It has been suggested that fatherland be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2011.

"Native land" redirects here. See also: Indigenous land rights.

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"The Motherland" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1883), a view of the home country as a benign mother

A homeland (rel. country of origin and native land) is the concept of the place (cultural geography) to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin. When used as a proper noun, the word, as well as its cognates in other languages (i.e. Heimatland in German) often have ethnic nationalist connotations. A homeland may also be referred to as a fatherland, a motherland, or a mother country, depending on the culture and language of the nationality in question.

Patria[link]

Patria remains the common term for "homeland, native land" in many languages, based on the Greek πατρίδα (patrída) (lit. "fatherland") "native / ancestral land". Hence also the English terms patriot, patriotism.

Motherland[link]

Motherland may refer to a mother country, i.e. the place of one's birth, the place of origin of an ethnic group or immigrant, or a Metropole in contrast to its colonies. People from Australia and former British colonies would sometimes describe the United Kingdom as the "Mother Country", often carrying a strong British Imperialist connotation, and not always in a flattering manner.

Russians commonly refer to Mother Russia as a personification of their nation. Many Russians around the world refer to Russia as their motherland.

The French commonly refer to "la mère Patrie" as France and are ready to die for her; the Hispanic Americans, too, commonly refer to "la Madre Patria" as Spain, but currently without any ideological meaning.

The Indian Independence Movement drew inspiration from the numerous goddesses of the pantheon of Hinduism, which originated in India, to the point where many Indians refer to their country as "Bharat Mata". India's national song is derived from a poem by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, "Vande Mataram", which implies devotion to "Mother India" as a point of patriotic duty. Hindi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Nepali, Marathi and Sanskrit have mātrubhūmi (Devanagari: मातृभूमी), literally "Mother-Earth".

Chinese 祖国 (simplified Chinese), 祖國 (traditional Chinese) (pinyin: zǔguó) literally means "ancestral land" and not necessarily "motherland" or "fatherland." However, in English this is almost exclusively translated as "motherland." In Taiwan, the term 母國 (literally "motherland") is also used, though that may be due to Japanese or Western influence.

Among African Americans it is common to refer to the continent of Africa as the Motherland.

Ethiopians also refer their country as Motherland(እናት ሃገራችን)in their national Anthem..

Filipinos ever since the Nationalist movement have referred to their country as Ináng Bayan, modelled after the Western concept, though prominent figures such as José Rizal referred instead to "Mother Spain". Ináng Bayan appears as a national personification, frequently depicted in a baro't saya that echoes the design of the national flag.

Fatherland[link]

Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers" or "forefathers". It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations.

The term fatherland (Vaterland) is used throughout German-speaking Europe, as well as in Dutch. For example, "Wien Neêrlands Bloed", national anthem of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1932, makes extensive and conspicuous use of the parallel Dutch word.

Because of the use of Vaterland in German war propaganda, the term "Fatherland" in English has become associated with domestic British and American anti-Nazi propaganda during World War II.

Terms equating "Fatherland" in Germanic languages:

• Danish fædreland
• Dutch vaderland
• Frisian heitelân
• German Vaterland
• Icelandic föðurland
• Norwegian fedreland
• Swedish fäderneslandet (besides the more common fosterlandet)

A corresponding term is sometimes used in Slavic languages, Bosnian Otadžbina (Отаџбина), Bulgarian otechestvo, Czech otčina (although the normal Czech term for "homeland" is vlast), in Serbian is otadžbina or отаџбина in Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, in Polish ojczyzna (besides macierz "motherland"), Russian otechestvo (отечество) or otchizna (отчизна) (although rodina "motherland" is more common).

In Latin America a common way to refer to one's country is Patria which has the same connotation as Fatherland, that is, the nation of our parents/fathers (in Spanish Padres or Papas). Curiously, Spain is usually referred to as la Madre Patria (the Motherland of our forefathers).

