Daniel Joseph Boorstin, 1914 - 2004
Library of Congress photo (Ca. 1975)
Born: 1 October 1914, Atlanta, Georgia
Died: 28 February 2004, Washington City
Boorstin's parents were second-generation Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father successfully defended a Jew falsely charged with rape and murder, after the Ku Klux Klan lynched the defendant the Boorstin's moved to Oklahoma. Daniel graduated with honors from Harvard, won a Rhodes scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford where he completed a double first and not only qualified as a barrister but was called to the British bar. Back in the US he earned his doctorate at Yale and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Naturally, his next step was to become a professor of history at the University of Chicago for 25 years. He was director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History for six years and Librarian of Congress for twelve. Historians panned his work, possibly jealous that his books sold well, and the American Library Association opposed his appointment at the Library of Congress, as they generally have in cases where the candidate isn't already a library administrator. Despite the wrong education, he was brilliant in both roles, transforming the Library of Congress. He wrote over twenty books, winning the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history.
Biography from Wikipedia and The Independent obituary
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Daniel J. Boorstin quotes:
Quotes found : 65 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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- A best seller was a book which somehow sold well simply because it was selling well. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - A celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961) - A sign of a celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961) - A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - America has been a land of dreams. A land where the aspirations of people from countries cluttered with rich, cumbersome, aristocratic, ideological pasts can reach for what once seemed unattainable. Here they have tried to make dreams come true. Yet now... we are threatened by a new and particularly American menace. It is not the menace of class war, of ideology, of poverty, of disease, of illiteracy, or demagoguery, or of tyranny, though these now plague most of the world. It is the menace of unreality. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson (1948) - As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - "A Case of Hypochondria," Newsweek (6 July 1970) - Formerly a public man needed a private secretary for a barrier between himself and the public. Nowadays he has a press secretary to keep him properly in the public eye. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin - I write to discover what I think. permalink
Daniel J. Boorstin
Quotes found : 65 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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