[1] A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1943.
Goldstein served in the United States Army during the later years of World War II, then enrolled at Yale Law School.
Goldstein left Yale after his first year of legal studies to pursue a doctorate from the London School of Economics, which was funded by a Fulbright Scholarship between 1949 and 1950.
"[5] He coauthored books with Alan M. Dershowitz, Anna Freud, Loftus E. Becker, Jr., and Albert J. Solnit that reflected this focus,[3] and specialized in child custody law.
[6] Goldstein suffered a heart attack at home in Woodbridge, Connecticut,[7] and was sent to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he died on 12 March 2000.