Various connotations[link]

• The Soviet Union created homelands for some minorities in the 1920s, including the Volga German ASSR and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. In the case of the Volga German ASSR, these homelands were later abolished and their inhabitants deported to either Siberia or the Kazakh SSR. In the case of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast this was not necessary, since it had been created from the start at the far-Eastern end of Siberia, where no Jew had ever lived.
• In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security was created soon after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as a means to centralize response to various threats. The term is rarely used by common United States citizens to refer to their country, which made the chosen name sound odd to many.^[1] In a June 2002 column, Republican consultant and speechwriter Peggy Noonan expressed the hope that the Bush administration would change the name of the department, writing that, "The name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn't really an American word, it's not something we used to say or say now".^[2]
• In the apartheid era in South Africa, the concept was given a different meaning. The white government had designated approximately 13% of its territory for black tribal settlement. Whites and other non-blacks were restricted from owning land or settling in those areas. After 1948 they were gradually granted an increasing level of "home-rule". From 1976 several of these regions were granted independence. Four of them were declared independent nations by South Africa, but were unrecognized as independent countries by any other nation besides each other and South Africa. The territories set aside for the African inhabitants were also known as bantustans.
• In Australia, the term refers to relatively small Aboriginal settlements (referred to also as 'Outstations') where people with close kinship ties share lands significant to them for cultural reasons. Many such homelands are found across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. The 'homeland movement' gained momentum in the 1970s. It is estimated that homeland numbers range around 500 to 700, with not all homelands being permanently occupied owing to seasonal or cultural reasons.^[3]

See also[link]

• Bantustan
• Diaspora politics
• Homeland security
• Mother tongue
• Separatism
• Secession
• Arnhem Land

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama (Random House, 1995)

External links[link]

• Nationalism and Ethnicity - A Theoretical Overview

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Damian Watcyn Lewis (born 11 February 1971) is an English actor and producer. His acting roles include Soames Forsyte in the ITV remake of The Forsyte Saga, Detective Charlie Crews in the NBC drama Life and Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He currently stars as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the award-winning Showtime series Homeland.^[1]

Early life[link]

Lewis was born in St John's Wood, London, the son of Watcyn and Charlotte Lewis.^[3][4] His paternal grandparents were Welsh, and Lewis says that his father "is Welsh", despite Watcyn being English and born in London.^[5] His maternal grandfather was Lord Mayor of London Ian Frank Bowater and his maternal grandmother's ancestors include Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn (a doctor to the royal family), author Kathryn Hoare and philanthropist Alfred Yarrow.^[3][6]

Lewis made several visits to the United States to visit relatives during his summers as a child.^[7][8] He first decided to become an actor at age 16.^[4] He was educated at the independent Ashdown House School in the village of Forest Row in East Sussex and at Eton College and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993, after which he served as a stage actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company. During his time with the RSC, he played Borgheim in Adrian Noble's production of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf, as well as Posthumus in William Shakespeare's Cymbeline. He has also starred in another of Ibsen's plays, Pillars of the Community.

Career[link]

Lewis once worked as a telemarketer selling car alarms, a job he detested.^[9]

Lewis appeared in the 1997 film Robinson Crusoe, playing Patrick Conner. Lewis also appeared in Jonathan Kent's production of Hamlet, playing Laertes opposite Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet. This production was seen by Steven Spielberg, who subsequently cast Lewis as Richard Winters in the HBO/BBC World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, his first role of several that required a credible American accent.^[7]

Subsequently, Lewis has played Soames Forsyte in the ITV series The Forsyte Saga (later shown as a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries), which earned him rave reviews and further exposed him to a US audience.^[10] He returned to the US to star in Dreamcatcher, a Stephen King film about a man who becomes possessed by an evil alien. The character is American but when possessed he takes on a British accent.^[7] On the heels of this role, he starred in Keane as a Manhattanite with a fragile mental state who is searching for his missing daughter. Despite the film's poor box-office performance, the role won Lewis rave reviews.^[11][12][13]

He played Jeffrey Archer in the satirical TV special Jeffrey Archer: The Truth. Since 2004, he has appeared in a number of films, as well as the 2005 BBC TV adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, as part of the ShakespeaRe-Told season. Lewis played the role of Yassen Gregorovich in the film Stormbreaker.

In 2006 he appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC drama Friends and Crocodiles.

On 10 November 2006, 1 May 2009, 18 November 2010 and 27 April 2012, he was the guest host on BBC's Have I Got News For You.

In 2008, Lewis starred as the main character Charlie Crews in the US television series Life on NBC. The show premiered in the US on 26 September 2007 and was affected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Only half of the first season's shows were produced. Regardless, the show won a 2008 AFI Award for best television series.^[14] Although the show received critical acclaim, when it returned the following television season, it was shuffled from night to night. With its high production costs, the show was cancelled by NBC to clear its time slot for the much less expensive daily program The Jay Leno Show.

Lewis appeared, the following year, in the lead role in The Baker, a film directed by his brother, Gareth Lewis, and also took the supporting role of Rizza in The Escapist, which he also helped produce.

