Daniel J. Boorstin was born in Atlanta, GA, in 1914 but spent his formative years in Oklahoma. Daniel followed in his father’s footsteps and studied Law. He entered Harvard at age 15, then studied at Oxford, took a double first in Law, and was summarily called to the British Bar, a feat very few Americans have achieved. He dabbled in communism in his younger years but quickly realized it was not for him and became a conservative. Boorstin joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1944, where he would remain for 25 years. Ever the professorial type, he could be found wearing tweed jackets and bow ties, typing his manuscripts on his beloved Olympia manual typewriter.
In 1976, Boorstin was installed as the 12th Librarian of Congress. His goal in this position was to return to Americans their history that had long been kept away in boxes and rooms, unavailable to them. Boorstin was a man who loved America, thought highly of Jefferson, and believed in American exceptionalism. Boorstin loved every aspect of history, whether it regarded a box containing the artifacts of Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination or his Gettysburg Address.[1] Boorstin took inspiration from the 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon. Like Boorstin, Gibbon was an amateur historian, but Boorstin liked to point out that, like Gibbon, he loved history despite not having a doctorate in it. This fact tweaked the noses of many historians who doubted whether Boorstin should be named to the post of Librarian of Congress.[2]
Boorstin authored over twenty books, including his trilogy on the founding and development of America, known as The Americans. He was not concerned with presidents and political parties. For Boorstin, the history of America lay with the people of America. “Instead he celebrated the practical triumphs of people undisturbed by dogmas and conventions, for example the New England entrepreneurs who met the challenge of their land of rocks and ice by quarrying their granite for public buildings all over the country and by successfully exporting their ice by sailing ship to the East Indies. In discussing the settlement of the West he had little to say about the Louisiana Purchase and a great deal to say about the balloon-frame house, an invention without a known inventor, which revolutionized house building.”[3]
American history was a genuine love for Boorstin, as was world history. His desire and love of facts led him to write a trilogy on world history. Again, Boorstin did not focus on the movers and shakers of world history. Instead, he focused on those who created telescopes, windmills, music, theatre, architecture, etc. He delighted in the common man and his achievements. The Discoverers, The Creators, and The Seekers continue to be famous for celebrating humanity and mankind’s ability. Interestingly, The Seekers, which deals with the philosophers of the ages, was not a favorite of Boorstin’s. He preferred facts and believed he was wandering away from them when he wrote about philosophy.[4]
Daniel Boorstin was not afraid of his peers who criticized his works as anti-intellectual due to his emphasis on pragmatic achievement.[5] He was a man of ideas and great intellect, and despite using his old Olympia typewriter, he worked diligently to modernize the Library of Congress by utilizing computers. Boorstin brought to the Smithsonian a desire to share his understanding of the importance of artifacts and how they teach history. He had no room for those who derided or scorned the history of the United States. He wrote a book in 1963 titled The Decline of American Radicalism, aimed at those who worked at causing discontent and protests. He referred to them as a new form of barbarian. In turn, these voices denounced him, and he left the world of academia. Still, as he left, he wrote a satire in the mode of Benjamin Franklin titled, “The Sociology of the Absurd or the Application of Professor X,” which showed the inane mindset of those in the university system.[6]
During his career, Daniel Boorstin was decorated by the countries of Portugal, Japan, Belgium, and France and was granted membership in the American Philosophical Society. His death on February 28, 2004, marked the passing of a historian who returned America’s history to the people.
[1] “Daniel Boorstin.” The Economist, March 20, 2004, 94(US). Gale Business: Insights (accessed February 15, 2023). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A114448795/GBIB?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-GBIB&xid=f6cdfc62.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Morgan, Edmund S. “DANIEL J. BOORSTIN.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 150, no. 2 (06, 2006): 347-51, https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/daniel-j-boorstin/docview/220904656/se-2.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
Beginning To End: All Things History 