The Seekers1998
the story of man's continuing quest to understand his world
by Daniel J. Boorstin
Throughout history, from the time of Socrates to our own modern age, the human race has sought the answers to fundamental questions of life: Who are we? Why are we here?
Boorstin says our Western culture has seen three grand epics of Seeking. First there was the heroic way of prophets and philosophers - men like Moses or Job or Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as those in the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation - seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each of us.
Then came an age of communal seeking, with people like Thucydides and Thomas More and Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally, there was an age of the social sciences, when man seemed ruled by the forces of history....