Daniel J. Boorstin
Daniel J. Boorstin
Daniel Joseph Boorstinwas an American historian at the University of Chicago, writing on many topics in American history and world history. He was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in 1975 and served until 1987. He was instrumental in the creation of the Library of Congress Center for the Book...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth1 October 1914
CountryUnited States of America
ocean ice-cream sea
The improved American highway system isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson's nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.
cinema lenses form
The traditional novel form continues to enlarge our experience in those very areas where the wide-angle lens and the Cinema screen tend to narrow it.
travel agency world
The traveler used to go about the world to encounter the natives. A function of travel agencies now is to prevent this encounter.
land form jew
Dispersed as the Jews are, they still form one nation, foreign to the land they live in.
funny education witty
Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.
politics social characteristics
Standing, standing, standing - why do I have to stand all the time? That is the main characteristic of social Washington.
knowledge technology fog
The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
artistic devices contraception
There is no known device for artistic contraception.
christian jesus father
The Christian test was a willingness to believe in the one Jesus Christ and His Message of salvation. What was demanded was not criticism but credulity. The Church Fathers observed that in the realm of thought only heresy had a history.
science library tentacles
[The Library of Congress] is a multimedia encyclopedia. These are the tentacles of a nation.
atheist atheism agnostic
No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.
nature facts fabrication
What preoccupies us, then, is not God as a fact of nature, but as a fabrication useful for a God-fearing society. God himself becomes not a power but an image.
photography dream real
The most refined skills of color printing, the intricate techniques of wide-angle photography, provide us pictures of trivia bigger and more real than life. We forget that we see trivia and notice only that the reproduction is so good. Man fulfils his dream and by photographic magic produces a precise image of the Grand Canyon. The result is not that he adores nature or beauty the more. Instead he adores his camera - and himself.
time hero idols
Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.