Robert Darnton

Biography

Robert Darnton, a cultural historian and academic librarian, specializes in 18th-century France. He was director of the Harvard University Library from 2007 to 2016, co-founding the Digital Public Library of America during his tenure. Darnton has written extensively on the history of the book, including "The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism in 1996.