In the third volume of his prizewinning trilogy The Americans, Historian Daniel Boorstin described the American story as largely a process of "countless, little-noticed revolutions [occurring] not in the halls of legislatures or on battlefields or on the barricades but in homes and farms and factories and schools and stores." They were "so little noticed because they came so swiftly, because they touched Americans everywhere and every day."

In a broad sense, these cumulative revolutions are the collective subject of a special project that TIME inaugurates this week: a series of Bicentennial Essays by distinguished scholars on various aspects of the national experience, which will appear periodically through early 1976. The first of these essays is published in this issue: an analysis of the growth of American nationalism by Boorstin, who was professor of American history at the University of Chicago for many years, and is currently director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of History and Technology. Boorstin is serving this project not only as an author but also as an adviser and has worked closely with the editors of TIME in planning the essay series. At Boorstin's suggestion, for example, the essays will deal in so far as possible with concrete developments and ideas rather than abstractions. Among the subjects and authors that will appear in future issues:

>The evolution of the presidency, traced by James Thomas Flexner, author of a definitive biography of George Washington.

> A study of the changing attitudes of Americans toward work and time, by Sociologist Daniel Bell.

> A comparison of colonial and contemporary child-rearing practices, by Psychiatrist Robert Coles, author of Children of Crisis.

> The pivotal role of scientists in America, analyzed by Anthropologist Loren Eiseley.

Other essays in the series will focus on changes in communications, ideas about vice and virtue, American art, cuisine, health care and systems of justice, and will compare colonial and current views of the future.

The series continues our Bicentennial observance, which began with our special July 4, 1776 issue. This issue has been extremely popular with schools and organizations, which are able to obtain copies at bulk rates by telephoning, toll free, 800-621-8200 (or in Illinois, 800-972-8302). The first run of 5.4 million copies was virtually sold out in three weeks, and a second printing of 800,000 has begun, making this the first edition of TIME to be reprinted since we began publication 52 years ago.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.