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The Daniel J. Boorstin Reader
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Boorstin has spent a lifetime exploring facets of the American experience. This new addition to the Modern Library is an omnibus collection drawn from his many books, including the monumental trilogy The Americans.
908 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 1995
About the author
Daniel J. Boorstin
203 books384 followersDaniel Joseph Boorstin was a historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until 1987.
He graduated from Tulsa's Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 15. He graduated with highest honors from Harvard, studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his PhD at Yale University. He was a lawyer and a university professor at the University of Chicago for 25 years. He also served as director of the National Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution.
His The Americans The Democratic Experience received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history.
Within the discipline of social theory, Boorstin’s 1961 book The Image A Guide to Pseudo-events in America is an early description of aspects of American life that were later termed hyperreality and postmodernity. In The Image, Boorstin describes shifts in American culture—mainly due to advertising—where the reproduction or simulation of an event becomes more important or "real" than the event itself. He goes on to coin the term pseudo-event which describes events or activities that serve little to no purpose other than to be reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. The idea of pseudo-events closely mirrors work later done by Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord. The work is still often used as a text in American sociology courses.
When President Gerald Ford nominated Boorstin to be Librarian of Congress, the nomination was supported by the Authors League of America but opposed by the American Library Association because Boorstin "was not a library administrator." The Senate confirmed the nomination without debate.
Boorstin died in 2004 in Washington, D.C.
He graduated from Tulsa's Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 15. He graduated with highest honors from Harvard, studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his PhD at Yale University. He was a lawyer and a university professor at the University of Chicago for 25 years. He also served as director of the National Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution.
His The Americans The Democratic Experience received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history.
Within the discipline of social theory, Boorstin’s 1961 book The Image A Guide to Pseudo-events in America is an early description of aspects of American life that were later termed hyperreality and postmodernity. In The Image, Boorstin describes shifts in American culture—mainly due to advertising—where the reproduction or simulation of an event becomes more important or "real" than the event itself. He goes on to coin the term pseudo-event which describes events or activities that serve little to no purpose other than to be reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. The idea of pseudo-events closely mirrors work later done by Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord. The work is still often used as a text in American sociology courses.
When President Gerald Ford nominated Boorstin to be Librarian of Congress, the nomination was supported by the Authors League of America but opposed by the American Library Association because Boorstin "was not a library administrator." The Senate confirmed the nomination without debate.
Boorstin died in 2004 in Washington, D.C.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 13, 2021
I poked away at this for a few months, but the bite-size chapters make for perfect toilet reading. Boorstin is a great interpreter of history, esp. academic history produced by others, and despite being thoroughly "American" in that whatever theories or ideas he sketches out are fundamentally resistant to broader and more formal systematizing, he manages to engage the reader with not just the "what" and "when" various changes occurred over time but with a sense of "why," fitted into an engaging framework. The essays at the end, about Boorstin's Tulsa boyhood and attorney father, help readers better understand why he was such a cheerful "booster" of the Idea of American in spite of the pessimism/conservatism that colors his analysis of developments like the "pseudo-event," department stores, etc.
January 28, 2026
What a gift this American is! I've loved his topics - and writing style - for years. He's on the fun and fascinating fringe of his subject matter. He's the person who would ask George Washington, "Why did you chose those particular buckles for your shoes while crossing the Delaware?" He brings me to deeper understanding of our United States and asks deep and pointed questions about our myths. He heavy lifts our dirty laundry alongside our triumphs. Whatever the substance, he introduces me to a new way of looking at topics. He's an eclectic human Smithsonian museum.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews