Daniel Boorstin was born in the United States in 1914. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1937 and then studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Civil Law.
Instead of practicing law, however, Boorstin turned to teaching history and in 1944 joined the University of Chicago. His 25 years of writing and teaching and researching American history at the University, including frequent trips abroad as a visiting lecturer, established his reputation as a leading historian of American culture.
In 1974, Boorstin became director of the National Museums of History and Technology at the Smithsonian Institution and later senior historian at the Institution. In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed him head of the Library of Congress. His numerous books include the prize winning trilogy The Americans: The Colonial Experience and The Democratic Experience.
Boorstin delivered the Beatty Lecture on March 21, 1990, titled "America: Discovery, Invention or Creation?". His Lecture was part of a four-day series of environmental themed talks and debates titled The Listening Earth which also featured Beatty lectures by Francis Bretherton and Norman Myers.
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