly mispronounced words. Not just the more technical language or polysyllabic words, either. If you loved it before I would caution you to think twice. It is a great read but a poor reading of it.

This is an Abridged version

I purchased this as a textbook for my son's class only to find that, even though it was not list as such, it is an Abridged version rather than the full book.
If you are looking for the full book, this is not the version you are searching for.

ABRIDGED

the book is not classified as being abridged, but it is indeed. still a very interesting listen but very unlike the text.

it is so hard to find the chapter your looking for

if you're reading this for school it is impossible to find the place assigned to you. in audible as it divided up into five sections. in the book though it's is divided into four different books with a total of 15 parts, so it's impossible to find what your looking for

The Audible version is abridged

A very enjoyable narrative of world history organized in four sub-categories: the measurement of time, geography, scientific discovery, and cultural development.

My copy of the book was printed 1985 and is 745 pages. The Audible version is abridged, though the description does not indicate this anywhere. In addition, the four sub-categories are further divided into 15 total sub-parts and 82 total sections. The Audible Chapter list contains only 5 unnamed chapters. This makes it very difficult to match up the text with the audio.

Fascinating scholarship conveyed in simple and clear

Unusual selection of topics which fit together into a seemingly inevitable pattern of time, cosmology and chemistry and then social sviences and economics.