Word: boorstins
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...AUTHOR: DANIEL J. BOORSTIN...
MANKIND'S RECORD OF INVENtion and discovery is an unfinished epic of awe and wonder. In his widely (and justly) praised The Discoverers (1983), historian Daniel J. Boorstin narrated with scholarly elan the saga of man's quest for knowledge of the world and himself. Now he has essayed what his book's subtitle calls "a history of heroes of the imagination." The Creators' range is impressive, from the Vedic hymns of ancient India to the modern cinema. The end result, alas, is considerably less exciting than its predecessor...
...image from illusion, information from real wisdom. Reducing everything to one dimension, they prepare us for everything except our daily lives. Nintendo, unlike stickball, leaves one unschooled in surprise; TV, unlike books, tells us when to stop and think. "The flow of messages from the instant everywhere," as Daniel Boorstin points out, "fills every niche in our consciousness, crowding out knowledge and understanding. For while knowledge is steady and cumulative, information is random and miscellaneous." A consciousness born primarily of visuals can come terrifyingly close to that of the tape-recorder novels of the vid kids' most successful voice, Bret...
...answers could be found there on just what to do with these famous fellows. Keynoter Daniel Boorstin, former Librarian of Congress, suggested creating "a House of Experience," like the British House of Lords, where retired, talented Americans could offer their wisdom. Public television's pragmatic Roger Mudd pointed out that the last thing a new President would welcome would be an official pulpit for the guy he just ran out of office...
Despite her indignation, Himmelfarb does not want to suppress these new forms; what she opposes is their domination of the profession. Part of the profession, anyway: in the publishing marketplace, traditional history still fares quite well. In the work of historians as diverse as, say, Daniel Boorstin and Barbara Tuchman, the traditional practices of storytelling, political analysis and moral judgment are all flourishing. But if the fads of the new history continue to blight the academic scene, Himmelfarb argues, we will be threatened with a profound loss: "We will lose not only the unifying theme that has given coherence...