Daniel J. Boorstin

Originally filmed in IMAX format, The Discoverers features some astoundingly spectacular footage all centering around the act of discovery. The story of the great navigator Magellan's search for a passage to the Pacific is presented with film of spectacular sunsets and scenery, and a visit to a re-creation of Sir Isaac Newton's laboratory while he refracts light with lamps and prisms is equally beautiful. The various vignettes, which range from a child and her father discovering paintings of bison painted on cave ceilings thousands of years ago to a scientist on a team analyzing data sent back from a probe sent to the planet Venus, don't proceed in a linear path. But that's the whole idea. The production was inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin, and the goal was to put the viewer alongside those who explore the unknown as they experience the joyous moments of discovery. There is some serious science presented in the course of the film, but fear not, it's all presented in a highly entertaining manner. All that's required is to simply sit back and immerse yourself in the utterly gorgeous cinematography.

A new collection of essays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Discoverers explores the themes of discovery, paradox, and surprise in history, from ancient times to the technologically advanced world of the present. 17,500 first printing.

Daniel J. Boorstin describes a post-Civil War America united not by ideological conviction or religious faith but by common participation in ordinary living: "A new civilization found new ways