Lewis led the cast in Martin Crimp's version of Molière's comedy, The Misanthrope, which opened in December 2009 at the Comedy Theatre, London.^[15] Other cast members included Tara FitzGerald, Keira Knightley and Dominic Rowan.

As of 2011, Lewis has a starring role as Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the Showtime psychological thriller series Homeland.^[16]

Charity work[link]

In March 2010, he became a trade justice ambassador for Christian Aid, a UK charity. In 2006, he was a player for England in Soccer Aid in late May, and golfed for Europe in the All*Star Cup, in late August, both shown on ITV.

Lewis is involved with a number of charities, including being one of three patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.^[17] He participated in Soccer Aid 2010, which supported the charity UNICEF. During the first half he hit the crossbar after lobbing former Arsenal and German national goalkeeper Jens Lehmann with a shot from 25 yards. He also scored in the penalty shoot-out. Lewis himself is a devoted Liverpool F.C. fan, attending as many games as his schedule allows. He stars as Gareth, the father of an 11-year old Liverpool fan (Will), in a 2011 British sport drama titled "Will", and played a part in convincing the current Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish to get involved in the movie, after Dalglish had expressed doubts over his involvement in the movie due to his convictions about whether the movie was proper or not.^[18]

Personal life[link]

On 4 July 2007, Lewis married actress Helen McCrory; together they have a daughter, Manon (born 8 September 2006), and a son, Gulliver (born 2 November 2007).^[19] They live in Tufnell Park and Los Angeles.

As well as being a passionate Liverpool F.C. supporter, Lewis has also shown interest in international rugby union, where he supports the team of his grandparents' nationality, Wales, as opposed to the country of his birth.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

[edit] Golden Globe Awards

Television awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Damian Lewis at the Internet Movie Database
• Damian Lewis Yahoo Group
• "My philosophy: Damian Lewis" interview, Times Online, November 2005

Claire Danes
Danes at the 2012 Time 100
Born	Claire Catherine Danes (1979-04-12) April 12, 1979 (age 33) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Hugh Dancy (2009–present)

Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American television, stage and film actress. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in the HBO TV film Temple Grandin. She portrays Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland.

Early life[link]

Danes was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York.^[1] Her mother, Carla (née Hall), is a day-care provider, painter, and textile designer who later served as her daughter's manager, and her father, Christopher Danes (b. May 6, 1944 in Austin, Texas),^[2][3] is a computer consultant and former architectural photographer. Danes has described her background as being "as WASPy as you can get";^[4] her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes (1910–1992 in Litchfield, Connecticut), was the dean of the art and architecture school at Yale University.^[5][6] She has an older brother, Asa (b. 1973).

Danes attended the Dalton School in New York City, the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, the Professional Performing Arts School,^[7] and the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University, her father's alma mater. Director Oliver Stone wrote her letter of recommendation to Yale.^[7] After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career.

Television[link]

Danes got her start as a guest star on Law & Order in an episode called "Skin Deep". She also appeared in an episode of HBO's Lifestories: Families in Crisis entitled "The Coming out of Heidi Leiter". In March 1993, a pilot episode was shot, when Claire was 13 years old. It would be almost another year and a half before broadcast. Danes starred as the 15-year-old Angela Chase in the television drama series My So-Called Life,^[8] for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy^[9] nomination. The show was canceled after only 19 episodes. However, the show has developed a large cult following in the years since it was canceled.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, Danes starred in the HBO production of Temple Grandin, a biopic about the eponymous autistic woman. She won the 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, the 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries award. The film was well received and Grandin herself praised Danes' performance.^[10]

In 2011 Danes starred in a new Showtime series called Homeland in which she plays an agent of the CIA who, unbeknownst to her employer, is a person with bipolar disorder. Her character believes a United States Marine Corps war hero is planning a terrorist attack while being tapped for high profile government service. The series costars Mandy Patinkin and Damian Lewis.^[11] She won the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series for her performance.^[12]

Film[link]

Following the cancellation of My So Called Life, Danes made the transition into film. She played Elizabeth "Beth" March in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women alongside Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Samantha Mathis, Trini Alvarado, Christian Bale, Susan Sarandon, and Gabriel Byrne. She also appeared as Holly Hunter's daughter in Home for the Holidays, which was directed by Jodie Foster. Danes appeared opposite French actress Jeanne Moreau, and Jude Law in 1995's I Love You, I Love You Not. She then played the role of Rachel in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.

