The Birth of Exploration

This year's Reith lecturer is distinguished Professor of American history, Dr Daniel J Boorstin, the twelfth Librarian of Congress. In his Reith lectures, entitled 'America and the World Experience', he explores how the USA developed into the superpower it is today. In this first lecture entitled 'The Birth of Exploration', Dr Boorstin explains why the desire to journey to new and undiscovered lands was important in the development of the United States of America. He considers the difference between a 'frontier' and 'the wilderness' for the first colonisers of the continent and explains how a community spirit of adventure made it all possible.

You can listen to The Birth of Exploration online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Birth of Exploration is an episode from The Reith Lectures: Archive 1948-1975 by BBC.

This episode is 29:18 long.

This episode was published on Nov 12, 1975.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Reith Lectures: Archive 1948-1975 when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.