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?

In his previous bestsellers, The Discoverers and The Creators, Daniel Boorstin first told brilliantly how we discovered the reality of our world, and then he celebrated man`s achievements in the arts. He now turns to the great figures in history who sought meaning and purpose in our existence. Boorstin claims our Western culture has seen three epics of Seeking. First we had the heroic way of the prophets and philosophers - men like Moses and Job, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as well as the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation - seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each one of us. Then came the age of communal seeking with Thucydides, Thomas More, Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally there was the age of the social sciences when men seemed ruled by the forces of history. Here are the absorbing stories of exceptional men such as Marx, Spengler, Toynbee, Carlyle, Emerson, Malraux, Bergson and Einstein. A wonderfully stimulating book bursting with anecdotes and information relating to the eternal questions that have preoccupied the thinking human since the beginning of time.