The Discoverers

The first volume of Daniel J. Boorstin's Knowledge Trilogy, whose other volumes are The Seekers and The Creators, is a history of human discovery in its many forms. Boorstin covers time, the earth and the seas, science, medicine and mathematics, and ideas such as evolution, plate tectonics and relativity. He tells the story through individuals, with chapters on the astronomer Tycho Brahe, the anatomist Edward Tyson and Isaac Newton. He also weighs the obstacles to discovery, including the illusions that knowledge itself creates, and the role of religion and culture in why some societies explored while others turned inward. The book appeared in 1983.

Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein put it on his 2015 summer reading list, as reported by Fortune via Bloomberg.