Danes first leading role on the big screen came in 1996. She portrayed Juliet Capulet in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague. Later that year, it was reported that she turned down the female lead role in Titanic.^[13][14] Danes, however, said that while she may have been considered for the part, she was never offered the role.

In 1997, Claire Danes also worked alongside two acclaimed directors. She played abused wife Kelly Riker in John Grisham's The Rainmaker directed by Francis Ford Coppola, as well as the trashy, dim-witted Jenny in Oliver Stone's noir U Turn. In 1998, she played several very different roles: Cosette in Bille August's film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, and the pregnant teenage daughter of Polish immigrants (played by Gabriel Byrne and Lena Olin) in Polish Wedding. In 1999, she made her first appearance in an animated feature with the English version of Princess Mononoke. That same year she played the role of Julie Barnes in the big screen adaptation of the 1970s TV show The Mod Squad, and took the lead role in Brokedown Palace, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman. Danes left her career temporarily to pursue her education at Yale.

In 2002, Danes returned to the big screen. She starred alongside Susan Sarandon, Kieran Culkin, and Bill Pullman again, in Igby Goes Down. Later that year she co-starred as Meryl Streep's daughter in the Oscar-nominated, The Hours, with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The following year, she was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, followed by Stage Beauty in 2004. She earned critical acclaim in 2005 when she starred in Steve Martin's Shopgirl alongside Martin and Jason Schwartzman, and in The Family Stone opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton. In 2007, Danes appeared in the fantasy Stardust, which she described as a "classic model of romantic comedy",^[15] with Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Sienna Miller, the drama Evening, and appeared in The Flock, opposite Richard Gere.

Theatre[link]

Danes got her start in New York City theater appearing in performances of Happiness, Punk Ballet, and Kids Onstage for which she choreographed her own dance.

In April 2000, she appeared off Broadway in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. In November of that same year, she appeared as Emily Webb in a one night only staged reading of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at All Saint's Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. The production was staged by Bess Armstrong who'd played the mother of Danes' character on My So-Called Life. Also featured in the cast were several other My So-Called Life actors including Tom Irwin, Devon Gummersall and Paul Dooley.^[16]

In September 2005, Danes returned to New York's Performance Space 122 where she had performed as a child. She appeared in choreographer Tamar Rogoff's solo dance piece "Christina Olson: American Model" where she portrayed the subject of Andrew Wyeth's famous painting "Christina's World". Olson suffered from muscular deterioration that left her weak and partially paralyzed. "Tamar Rogoff uses her unique body-centric methodology to explore the ideas, spirit and physicality of a woman both rejected and revered."^[17] Danes was praised for her dance skills and the acting talent that she brought to the project.^[18][19]

Danes in Toronto, for a MuchOnDemand promotion of Stardust, 2007

In January 2007, Danes reunited with Rogoff and Rogoff's daughter and Danes' childhood friend Ariel Flavin to perform in Performance Space 122's "Edith and Jenny". In the two person dance performance, Danes and Flavin revisited their film and dance roots: "Danes and Flavin encounter their eleven year-old selves on screen, captured in their respective film debuts, Claire as Edith in Dreams of Love, and Ariel as Jenny in Coyote Mountain. Rites of passage unfold in fragments revealing the complexities of two fictional families. The lines between screen and stage, life and art, are blurred as Edith and Jenny, Danes and Flavin, form an alliance, stepping through and beyond their films and the fates of their families."^[20]

Later in 2007, Danes made her Broadway theatre debut as Eliza Doolittle in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, directed by David Grindley at the American Airlines Theatre.

In January 2012, Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals announced that they would honor Danes as 2012 Woman of the Year.^[21]

Other work[link]

In 1997, Danes wrote an introduction to Neil Gaiman's Death: The Time of Your Life.^[22]

Personal life[link]

She dated her Stage Beauty and Princess Mononoke co-star Billy Crudup, which generated negative publicity due to rumors that their relationship caused the end of Crudup's relationship to then-pregnant Mary-Louise Parker.^[23]

Danes married her Evening co-star, Hugh Dancy, in a quiet ceremony in France in 2009.^[24]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Theater[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Claire Danes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Claire Danes

• Claire Danes at the Internet Movie Database
• Claire Danes at People.com
• Fresh Air interview, October 26, 2005
• Claire Danes at Emmys.com

The Creators is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1992 and is the second volume in what has become known as the Knowledge Trilogy. It was preceded by The Discoverers and succeeded by The Seekers.

