Surely the best-known work by E. L. Doctorow is Ragtime (1974)…. But Doctorow's other two novels, Welcome to Hard Times (1960) and The Book of Daniel (1971), which have been obscured by the commercial hoopla over Ragtime, may in some respects be better pieces of fiction. (p. 397)

The novels are rich in texture and themes, actually too rich to discuss comprehensively here. However, there is a central motif in all three which gives both structure to the plots and a tone of irony to the characterizations. This motif is the idea of history as a repetitive process, almost a cyclical one, in which man is an unwilling, unknowing pawn, easily seduced into a belief in "progress." Doctorow pays detailed, loving attention to the external, concrete facts of cultural history, creating a feeling of uniqueness in time and place. Yet in reality these surface details which smack of growth, change, and differentiation...