American historian Daniel J. Boorstin (born 1914) was a scholar with broad interests, best known as an advocate of a conservative, "consensus" interpretation of American history. He became Librarian of Congress in 1975.

Daniel J. Boorstin was born on October 1, 1914, in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His writings later reflected some of the spirit of his childhood home, a booming oil city full of optimism and entrepreneurial possibilities. After graduating from high school at age 15, he entered Harvard University where he won the Bowdoin Prize for his senior honors essay in 1934. Awarded a Rhodes scholarship, he studied law at Oxford University's Balliol College and achieved a prestigious double first--first-class honors in two degrees, a B.A. in jurisprudence (1936) and a Bachelor of Civil Laws (1937).

Boorstin returned to the United States in 1937 and spent a year at Yale Law School, which subsequently (1940) awarded him a Doctor of Juridical...