Contents[link]

The Creators, subtitled A History of Heroes of the Imagination, is the story of mankind's creativity. It highlights great works of art, music and literature but it is more than a recitation or list. It is a book of ideas and the people behind those ideas. It encompasses architecture, music, literature, painting, sculputure, the performing arts, theater, religious expression and philosophy. It can be viewed as a companion to The Discoverers which chronicled the history of invention, exploration and technology. The Creators traces the creative process from pre-history Egypt to modern times and like The Discoverers, follows both a topical and chronological structure. Boorstin writes in "A Personal Note to the Reader", "After The Discoverers... "I was more than ever convinced that the pursuit of knowledge is only one path to human fulfillment. This companion book, also a view from the literate West, is a saga of Heroes of the Imagination. While The Discoverers told of the conquest of illusions - the illusion of knowledge - this will be a story of vision (and illusions) newly created..." If The Discoverers is the story of the inventive human mind then The Creators is the story of the searching soul. The work is in twelve major parts that have been grouped into four books.

The Riddle of Creation: Prologue[link]

Part I. "Worlds Without Beginning"

Part II. "A Creator God"

Book One: Creator Man[link]

Part III. "The Power of the Stone"

Part IV. "The Magic of Images"

Part V. "The Immortal Word"

Book Two: Re-creating the World[link]

Part VI. "Otherworldly Elements"

Part VII. "The Human Comedy: A Composite Work"

Part VIII. "From Craftsman to Artist"

Part IX. "Composing for the Community"

Part X. "Conjuring with Time and Space"

Book Three: Creating the Self[link]

Part XI: "The Vanguard Word"

Part XII. "The Wilderness Within"

Praise and criticism[link]

The Creators was widely praised by both professional and non-professional readers but had its share of critics. It has been criticized for factual mistakes, poor research, literary ignorance, incorrect conclusions, a bias toward Western culture to the exclusion of other cultures, a tendency to overlook the negative and lack of attribution.^[1] Kenneth S. Lynn, a Harvard professor of history, accused Boorstin of philosophical bias and blatant myth-making. He has been called superficial because his works are popular with the general public.^[2]

Writing style and themes[link]

Boorstin follows the pattern he established in the previous book, The Discoverers. The book is built around the lives and contributions of individuals. These vignettes are the anchor of the work and reflects the author's belief that history is molded by men and women of daring and genius rather than ideological movements or academic theories. The subtitles in all three books of the Knowledge Trilogy pay homage to this idea. The trail of personal vignettes stretches from Confucius to Pope Gregory to Bach to Mozart to Dostoyevsky - a panorama of creators. Boorstin also adheres to an incremental approach to history. Although genius is unpredictable, it still builds upon the accomplishments of those who came before. Repeatedly Boorstin links changes in the way we view ourselves to artistic and creative changes.

The Question of Western culture[link]

Boorstin announces in his "Note to the Reader" (above) that he approaches the subject from a Western orientation. His concern is not strictly identifying great creators and their creations but also asking "Why?" and this question forms the basis of his Western orientation. Why were European painting styles and techniques in constant flux while China's remained relatively unchanged? Why did music acquire polyphony and instrumentation and evolve into a myriad of related "styles" while Indian music saw little evolution? Why did architecture undergo such radical transformation in the West? Why did Europe become the land of literacy and books? These question led Boorstin to certain proposals.

He suggests that "people of the Book" (Jews and Christians) came to view themselves in a different light than other cultures. Their belief in a Creator God led them to view human creation as participating in God's creation. As their God created, so did they also. They became a creative people, scrutinizing, questioning and imagining.^[3] Other cultures had moments of creative impulses but the idea of creativity for its own sake was not sustained. Other cultures, for other reasons, declined the creative road. Hinduism viewed the universe and our lives as cyclic, having no beginning, ending only when we merged with the Oneness and escaped this world.^[4] Buddhism did not ask "Why" but instead preached submissive acceptance of our lot in life.^[5] Confucianism concerned itself not with ultimate questions about God and the universe but with rules for practical, daily life.^[6] Although China had an ancient painting tradition, the intertwining of calligraphy with art as well the codification of the rules for painting resulted in an unchanging, static style.^[7] Islam held that Allah alone was Creator and claiming an act of creation was considered heretical.^[8] The Koran itself was not considered a document penned by Muhammed but a sacred text created at the beginning of time.^[9] Islam went so far as to ban the display of the human image which had dire consequences for the development of painting, sculpture, photography and much of the performing arts in the Islamic world.

With the rest of the world thus discussed, Boorstin begins his journey with the first Western state, Greece. The Homeric poems of the Gods, recited so often, became theater when participants and spectators separated.^[10] Greece initiated the cultural patterns that persist and define the Western world - dance, theater, poetry, sports, sculpture, literature, architecture, philosophy and democracy. At some point they began asking and attempting to answer fundamental questions about the world and themselves. When Europe rediscovered the writings of Greek philosophers, an artistic Renaissance exploded upon the scene. Along the way, the reader is introduced to a pantheon of heroes of the imagination - Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Paul of Tarsus, Dante, Michelangelo, Dostoyevsky...all of whom advocated the free pursuit of learning. Boorstin considers this pursuit fundamental to Western culture.

Although the focus is on the West, references to other cultures are included. The chapter "The Road Not Taken: The Japanese Triumph of Wood", is devoted to Japanese architecture. Chinese art and the reasons for its unchanging nature over time are discussed in "The Painted Word: The Inward Path of Tao". Islam, its art and attitudes toward art, are featured in "Satan's Handiwork".

The impact of literature[link]

Literature and its development comprises a major portion of the book. This reflects the high regard in which Boorstin held the written word. He has stated that the book is the greatest technological invention of all time.^[11] He suggests that literary evolution both changed and reflected new ways of thinking about the self. Indeed, literature was the driving force behind changes in personal perspectives starting (once again) with Greece. In another reference to incrementalism he traces the path from writing to religious poetry, the two being intertwined. Boorstin suggests that poetry in both form and substance was written to remember. Prose, a new form of literature, emerged and with it the theater. The play was transformed from a religious exercise to a creative one that saw the appearance of comedy, drama and tragedy. Because prose was not in a form that made for easy memorization, a greater imagination was required by the author. The theater served those purposes admirably and Greeks both loved and excelled at the performing arts.^[12] The spectators who viewed these works began asking the same questions and changing their perspective.^[13]

The introduction of prose also led to education and the areas of study became the foundation of a Classical education to this day - rhetoric, logic, grammar, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy. The latter existed because of the skeptical nature of some Greek thinkers who dared to ask why; it could only exist because of prose. Boorstin proposes that prose also encouraged the development of democracy by inviting participation from the citizenry. Other literary forms rose. The epic and its tales of gods and heroes and their great deeds continued, although somewhat abated. History as story began with Herodotus (fifth century BC) and The Histories. But it was the novel, what Boorstin calls "re-creating life out of life",^[14] that democratized literature. The novel inspired new ways of thinking about ourselves and our world and the forms created were revelations to the Western mind - the essay, the biography, stories of our own feelings and views,^[15] adventure tales and streams of consciousness in which time itself is manipulated. The author had finally discovered the self as a resource of art, the internal rather than the external universe serving as the source of inspiration.^[16]

Other creations[link]

Boorstin places the origins of Western music in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The early practice of congregational singing of psalms (adopted from Judaism) ceased with the introduction of the choir. This institution gave rise to the Gregorian chant and one of the most important creations in music, polyphony, still the hallmark of Western music.^[17] Over time, the emphasis within Music turned to the instruments rather than the human voice. Again, a change in attitude allowed the new event. Up to this time Church leaders had looked askance upon "wordless" music but the Reformation induced a change of assumptions. From Bach, the acceleration of instrument creation led to yet another peculian Western invention, the orchestra. Boorstin demonstrates repeatedly how one creation led to another and another. The concerto and symphony were created and opera caused a sensation. Music moved out of the palace into the concert hall for the masses.^[18] Music continued to evolve and new forms like atonality were heard in the rush to be creative and innovative.^[19]

As an example of megalithic architecture, Boorstin selects Stonehenge.^[20] The Pyramids of ancient Egypt ("Castles of Eternity") and the famous architecture of Greece ("Temples of Community") precede the work of the Romans. Concrete, the dome, the arch, one creation after another change the physical shells that gather and protect us. The final evolution of grand architecture, the skyscraper, gives us the architect as hero.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Creators

• Raymond Keating - Columns: Book Review: The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination
• Hilton Kramer, NY Times, Entranced by the People Who Made History
• NNDB
• Answers.com - Daniel J. Boorstin
• Booknotes interview with Boorstin on Creators, December 6, 1992.